Brock Lesnar, former pro wrestling champion for the World Wrestling Entertainment, caused a lot of controversy by signing on with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. His entry piqued the interest of fight fans everywhere, with everyone wanting to see how a "fake" wrestler would do in a real fight. His detractors hated that he was getting all this exposure and vocally rooted for his complete and utter failure. Last February 2, Lesnar fought his first fight against former UFC Champion Frank Mir, with all the pressure in the world hanging on his shoulders. While he lost that fight via a knee bar in the first round, Lesnar made some believers out of his numerous detractors.
The UFC, though, like all fighting sports, is all about winning, so when he stepped back into the octagon against Heath "the Texas Crazy Horse" Herring last August 10, he knew he had to win. He had to put up a win to show his much ballyhooed speed and power. He had to win to show everyone all that potential he was supposed to have. He knew he had to win to prove he was the proverbial, "Real Thing."
Last Sunday, he did just that. Right off the opening, Lesnar absolutely crushed Herring with a powerful right hand, sending the UFC and Pride veteran to the ground. After that, the rest of the fight was all Lesnar, as he dominated the fight completely en route to a 30-26 unanimous decision victory. Lesnar showed his great amateur wrestling skills, which he developed as an NCAA All American during his college days. He also showed a much improved striking game, not only with that huge punch, but also some devastating knee strikes, one of which caused Herring to double over in the second round. However, what was most impressive about Lesnar's domination Sunday morning was that he showed more patience and restraint, which was sorely lacking in his debut fight against Mir. He never rushed his attacks on Herring, carefully setting himself with side or back control before doing any striking. What Lesnar showed was a lot of that potential he was supposed to have.
Make no mistake about it. Herring is not a lemon. Herring is a powerful striker himself, and was actually a few punches away from beating current UFC Heavweight Champion Antonio Nogueira before. Last Sunday, however, he wasn't able to showcase any of his power. He wasn't given much of an opportunity because of Lesnar's constant takedowns and pressure, and when he did get stand up opportunities, his strikes were rendered useless by Lesnar's size and speed. Besides, eating that first right hand from Lesnar really took a lot out of him.
So is Lesnar the real thing? Yes. Is Lesnar good enough to be heavyweight champion? Not yet. While he was indeed dominating, he has not shown much capability to defend against Jiu Jitsu holds and and he never got the chance to show any defense against stand up strikes either. (Then again, Herring never really got to attack him all that much) Furthermore, Lesnar got numerous opportunities to finish Herring with a choke as Herring showed his back at various points of the fight, but Lesnar seemed hesitant to try a choke hold. Obviously, Lesnar still has a lot of technique and styles to work on, and it seems working on new things is not something Lesnar is against doing. In this fight, he already enlisted the help of Rodrigo Medeiros, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, to work on his defense. With months of additional training, Lesnar will no doubt be able to plug all the holes in his game.
The smart thing to do for both Lesnar and the UFC is to line up Cheick Kongo for his next fight. Kongo has made a bit of a name for himself (he won a first round TKO in the same card), but he is predominantly a striker as well. He will be a good match for Lesnar, as he can take on Kongo while still learning the ropes on grappling and submission techniques because Kongo isn't going to beat anybody with grappling anytime soon. That would give Lesnar more time to work on his game and maybe in 8 or 10 months time, Lesnar would be ready to take on the "big names" in the UFC heavyweight division, Werdum, Nogueira and Mir(again).
One thing is for sure though. After his domination of Herring last week, Lesnar has announced his big presence (literally) into the UFC. He has become the "Real Thing" others claimed he would never be. I don't imagine too many heavyweights are getting too excited to face him in the octagon.
