Daniel Cormier joined select company last night when he jumped divisions to challenge UFC Heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic. Cormier's first round KO made him the first competitor to hold the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight straps simultaneously. The clincher was a right elbow coming out of a clinch, resulting in the big fellow dropping to the ground. Cormier proceeded to fire shots while his opponents lay defenceless, forcing the referee to call the fight right there and then with 27 seconds remaining on the clock. Cormier's weight jump was only the 3rd "Superfight" in UFC history, the first two were fights that shifted the MMA landscape dramatically: GSP vs BJ Penn in 2009, and Conor McGregor's most recent fight in the sport. After getting his hand raised, Cormier played host to a ringside Brock Lesnar who decided to crash the festivities, in an apparent hype-job for a future tilt. "Push me now, and you're going to sleep later," Cormier yelled at Lesnar while the two locked antlers. "Your days are in the past. In the stone age." Brock Lesnar, considered one of the biggest PPV draws in history, is expected to return to MMA later this year. Lesnar is currently contracted with the WWE, but his contract runs out in August. In the Co-Main Event at UFC 226 Heavyweight Derrick Lewis continued his progression up the Heavyweight ranks with a decision victory over Francis NGannou. If Cormier were unwilling to rest until Lesnar is made available, Lewis would happily step right in. Before the event, Lewis told Cormier he was bound to "knock him out." Bear in mind, Cormier still has Light Heavyweights knocking at the door for their shot as well. Many options lie ahead.<doc-sep>Things went full WWE on Saturday night at UFC 226 after Daniel Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic to become the second fighter in UFC history to hold two belts at once. It was a pretty amazing moment, but Cormier didn’t spend much time soaking it up. Instead, he launched straight into a call out of Brock Lesnar, who was sitting cageside watching the fight. Brock entered the Octagon, gave Cormier a shove, and then cut a better promo than we’ve seen in years setting up a fight between the two. Never mind your concerns about mixed martial arts getting a bit too silly and manufactured. This is a fight that’s going down … if Brock Lesnar can get through a six-month testing period mandated by USADA. The reason he’s being forced to do this is twofold: First, he failed a drug test leading up to his last MMA fight at UFC 200 and still has six months to serve after dipping out of the USADA testing pool to return to WWE. And second, USADA now forces all fighters returning to the UFC to undergo six months of testing before they can compete — a no-exceptions rule made specifically after Lesnar was allowed to fight at UFC 200 on a month’s notice. Fortunately for Lesnar, the two six-month periods can be served concurrently. In a sane world, that would make Lesnar eligible to fight again near the start of January 2019. But things involving Lesnar and the UFC are rarely that simple, and there’s a chance the two parties and USADA have been hiding Lesnar’s return to the testing pool so they can surprise us with a closer return date. There’s been rumors of Lesnar secretly entering the testing pool since he had that ultimately pointless back-and-forth with Jon Jones in July of 2017. But there’s a lot more smoke recently, with several reputable MMA journalists like Jeremy Botter putting their name to the story. Brock Lesnar will fight the winner of tonight’s main event in November at Madison Square Garden for the UFC heavyweight championship, multiple sources confirm. — Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) July 8, 2018 This is true, from what multiple sources have told me. Lesnar is in the pool and is hidden from public viewing in their database. https://t.co/ivnrKBQEt9 — Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) July 8, 2018 And then the winner in an ideal world fights Jones. That’s the plan Cormier laid out to me last week when discussing his final year of competition. — Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) July 8, 2018 Cormier fighting Lesnar and then Jones matches up with a timeline he shared at the UFC 226 post-fight press conference, saying he could fight in November and then March. Lesnar in November, followed by Jones in March? Sounds pretty all right to us.<doc-sep>
Simon Samano, MMAjunkie Brock Lesnar is back in the UFC, and he’s going straight for the heavyweight title. Moments before Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic made their walkouts for their UFC 226 headliner Saturday night, Lesnar was escorted to a front-row seat by UFC President Dana White. What Lesnar witnessed was Cormier, already the light heavyweight title holder, become a simultaneous two-division champion with a first-round knockout of Miocic. Afterward, Lesnar entered the cage when Cormier took the microphone from Joe Rogan and told him to. Before they could even exchange words, Lesnar shoved Cormier, and they had to be separated by security while shouting at each other. As expected, Lesnar will challenge Cormier for the heavyweight belt, though a date and location aren’t determined. White confirmed the news during the UFC 226 post-fight press conference. “We’re definitely going to make that fight,” White said. The development means White has made good on his word from April, when he said the former UFC champ Lesnar would return after previously teasing the odds were “very, very, very good.” More:Daniel Cormier takes heavyweight title from Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, now 2-division champ More:Derrick Lewis beats Francis Ngannou in surprising heavyweight snooze-fest at UFC 226 Lesnar (5-3-1 MMA, 4-3-1 UFC), the current WWE Universal champion, hasn’t had an MMA bout since defeating Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016. That result was later overturned to a no-contest after Lesnar failed a pair of drug tests by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Lesnar was handed a one-year suspension and later retired. In order to return to the UFC, Lesnar will have to re-enter USADA’s testing pool and serve out the remainder of his suspension. White said the process began last week. “I don’t know where they are in the process, but he’s going to pop up (on USADA’s list) here soon,” White said. Even as he’s been away from MMA, Lesnar has been the subject of some big callouts. Cormier himself said during the build-up to UFC 226 that he would look forward to a “green panty night” with a victory, a reference to making a lot of money from pay-per-view buys. Looks like it’s a dream come true for the champ.