#5 Brock Lesnar
When Ngannou was talking as if him defeating Miocic was a given, one of the names he threw out as his next opponent was the former UFC Heavyweight champion – and current WWE Universal champion – Brock Lesnar. Right now Lesnar isn’t contracted with the UFC, but his USADA suspension for a positive drug test is now over which means he could make a comeback somewhere down the road – something UFC President Dana White has suggested he’d be open to.
Granted, coming off a positive drug test and well over a year out of active MMA competition, giving Lesnar a title shot would be extremely controversial, but then the UFC have shown plenty of times that they’re not above giving undeserving fighters title shots – especially if they can draw PPV buys. And no Heavyweight in UFC history has drawn buys quite like Brock Lesnar, after all.
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The risk with this option would be that Lesnar could win, leaving the UFC with a Heavyweight champion who isn’t fully committed to the sport, but given Miocic is a bad match for Lesnar – he resembles Cain Velasquez, who easily destroyed Brock in 2010 – it’s a risk that Dana White and the WME-IMG power brokers may be willing to take. I don’t expect to see Lesnar back in the cage in 2018, but if he does return, to see him opposite Miocic wouldn’t truly surprise me.