The Supposed Reason Brock Lesnar Decided To Retire From MMA

UFC President Dana White announced that former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is “done” competing in MMA.

Lesnar was set to face Daniel Cormier for the heavyweight title this summer.

Over the past year, Lesnar has been subject to testing from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Some think that may have something to do with him calling it quits.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, his retirement is due to the new pay-per-view model the UFC is running.

Lesnar and the UFC were negotiating for his return, however, Lesnar didn’t want to do a deal based on PPV points. Instead, the WWE star requested a flat fee. When he gave his number, the UFC believed it to be too high. As a result, no deal was able to get done.

ESPN+ now serves as the exclusive PPV provider of the UFC. In turn, the UFC’s PPV numbers have dropped considerably according to Meltzer. The UFC’s PPV numbers are now a little less than half of what they used to be. The UFC will be making the same money from PPVs either way under their new deal with ESPN, and are no longer pressured to pull in big numbers. Because of this, stars like Lesnar and Conor McGregor have lost a bit of negotiating leverage.

Some think Brock isn’t entirely out quite yet.