POSTED: August 11, 2008 - 10:51 am
CATEGORIES: MMA, Wrestling, International
After watching UFC 87 this past weekend I thought should talk a little about Brock Lesnar this week. Brock Lesnar is the biggest MMA PPV draw for me right now. I've only paid for 2 MMA PPVs in my life and both featured Brock Lesnar. The obvious appeal is that I know the guy and used to work with him in WWE but that's not the whole picture. As I've mentioned several times before I'm fairly new to the MMA game, and far from an expert, and because of this I enjoy watching fighters that are new to the game.
When I watch a guy like Brock Lesnar I've seen everything he's done and know all there is to know about him. I've seen every fight Brock has had, so I understand him and want to see how he progresses. Heath Herring on the other hand, I've heard about and have seen a couple of his fights but when you look at his career of 42 fights I've barely scratched the surface of it and thus am not really qualified to form much of an opinion of him as a fighter. For the price of 2 or at the most 3 PPV events per year I will be able to see Brock Lesnar's entire career, which I intend to do.
With Saturday's big win Brock's MMA career record goes to 2-1, which in a strange coincidence is my record over Brock Lesnar in pro-wrestling. I got to wrestle Brock on three WWE house shows when he was first brought up from developmental. These three matches may have been Brock's first WWE matches and I think they had a lot in common with the fights in his MMA career.
After the first match I had with Brock it was obvious that he was a tremendous athlete but he was very green and made several rookie mistakes. He was easy to work with and had talent but had a few holes in his game that he needed to plug. After that first match I talked with Brock, coaching him and pointing out things he needed to change and improve on and I could tell Brock was really paying attention and wanted to learn. The next night we had our second match and everything single point I made the previous night was improved upon. That night I pointed out a few other aspects and the next night he again improved unbelievably.
Brock was a prodigy in pro-wrestling, and after watching his match with Heath Herring, this past Saturday, I suspect he is in MMA as well. This fight was so important to Brock's career and in my opinion Brock did exactly what he needed to do. I will grant you finishing the fight on his own without letting it go to the judges would have been better but I don't know how anyone could see UFC 87 as anything but a complete positive for Brock Lesnar.
Heath Herring was an accomplished fighter with 42 professional fights and was a legit threat to Brock Lesnar, and in his 3rd MMA fight Brock Lesnar completely dominated him. Brock dropped Herring with his first punch and hit him so hard it knocked him head over heels backwards. Brock took Herring down virtually at will and at no point in the fight was Brock Lesnar not in control let alone in trouble of losing. Heath Herring looked to be in great shape and had 20 times the experience of Brock Lesnar and did not manage to mount any offense what so ever. That's frightening!
In this fight Brock showed far more patient and ability to control his opponent than in his first fight and in going the distance he showed he has good enough conditioning to go the distance without running out of gas. This is likely a good thing because until Brock learns some submissions there is a good chance he will go the distance while controlling and dominating opponents, assuming his opponent can survive the punches and knees Brock throws from the ground; OUCH! I would imagine Heath herring is still pretty damn sore from the beating he took Saturday night.
Brock Lesnar is definitely for real, and I would imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg of what he can achieve. I still don't think anyone realizes how explosively fast this guy is and with his learning curve he is going to be absolutely deadly in the years to come. It's a good thing Pro-Wrestling is a work because if it wasn't my 2-1 record against Brock would be a big 0-3.
Congratulations Brock, and continued success. It was a pleasure to know and work with you in WWE, and I look forward to following your UFC career. You are very much living up to the character and promos we used to joke with you about in WWE. You are the white Incredible Hulk: "BROCK SMASH!!!!!!!!"
Nice read, It was nice to see Brock do so well and he did it with a heavy heart. His hometown of Webster, SD was basically leveled 7 days before the fight
Credit is due a Great Win, however show a little more respect to your opponent at the end this is MMA not WWE.
I agree he did go a little overboard but Herring deserved some of it. He trashed Brock all day long about seeing if Brock could take a punch... well Herring we still don't know because you had what? zero offense? Best of luck Brock I'll be cheering for you every time you step into that ring!!
Some great points Lance. I respect you an awful lot and it's nice to hear your opinions on Brocks UFC career.
Brock needed to win that fight I agree with Lance, and guess what he won! you could see that he was just ensuring the win and learning how to 'control' the fight as he went on.
I don't think people realize how much Brock has learned in the last 6 months or so, wrestling is what Brock does best so of course he is going to use this to his advantage. No one can match him when it comes to mat wresting, he is just building up his moves as he goes along. It will take time for a man of Brocks size to learn how to apply submissions at will but when he does he will be a top star in the UFC.
It will take another 5 or 6 fights before anyone can begin to judge Brock on all areas of his game in my opinion.
Awesome article as usual Lance . Thanks for the update . Good luck to Brock in the future .
all good points here...as well very good article Mr. Storm, keep it up..as for Lesnar im a huge MMA and WWE fan so i cheer for him ..if he keeps up the learning curve like Lance stated he is capable of achieving from previous experience working with Brock, i dont see why he cant challenge for the title in a year or two.. no one in the division is his size after the weigh ins or has that type of power..THE NEXT BIG THING!!!
I have always said that the guy has all the tools to be the toughest guy to beat in the heavy weight division. I wouldn't doubt seeing him as the ufc champ in the near future.,but with that being said I just can't stand the guy. I don't know what it is his voice just makes my skin crawl. I can't wait to see someone knock him out.
Hey Lance, inside the octagon is real, WWF wrestling is fake, you can\t compare the two. i'd like to see you last one round and coach any MMA fighter.
Lance wasn't comparing the two, he was simply commenting on how fast and enthusiastically Brock Lesner picks up on constructive criticism. However, there is a comparison between the two because professional wrestlers are indeed athletes, and WWE and UFC both want to put on matches that are both physical and entertaining. UFC is always looking for great athletes that have entertaining personalities because they put on the best matches and the same goes for WWE. You're definately right about how being a fighter or coach in UFC requires a whole different set of skill than in WWE, but you're tone was really off base.
That punch was unbelievable and I don't see how Nogueira could take a punch like that. Mir went down the same way Herring did, and Herring but Nogueira on his back. Brock will have to earn his shot, which he will, and he will be champ before you know it. I agree with Lance, Brock has got to be the biggest PPV draw for the UFC. Quite smart of the UFC to not put Brock on the December card. 2 huge PPV's for UFC at the end of the year.
As Lance pointed out earlier, Brock listens and adapts. Combined with his work ethic carried over from amature wrestling, I think he'll do just fine.

