This past weekend’s UFC 87: Seek and Destroy involved some great fights across the board. It was great to see George St. Pierre defend his title and the sportsmanship between him and Fitch was great. Fitch although sorely outmatched showed he had a strong chin and is tough as nails. Maia vs. McDonald was great, watching a fellow Canadian fend off a rear naked choke for the last 45 seconds of round 1 was amazing. Maia was the better fighter, but the match was very entertaining. The co-main event was Lesnar vs. Herring, much hype was built around this fight, but it didn’t live up to it’s expectations simply because of how one sided the fight was. What the Lesnar vs. Herring fight did show is that Lesnar is a legitimate heavy weight and that he is a force to be reckoned with in the Sport of MMA.
It was a bit of a disppointment with the ending of the match between Lesnar and Herring when Brock laughed at his opponent and pretended to lasso and reel him in. That being said Herring talked a lot prior to the match, even arguing with Dana White stating he was tired of being matched up against weak low quality opponents like Brock Lesnar. Also this being Lesnar’s first win in UFC and the fact that there were and still are many doubters meant Lesnar had a lot to prove. I would expect that in his next couple fights we can expect his showmanship to disappear unless White and the UFC want another Tito Ortiz type personality in the league.
What can be observed of many MMA followers after Saturday night’s fight between Lesnar and Herring is there are still a lot of doubters. Fans who stated Lesnar would have his hands full with Herring are now saying Herring was Lesnar’s perfect match and he needs to face a fighter like Fedor or Nogueira to put him in his place. Another criticism that has arisen is that Lesnar is a one dimensional fighter with no stand up skill or submission abilities.
Agreed the match Lesnar fought was a little bit boring with the exception of the opening seconds and the take downs. However, Lesnar came in with a game plan and executed. Brock did not want to get caught with a submission like he did against Mir and he didn’t want to get knocked out. So he avoided this by taking the fight to the ground and using his unmatched athleticism and wrestling ability to control Herring while throwing in some devastating knees and hammer fists. It made the fight a little dull, but it was an effective game plan for Lesnar and not much different then how Couture uses the clinch up against the cage and dirty boxing to control his opponents through out the match.
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4 months ago
Great article and its very well focused. Could use some extra paragraphing at the start but that's alright. I have a few comments that I'd like to add. Actually... I don't think I do, as I read I thought I would, but after finishing your article I think you've covered just about everything.
Just one thing about submission fighters in the UFC, don't forget Werdum!
from 4 months ago
Yeah can't forget Werdum, but to the average viewer Nogueira and Mir are the ones that have been in the limelight so I just used them as examples. But, good point to bring up nonetheless
4 months ago
Who would win between Brock Lesnar and Brock Berlin I wonder, in a sausage eating contest?
4 months ago
I have seen brock lesnar do some amazing things for a guy of his size..... don't count him out of anything.... the best is yet to come!
4 months ago
Man, it upsets me when people on the internet do nothing but trash talk every article that comes up. They insult people just for the rush of getting thier opinion on the internets without backing up thier comments.
Andy, this is a good article. Please don't insult people for the sake of insulting them, it makes you look like a moron.
Leon, at last. Somebody giving credit where credit is due. This is a good ballanced article, which makes a change on the internet. I cannot understand how people are not giving Lesnar more credit. Your points are valid in that he is still reasonable one dimentional, yet as you pointed out he is only 2-1. Heath is a veteran and he got owned, so people ned to give Brock a bit more credit. Brock is unlike other new comers in that he doesn't want to fight cans or warm up fights, he wants the best competition, other than his mistake and subsequent loss he has show himself as a force to be reckoned with. Can the same be said for, oh I don't know, let me pluck a name from thin air.....Kimbo Slice? People seem to want to pour credit and love on a brawler that is way over hyped, yet slate a legitimate contender and athlete. Brock Lesnar would Crush Kimbo Slice. Period. Anyway, as I said, awesome article dude, pay no attention to people like Andy.
4 months ago
Brook Burke is definitly awesome! Great fight!
from 4 months ago
lol
4 months ago
Brock had a good fight, but he still has lots to learn, the guy could be a force in the UFC HW division.
One thing I noticed is that he has the power to be a great striker, he should stay on his feet and work on his striking, he threw a lot of decent punches and a few decent kicks, his trainers should really work with him to clean it all up, teach him some knee and elbow strikes. The guy has enough weight and power to defend any take down. The thing I see is his wrestling is going to get him tapped out if he's not careful so that is why he should concentrate on some kick boxing to be more specific maybe train some Muay Thai, because he has the natural wrestling ability and he wont loose it over night, so he needs to concentrate on the things he's not so good at. All in all he has awesome potential and I can wait to see him fight again.
from 4 months ago
I agree. I think Brock has the potential to be a very effective and exciting fighter as a Liddellesque HW. Of course he will always want to take people down but I think he has all the tools to become one of the top strikers in the UFC HW division after watching that right hand, his leg kicks, and those brutal knees to the body (at the end of round 2 -- on the feet) in only his third freaking fight! It might be another year or longer before he's ready to rely more on his kickboxing than taking people down every chance he gets, but I see it happening in the future.
from 4 months ago
Honestly robert i wouldn't count on that happening. Unless Brock gets completely dominated on ground fight or gets out wrassled then i doubt we'll see kickboxing Brock anytime soon simply because: Why fix it when nothings broke. He completely overwhelmed herring and gave him almost no time to recover or mount any type of offense so to see him switch up his style would be highly unlikely.
