Last week, it was revealed that Brock Lesnar is now a free agent in which he can sign with the UFC, Bellator, AEW, or go back to WWE.
The news has made people wonder: If Lesnar does to return to Octagon, who would he face? Jon Jones, who recently vacated the light heavyweight title to move up to heavyweight, put Lesnar on notice.
Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic recently appeared on former middleweight titleholder Michael Bisping's podcast, Believe You Me, and let Jones know that if anyone should get asked to take on Lesnar first, it should be him.
"A hundred percent, I think so," Miocic said on the podcast. "Listen, I just think about it more and more. I do think 100 percent, if anything, I would get the Brock Lesnar fight first or be asked first. I didn't know [Jones] called the shots. I didn't know that."
Lesnar has only fought once since he exited the UFC after losing to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in December 2011, and that was a unanimous decision win over Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016. The victory got overturned to a no-contest as Lesnar tested positive for banned substances. In the meantime, Lesnar returned to WWE and been a multi-time WWE champion. It appeared Lesnar would return to UFC after getting into a heated confrontation with Daniel Cormier, who had just knocked out Miocic at UFC 226 in July 2018. But the sides couldn't agree to a deal, and Lesnar remained in WWE.
Since then, Miocic has beaten Cormier twice, at UFC 241 in August 2019 and at UFC 252 in August. Before a matchup could occur, Lesnar would have to go through six months of random drug testing through USADA (independent anti-doping agency for the UFC), and Miocic has to get through a rematch with Francis Ngannou later in 2020 or at the beginning of 2021.
Miocic and Ngannou battled at UFC 220 in January 2018, with the former winning a lopsided decision. Since then, Ngannou has gone 4-1, including four consecutive victories by knockout that have lasted a total of 1:42. Miocic admits Ngannou has improved but feels the result will be the same.
"I would say you go back to what works, but you also understand that he's gotten a lot better since the last fight, so you've also got to incorporate new things," Miocic said. "That's the way the game is. Honestly, if you take time off from this sport, people evolve so fast, and they get so much better that they'll leave you behind.
"You take a little bit from the last fight, I think. You don't want to dwell on it because that person's gotten way better, and they're working on things that you did well against them. I think you do a lot more different things, maybe change it up, the things you were doing. The takedowns, maybe a different setup to get it there, or maybe this time I finish him with a rear-naked instead of laying on top of him like everyone thinks I did."