Brock Lesnar is fast as lightening. Randy Couture is 45 years old.
Randy is smart. Brock is dumb.
Those are the factors that will decide this fight at UFC 91.
Let’s assume that Lesnar has trained-up enough to avoid getting caught in a ridiculous foot-lock like the one that Frank Mir defeated him with. (When was the last time a UFC fighter was defeated by a foot lock anyway? Ever?) And since Couture is no submission specialist, he will have to find another way to defeat Lesnar. But Randy is very smart, and if it is possible, he is the fighter most capable of designing an anti-Lesnar game plan.
Part of the solution might come from Couture’s Greco-Roman wrestling experience. Lesnar has defeated many freestyle wrestlers, and fake wrestlers, so maybe Randy can surprise him with some slick Greco-Roman moves.
Couture’s biggest problem may be that he does not have enough film of Lesnar to find flaws in Lesnar’s game. Lesnar only has a few rounds of MMA experience.
Both Lesnar and Couture are decorated wrestlers. We know that Randy’s boxing is pretty good, but we haven’t seen enough of Lesnar’s stand-up to make a judgment of his skills. However, that’s exactly what I want to see from Lesnar. The last thing we need is to have Tito Ortiz’s boring ground-and-pound replaced by Lesnar’s boring ground-and-pound.
Frank Mir said that he saw stars after Lesnar knocked him down with a right hand. Heath Herring literally flew across the ring after another Lesnar right hand. We need to see more of that. Lots more. Watching the strike in slow motion, you see that Herring was like a deer frozen in the headlights. Lesnar was that much faster. And don’t forget that Lesnar landed two very nice leg kicks on Herring too.
It would be sad if Lesnar would continue to think of himself as primarily a wrestler because he has the speed and agility to do some awesome stand-up. And he should take note of the fact that even fighters who are competent on the ground, like Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin, try to keep fights standing up to please the fans. Ideally, Lesnar would throw some strikes, do a lightening fast take-down, get into an exciting scramble on the ground, let the guy up, knock him head-over-heals, lather, rinse, repeat.
Heath Herring has never been a UFC champion, but he did defeat an equally gigantic wrestler, Mark Kerr, back in 2001. So, I think the fact that Lesnar was able to totally rag-doll Herring is a significant achievement.
I say that Lesnar is dumb because he can’t figure out how to play nice with others. He got cut from the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings because he was basically too much of a jerk. Lesnar is no team player, and make no mistake, MMA is a team sport. You may fight in the ring by yourself, but if you don’t train with a solid team, your success will be greatly diminished.
Lesnar is a lot like another very talented wrestling jerk, Matt Hamill. When Hamil was on The Ultimate Fighter TV show, the other fighters ganged up on him and gave him a beating – that’s how much of a jerk he is. Like Hamill, Lesnar trains by setting up a gym and then hiring people to come in and work with him. That’s not the best way to train. You want to join a camp with wise, graybeard coaches and other champion fighters. That’s how fighters like Anderson Silva and Thiago Alves do it.
Lesnar: “I like to do things on my own” – in his private gym. Lesnar: as a kid, “I didn’t make any friends. Life is not about making friends.” This is a very wrong attitude.
Randy is the exact opposite of Lesnar in this regard. He owns a chain of MMA gyms and has always trained with other top fighters. Lesnar may be talented enough to get away with being a lone-eagle jerk, but he will never reach his full potential with that type of training.
I also think that Lesnar might be dumb because he hit both Mir and Herring with rabbit punches. Is he too dumb to learn simple rules, or is he just too negligent to learn the rules? In either case, it’s a bad sign because there are quite a lot of details to master in MMA. It is my impression that fighters who make mistakes like this don’t go on to become champions.
As an MMA fan, I was overjoyed when a real fighter, Frank Mir, defeated the phony-baloney “professional” wrestler, Lesnar. That fool Hulk Hogan is always going on about how UFC fights are fake and that the fighters “work light.” What an imbecile. Of course, Hogan wisely watches UFC fights from the audience with his daughter Brooke, instead of getting into the ring.
Unlike Hogan, Lesnar is a real accomplished athlete. The problem though, is that he has spent too many years pretending to fight when he could have been developing real MMA skills. If Lesnar were facing a young Randy Couture, he wouldn’t have much of a chance.
But I will not root for Couture. If Couture wins, he might run off and pout about his pay and hire layers to sue the UFC again. He always does that, and always robs the fans of exciting rematches.
