Brock Lesnar on Ultimate Fighting and Extreme Pain
Courtesy of MinnPost.com
As Brock Lesnar throws punches and scrambles through various moves in his “ground game” as a rapidly progressing professional in the mixed martial arts, you almost can’t help but flash back to what Clubber Lang said in his close-up moment in “Rocky III.” Lang, Sylvester Stallone’s ferocious opponent played by the oft-imitated, never-duplicated Mr. T, was asked his prediction for their fight. After a dramatic pause and a glare into the camera, he gives it: “Pain.”
Pain is what you think of as Lesnar sweats and strikes, and this is only practice. He is working out at the Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Brooklyn Center, sparring recently in advance of his featured bout in “UFC 87: Search and Destroy” Saturday night at Minneapolis’ Target Center.
If the preparation hurts this much, you think, the serious combat in competition has to be excruciating. At that, Lesnar — a formidable 6-foot-3, 286 pounds, shrugs.
“I would have to say that this is probably at the top end of things not to do to your body,” he said, laughing. “It’s very demanding on the body. Every day, you come in and … some days you don’t want to be in here. You have to push yourself through those days.”
Lesnar has spent most of his adult life pushing his body through trials that would bring most of us to tears. The 2000 NCAA wrestling champion for the University of Minnesota, Lesnar turned to the hokum of professional wrestling as a way to make a lucrative living. Within four years, the WWE’s “The Next Big Thing” had been crowned a champion again and featured as the main event at “Wrestlemania.” Also, he reportedly was earning in excess of $1 million annually — a paycheck that dropped significantly when Lesnar tried to transform himself into a Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman in the summer of 2004. His freakish physical gifts weren’t enough to compensate for his lack of football experience and a past motorcycle injury, so after thanking the Vikings, Lesnar went searching for another door back into competition.
He found it in MMA, the brutal, seemingly no-holds-barred (actually, some are) fighting that has thrust itself into mainstream American sports. Nearly extinct in the mid-1990s in its original form — the ugly “Tough Man” mayhem without rules, the blood flowing mostly in grainy videos on obscure channels from minor venues — MMA got bought, revived and spruced up by Dana White and his business partners in 2001. White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) circuit, added weight classes, time limits and restrictions to the sport — no groin-punching or hair-pulling, for instance — and has ridden it to unimagined popularity and financial success, with heavy TV exposure on CBS and the Spike network, hungry pay-per-view audiences and assorted video-game mania.
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no doubt about it hes a beast but i think herring will kick his ass 1st round knock out via head kick
Brock is strong as hell guys. Mir said Brocks arms are so big he gave up going for any submission involving the arms after 3 failed attempts. You have to realize getting punched by Brock is like getting hit by a wrecking ball. Enormous size and strength. Then again, herring has KO power…especially when his opponent kisses him.
that is one of the funniest things ive seen when that guy kissed him so he just slaped him to the ground haha quality,
i still think this is a bad fight for brock, maybe bring kimbo in to fight brock after herring beats him thats the only fight that could keep the hype up on this guy a 0-2 (after sat) ufc record doesn’t look good!
the best NC ever is when Heath knock him out for kissing him super classic….
atleast Joe Silva is making Brock fight tough guys not cans like when he fed Cro Cop that Sanchez kid, fighting Mir and Herring in your first two UFC fights pretty difficult imo
I think Brock has a huge future in the sport even if he loses tonight. He’s fought two of the top heavyweights the promotion has so it’s hard to criticize him for losing bouts he probably should lose on paper.
If he loses I see him getting matched up with a mid-level guy that should present him an easier opportunity to get a win but I think they’ll keep throwing him decent opponents.
The problem with Kimbo is that his wins aren’t over quality opponents and he nearly lost to an average fighter in James Thompson.
Lesnar on the other hand nearly beat a former UFC champion and current top-contender only to be submitted by a top jiu jitsu practitioner.
Lesnar’s size, power, and wrestling skills alone give him a chance in just about every matchup while Kimbo has decent striking but just isn’t a big heavyweight compared to Lesnar who has to cut to make the division limit.
Yeah, if you gotta cut more than 20 lbs to make the weight limit for Heavyweight, you should officially be labelled a monster. I hope Herring and Lesnar stand this fight up. I see Brock throwing out a couple devastating takedowns (ala his WWE days), but for the most part, I want to see Goliath vs Goliath pound it out on their feet and see who’s tougher. I want Lesnar to win, but I’m picking Herring.
i think if lesner wins tonight…he should fight the winner of the kongo-evenson fight…..but i would hope the ufc doesnt make carwin, lesner or cain fight…there the guys getting the push’s right now
Gunslinger,
The Lesnar situation sucks because of the status with the UFC HW division. Due to Lesnar’s lack of MMA experience I fear for him in every match up I can think of. His wrestling ability and strength are far beyond the average fighter but we the fans need to see A LOT more of Brock to firmly believe in him as MMAist.
I hate the wwe, but I am a huge Brock Lesnar fan. I’ve followed him since his days as a Golden Gopher! Go Brock! I think he will do pretty much the same thing he did last time when he fought Frank Mir. The advantage this time is that Herring doesn’t know BJJ like Mir does.
Lesnar is a freak of nature. Fast, strong, a wrestling machine. Heath Herring lost to Jake O’brian. Enough said!
Great dominating performance by brock lesnar…controlled the whole fight. Wasnt the most exciting fight but definetly a great win for Brock
yep brock dominated him!!
lesnar probaly gonna turn out to be a good fighter in like a year i bet he could a top fighter.
i dont hate wwe i like to watch sometimes but since it fake it makes it worse.
noe one will see these maessages because they dont come to this one.
I saw it. Brock is a future champion.
Brock is a very skilled man. His learning curve is clearly accelerating…
yep i agree brock probaly is gonna be champ someday.