Another thing i should mention is that brock has been a wrestler his whole life. Switching now would seem extremely awkward to him i would assume.
from 4 months ago
Yeah I realize it's unlikely, but I still expect him to use his stand up more when he fights jitz fighters in the future. It's something I'm more wishing for than expecting... because his stand up could be a lot more exciting than him controlling a guy on the ground for three rounds. That'll get old eventually, especially if he's not finishing guys.
from 4 months ago
I am not saying for him to stop wrestling, I am saying if he trained something else he needs it would better him. He has been wrestling all his life like you said, so he's not going to loose that, its like instinct to him. I am saying he needs to concentrate on something he doesn't have, and his striking is what it is, now with his power it wont take much training, he just needs to clean it up. Also his wrestling is what got him knee barred by Mir so it may not be broken but, its not always going to cut it, experience factored into that loss also but still the guy has the potential to destroy anyone he stands with hand to hand so he should work on striking clean it up, and ignore the skill that he has already made instinct for a bit, then he would be more of a complete fighter.
4 months ago
Great articlwe Kudos.
Man do you guys think that yesteray morning was the worst day of Herring's life so far. I don;t think I ever seen anyone take a beating like that for 3 rounds straight.
from 4 months ago
I agree. I felt sorry for Herring's mother after that beating he took. I think a good gameplan for Brock if he wanted to try to work on his standup some is to come out and take his opponent down immediately and soften them up for the first round and try the standup in the second or third round. That would be the easiest way to work the standup game in.
4 months ago
Brock looks so top heavy, I wonder how this affects his fighting? It was mentioned a lot that he couldn't put the underhooks in, so is he muscle bound or not. The key to taking the big man down is probably to work on his legs.
4 months ago
Excellent write up. Do you know who's camp he is in? As dorothy said, he had issues getting his hooks in...
4 months ago
It's not a bad article but one of many that end up defending Lesnar as a legit MMA fighter.
Yeah, he won a fight and sadly, he's likely to win many more. Current rules give advantage to big, strong wrestlers regardless to how boring their fights are. I'm not saying the rules are bad, it's just that while they're designed to demand well-rounded skills from fighters and give us exciting, unpredictable fights, there's a loophole traditionally exploited by wrestlers from Coleman to Lindland to Lesnar which is the ability of wrestler to reduce every MMA bout into a wrestling match and win it, often by decision or doctor stoppage.
Face it, the greatest MMA fights the best wrestlers produced are the ones where they faced an opponent that disallowed them to take it to the ground and keep it there. That's why everyone loves Chuck and GSP; you know they won't end up being donkey-kong'd by some Lesnar for 15mins. Unfortunately current UFC HW division doesn't have a fighter like those mentioned and I'm pretty sure they won't match Lesnar up with Gonzaga or Big Nog too soon; they'll rather feed him someone like Congo to dominate in a bloody, technically poor battle. The media will have to praise Lesnar because he'll win and the hype will probably grant him the shot at the title, with only hope being at that time Mir holds it.
Lesnar is here to stay because he earns UFC the freakshow-crowd money; kind of Bob Sapp made to look MMA-legit, for more demanding american viewers. But please, don't try to glorify wrestling/GNP by calling it mixed martial arts. Lesnar is undoubtedly able to learn to defend against MMA but he'll never be a MMA fighter, just a wrestler "imposing his will".
from 4 months ago
Then you have to say the same about Randy Couture, cause he is a wrestler by nature aswell. Granted he won't bring it on the ground as much, Couture chooses to get into the clinch and hold his opponent there. Not so different.
Lesnar is a tremendous athlete and from wrestling to football (only reason he didn't make the cut was cause of his motorcycle accident) to MMA he has shown he picks up stuff quickly. At 31 Lesnar has a good 6-8 years in him if he wants. Don't try to tell me that in 2-3 years he won't have ay submission skills or striking skills. We have already been shown that his hands are very heavy and very quick catching two heavy weight veterans off guard in the first seconds of the fight.
Wrestling is part of fighting and it is an olympic sport along with Judo and Taekwondo. You may not like wrestling, but don't sit there saying it is a loophole and not an acceptable style of fighting.
from 4 months ago
I agree with Leon, you have to give a wrestler in mma just as much credit as a boxer. Now going into the ring with either of those skill may help a whole lot but that doesn't make you a complete fighter. They say you cant teach an old dog new tricks, well fortunate for Brock he is a human being and has the potential to do or learn what ever he wants, so to say he will never be a legit mma fighter is totally wrong and I disagree with the comment. Also every true martial artist knows that size doesn't matter, I mean it may help a whole lot but it never stopped me from wiping the floor with a 200+ pounder and I'm only 165lbs, frank Mir has already proved that against Brock and Fedor has proved that a few times against multiple large strong men.
4 months ago
Nice article. Pretty much hit the nail on the head. Brock has a bunch of holes in his game that a good BJJ fighter will exploit. But like the article says, a few more years of practice with some big time trainers and he'll be nuts!
4 months ago
Leon....Forget about the Lesnar haters. They won't change. Go Brock!
4 months ago
excellent article, i feel he's good enough to go far in the heavyweight division, if he prepres more, but i wouldnt count out kongo i believe he's very underrated and he's a better fighter than gets credit for.
4 months ago
lesnar is definitely still green and it will be interesting to see how he develops i cant imagine anyone beating him if he starts training for striking and jiu jitsu. he did throw some leg kicks and that was a step forward. i think he would demolish kongo if they fight, so long as he dictates the pace. hopefully he wont get to cocky though, arrogant fighters end up getting beat eventually, like tito.
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