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Brock Lesnar: an overrated man-tank?

29th June, 2010
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Roar Rookie
29th June, 2010
18
1735 Reads

At 33 years of age, the question begs asking: could Brock Edward Lesnar be the most over-hyped MMA fighter ever?

With a total of only five MMA fights below his belt, he’s record reads four wins, and one loss, I think this might just be the case.

His career leading up to joining MMA (and UFC) however is pretty damn impressive. Brock, born in Webster, South Dakota was an accomplished amateur wrestler from an early age. He won the 2000 NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship and ended second in 1999, losing in the finals to Stephen Neal.

Brock ended his amateur wrestling career with a record of 106-5.

After this, he gained prominence in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he was a three-time WWE Champion and the youngest person ever to hold that championship at that time. Lesnar was also the 2002 King of the Ring, and the winner of the 2003 Royal Rumble.

But we all know WWE is more closely related to The Bold and the Beautiful than it is to an actual contact sport. With scripted lines, and expected outcomes in effort to increase revenue, once can hardly rate Lesnar based on his success in Clown Collage.

With the WWE behind him, he finally started gaining some sort of credibility in the professional arena when he returned to competitive wrestling at the end of 2005. He joined New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and held the belt until June 2007.

Following this, Lesnar started a career in MMA and won his first fight in June 2007 against a no name, Min-Soo Kim. Calling Min-Soo a no name is possibly disrespectful, but with a record of three wins from 10 fights, one can hardly call Lesnar a champion for scqueezing out a win against Min-Soo.

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He then signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in October 2007. Upon signing with the organization he had an unsuccessful debut against Frank Mir, but has since remained undefeated, capturing the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Randy Couture on November 15, 2008 and avenging his earlier loss to Mir by way of a second round TKO at UFC 100.

Brock’s MMA record should effectively read: four fights, three wins (two by knockout). His three wins came against Heath Herring, Randy Couture, and Frank Mir.

Stripping away everything you know about Brock, does this record at all compare to that of Shane Carwin?

Compounding to his lack of experience is the fact that he’s only had four fights in over three years. There’s something to be said for match fitness or rather being Octagon fit, and that’s something Brock is lacking dearly.

Signing Brock Lesnar to the UFC was a stroke of genius by Dana White.

Brock brought with him the technical know how of amateur wrestling, the dramatic bravado of WWE, and the physical strength and intimidation that comes with a 1.91m, 120kg man-tank.

Dana pulled fans from Brock’s short lived NFL career, he converted fans from WWE Championships, and he won over fans who know a thing or two about amateur wrestling and it’s technicalities, but sooner or later the giant will fall, and against a more experienced, more match fit Shane Carwin this could just be the case.

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On Sunday Brock will leave the Octagon empty handed, and Shane Carwin will be crowned the new UFC heavyweight champion!

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