Former UFC public relations boss Ant Evans says Brock Lesnar’s return plan was kept “completely under wraps” for UFC 200, and he even pitched Lesnar for the UFC Hall of Fame class earlier that year. But the secret cracked when Ariel Helwani reported the comeba
The UFC’s biggest surprise of 2016 was supposed to arrive at UFC 199 in June—quietly, at the perfect moment, wrapped in the kind of secrecy that makes crowds lean forward before they even know why.
Ant Evans, who led UFC public relations at the time, now looks back on how tightly it was held. Speaking on the MMA History Podcast with Mike Davis and Joey Venti, Evans described pitching Brock Lesnar for the UFC Hall of Fame induction class earlier that year—only to be told to wait.
Evans said he approached Dana White about inducting Lesnar for UFC 200. which was scheduled to take place a couple of days after UFC 199.. Evans recalled White looking “poker face” at him and telling him. “Maybe not this year for Brock. maybe another year. ” before Evans pushed back with a specific argument: Lesnar had headlined UFC 100 and a hundred events later. Evans said it would be “great.”
White, Evans said, responded, “Yeah, I don’t see it this time maybe another time.” What Evans didn’t know, he said, was that Lesnar was already signed to fight Mark Hunt at UFC 200. The return wasn’t simply planned—it was meant to be a surprise, with a promo intended to be dropped during UFC 199.
Then UFC 199 happened—and didn’t happen the way it was intended.
Evans’s recollection sits inside a wider timeline that starts far earlier than 2016.. Lesnar made his UFC debut in February 2008. then became the promotion’s top attraction and heavyweight champion before the end of that year.. He headlined UFC 100 in a rematch against Frank Mir, avenging a loss from the year before.. After that, he fought Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, and Alistair Overeem before returning to WWE in 2012.
By 2016, Lesnar was about to turn 39. He received a huge offer to return at UFC 200 and fight Mark Hunt, and Evans said the plan also included getting WWE’s blessing for Lesnar to compete one more time.
The secrecy was so complete that the intention—according to Evans’s description—was to keep the announcement until UFC 199. But the comeback was reported several hours earlier by Ariel Helwani for the MMA Fighting outlet.
Helwani’s report triggered a fallout that reached past the usual backstage irritations. That night, Helwani and colleagues Esther Lin and E. Casey Leydon were ejected from the Forum in Inglewood, California. The threat was that Helwani would be banned from covering UFC’s events in person.
The media scrutiny that followed pushed UFC to backtrack. The ban was lifted so Helwani could cover UFC 200 in person.
The tension didn’t begin with Helwani, either.. The day before the report. there had been speculation after Lesnar’s profile appeared on the UFC website. leading people to question whether the promotion had “jumped the gun” and spoiled its own surprise.. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto asked White about the website mention during a scrum the day before. and White denied there was anything to it.
Once the fight arrived, the problems continued.
Lesnar’s return led to controversy around testing protocols. He bypassed the USADA testing protocol that a retired fighter is required to undergo before a fight. Lesnar beat Mark Hunt by unanimous decision, but it later emerged that Lesnar failed a pre-fight drug test.
The issues didn’t stop with that pre-fight failure. His fight night drug test detected the anti-estrogen drugs clomiphene and hydroxyclomiphene. Lesnar was fined $250,000 and suspended for one year, but he never fought again.
Financial details later added another layer to the fallout. Lesnar’s disclosed purse for the fight was $2.5 million. But it was also revealed in an antitrust lawsuit that Lesnar made $8 million for the fight.
Brock Lesnar UFC 200 UFC 199 Ant Evans Dana White Ariel Helwani Mark Hunt USADA clomiphene hydroxyclomiphene UFC Hall of Fame media ban threat Frank Mir Shane Carwin Cain Velasquez Alistair Overeem