So, I will be rooting for Lesnar unless he bores me with incessant ground-and-pound. And I think he can win.
Lesnar’s fights at YouTube:
Min Soo Kim
Frank Mir
Heath Herring
My money is on Couture. I tend to be for the underdogs. This seems to be a David vs. Goliath type of fight. Wish the smart David can win again. Couture’s chances will rise with every minute. Lesnar needs a lot of air to keep his big body going. Huge disadvantage in a 5×5 championship fight. Couture will try to wear Lesnar out and then in the final round comes the classic rear naked choke. Good bye, Lesnar!
Dressguard,
Lesnar went a full three rounds with Herring and never once slackened his pace to catch his breath. He might turn out to be a cardio monster like Karo Parisyan.
Also, this should be a three-round fight. Couture quit the UFC last year and refused to defend his title for 15 months, so it should have been stripped. Fans should not be denied a heavyweight title fight for that long. I think the UFC is calling Couture the champion just so they can hype this fight up and make more money.
Matt
Matt,
leave me some hope.
Lesnar’s take downs are unbelievably killing quick. But once on the ground he doesn’t know really what to do. Basic MMA skills missing. Actually he wears out his opponents when he sits on them with his massive body. But maybe Couture can “outsmart” him. BTW, Frank Mir defeated Lesnar with a leg bar. The foot lock was only complementary. For me it’s like the fight between a mostly brainless powerhouse and a smart experienced MMA fighter. I think the fight will go like all the other Lesnar fights except the one against Mir. But I’m still hoping for the underdog. What a cinderella story. A 45 years old guy against a young muscle monster. And the old guy wins. 
The fight of the evening will be Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson. Kenny always surprises me. He doesn’t even look like a sportsman. I root for Kenny although I have very much respect and sympathy for Joe. You see, I really tend to be for the underdogs.
Hulk vs. Methuselah!!!
Hulk’s ground an’ pound:
http://dionchi.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/399228641.jpg
Kenny defeats Joe!!! Now come the big boys. So far every fight was finished in the first round.
Damn! Lesnar outpowered Randy in round 2. Hulk’s ground and pound was too much for “The Natural”. Good call, Matt. Here ends the cinderella story. Good night!
Dressguard,
Lesnar looked mostly clueless against Couture’s Greco-Roman and Randy would have thrown him if Lesnar didn’t grab the fence. So that is definitely a weakness for Lesnar, and it was sort of comical to see the smaller Couture keeping the giant Lesnar pinned up against the fence for so long.
Between rounds, Randy had to take his mouth piece out and take deep breaths. So while everybody was looking for Lesnar to gas, it was actually Randy who gassed first.
I would give Lesnar a slight edge in the wrestling. Randy had him pinned to the fence for a long time, but Brock did get two take-downs. Randy avoided damage on the ground right up until the end. What won the fight for Lesnar was his lightening fast striking. He wobbled Randy once with an elbow early in the fight, and then knocked him down with a right hook at the end. Lesnar is going to prove to be too quick for the competition just like Anderson Silva is too quick for long-time former middleweight champion Rich Franklin.
I’m also a huge Kenny Florian fan. The nerdy-looking little guy from Boston fights like a Tasmanian Devil. Not only that, but he is one of the few fighters who refuses to juice up. He fought the “chemically enhanced” Sean Sherk to a five-round decision. Amazing. I can’t wait for his fight with BJ Penn. I don’t think Florian can beat Penn. Florian struggled with Sherk and lost the decision, but Penn totally rag-dolled Sherk at UFC 84.
Matt
When I first saw JC Penn I thought what an arrogant asswipe he is. But now that I better understand his fighting style, I’m a big fan of him. At least I know why he is called “The Prodigy”. He is very special and has qualities nobody else has.
Dressguard,
BJ Penn is a prodigy, but before he defends his lightweight title against Florian, he will be challenging Georges St.-Pierre (GSP) for the welterweight title at UFC 94. GSP is also a prodigy and beat Penn at UFC 58. Penn used to fight at welterweight until he lost to GSP and Matt Hughes, so he dropped down to lightweight.
Penn might be able to beat GSP only because he used to be lazy and didn’t train hard. After he got beat down to lightweight, he got training religion and now has the eye of the tiger. But GSP is in the same situation: a prodigy with the eye of the tiger.
It will be a great fight. The level of talent in the UFC has shot to the moon.
Matt
I definitely wanna see that fight. It’s on January 31, 2009. WOW!!! Can’t wait.
Matt, you have to write a preview for this fight. I’m already excited.