UFC Champ Brock Lesnar To Return in Summer

“I still can’t believe it,” said Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight and UFC champion Brock Lesnar (4-1) Wednesday morning on ESPN’s Sportscenter.  Lesnar announced that the ailment that has prevented him from defending his title has been cured and he’ll return to the Octagon in the summer of 2010.

Lesnar detailed his battle with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder of inflamed pouches on the exterior of the colon.

“I went to the hospital in Canada, realized quickly that I had to get out of Canadian healthcare, and get down to Bismark, to the United States, at Medcenter One,” Lesnar explained Wednesday morning.  “I take my hat off to this doctor there. They diagnosed me with diverticulitis, I had a severe case, I had a rupture of one of my diverticuli, which means I had a hole in my stomach.”

Lesnar added, “So, I pretty much had it in my mind that I was going to have surgery.  My answer was I have to have the surgery, and I didn’t want to if I could beat the odds, I was going to do everything in my power to do that. I had another check-up after the first of the year, I went home, I went back to the gym, got my weight back up, I put about 30 pounds back on, went back into the doctor January 5th and a miracle. They were dumbfounded. They couldn’t find any signs of any problem in my stomach, it’s a miracle to me.”

UFC President Dana White confirmed thta an interim heavyweight title fight between third-ranked Frank Mir (13-4) and sixth-ranked Shane Carwin (10-0) will co-headline UFC 111 in Newark March 27 and the winner will fight Lesnar in the summer.