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Brock Lesnar, Next Big Thing?
As you all know, This Superbowl weekend marks Brock Lesnar's first real big fight in MMA. I for one, as a FORMER wrestling fan who only watches old stuff on WWE 24/7 and goes to the occasional ROH show at the Manhattan Center, can truly say I'm excited about something wrestling related again.
Brock is truly in for the biggest night of his athletic life on february 2nd when he faces Frank Mir. Alot of people in the MMA community are split 50/50 on who takes this fight. About half are saying Brock will ground and pound to a TKO victory. The other half are saying that this is the worst possible fight for Brock's UFC debut because he's a wrestler going for takedowns while Frank Mir (a brown belt in jiu jitsu) is most comfortable on his back going for submissions and will tap Brock in the first round.
Some conspiracy theorists are even saying Dana White is spending seven figures on Brock's contract just to prove to the world that "phony" wrestlers can't hang with Mixed Martial Artists and that's the reason he put Brock against a Jiu Jitsu expert in his first fight.
Personally I'm on the fence.
Brock has the size and strength advantage for sure (a natural 280-290 pounder cutting to 265 while Mir is an in shape 250), but when it comes to Jiu Jitsu that means nothing. Brock's gameplan to me is simple. Go for the takedown, ground and pound and avoid submissions.
I'm sure that's what he's been training for at Minnesota Martial arts for the past 2 years to do. Mir's going to test Brock's chin in standup for sure, he's said so in interviews, and when Brock gets Mir on the ground he's going to be grabbing onto Brock's right arm after every punch and
spinning into armbars with all his might.
The one thing Brock has to watch out for most in this fight isn't an armbar, it isn't a triangle (Mir won't even try it, he's too smart and he knows Brock will powerbomb him into KO worse than Rampage Jackson did to Ricardo Arona or Matt Hughes did to Carlos Newton). Brock has to watch out for the sweep into an anklelock or heel hook. I predict if the fight ends in submission victory for Mir, it will be from a leglock. Hopefully Brock is working on his defense from that the most.
Brock is a true athlete and anyone in the MMA community that wants to doubt him for being a "fake wrestler" is an idiot. In his first professional fight, Lesnar grounded and pounded an olympic judo practitioner into submission from rabbit punches in a full mount while his victim
held onto dear life with a bodylock! Brock ain't no joke, and he's going to turn alot of heads win or lose this coming Superbowl Sunday weekend.
One thing's for sure, I guarantee that Brock Lesnar win or lose, will definitely be the next big thing in MMA.
Sean Gonzales can be reached at xJiuJitsuLifex@gmail.com.
