Former UFC champ Brock Lesnar officially retires

It appears former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is officially done with real fighting.

The professional wrestling superstar informed the UFC of his intention to retire on Tuesday, removing him from the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s random drug-testing pool.

Lesnar’s decision came as no surprise as he is currently suspended from competition due to a positive drug test.

The 39-year-old former NCAA wrestling champion returned to mixed martial arts after more than four years away from the UFC to defeat Mark Hunt in July, but the win was vacated and Lesnar was banned for a year because tests taken both before the fight and on the night of UFC 200 revealed the presence of the estrogen blocker clomiphene.

He has returned to the WWE and is scheduled to appear at the organization’s marquee WrestleMania event on April 2.

Lesnar had a great deal of success during his first run in the UFC, which came before the organization implemented a rigid out-of-competition testing program.

After losing his UFC debut in 2008, Lesnar won his next four bouts. He earned the UFC title with a knockout of Randy Couture later that year and successfully defended it twice.

Lesnar lost the belt to Cain Velasquez in 2010 and returned to professional wrestling after a knockout loss to Alistair Overeem in 2011.

If Lesnar decides to come out of retirement to compete in the UFC again, he will need to re-enter the drug-testing pool four months in advance of his return.

The UFC waived that period for Lesnar when he announced his return in June just a month before his scheduled fight against Hunt.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.