Quote of the Day: What's Brock Lesnar Going to Do?
by Luke Thomas on Aug 7, 2008 4:35 PM EDT
in MMA News
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Print“You’ve got to remember this guy has never even been out of the first round...If the fight does go on and he gets into deep water, who knows how he’s going to react when he gets tired, when his hands start dropping.
“He’s never even really been hit in a fight before. I’ve dropped somebody in every one of my fights, so we’ll see how he reacts when he gets caught with a couple of shots.”
-- Heath Herring, believing Lesnar's still many unknown qualities and capabilities will be tested on Saturday night.
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Yea Heath, cause Brock looks totally out of shape. Say what you want about professional wrestling, but those guys are in shape. I can’t wait to see Heath get destroyed in this fight.
“In shape” for professional wrestling is not the same thing as having sufficient effective cardio to go for three five minute rounds without making a crucial mistake.
I can’t wait to see Lesnar fall to 0-2 after this fight.
I agree, being in shape for professional wrestling is not the the same as being in shape for MMA. Just look at ballerinas, the women are incredibly athletic, and even have to have an extremely high pain tolerance (you try balancing on the top of your toes, if you can even get there and hold it, you’ll probably cry in pain ), but they would get destroyed in a MMA fight with Gina.
I think Herring has the right idea. Hit him in the face and see how he reacts. I doubt Lesner will keep coming if he is getting punished, but if he does Herring SHOULD take him down. Wrestlers don’t like it on there back and Herring can grab a win. The real question is will Herring be able to get up if Lesner takes hime down.
Excellent idea…. hit him in the face. Why hasn’t anyone tried this gameplan before?
I’m not much of a Lesnar fan, but I can see him winning in a quick way. I doubt Herring will be able to hold him off long enough to get through Lesnar’s “dash”. He just doesn’t have a way to stop him. He’s not going to be able to hold him against the fence, or pull a tight gaurd. For Herring to survive up front, he is going to need a better plan than punching Brock in the face.
What I mean is Lesner is a big question mark. You have no idea how he can take a punch. You have got to test his chin and go from there. He needs a very flexable game plan, but first he needs to punch Lenser a few times and stay on him. Pepper him and see if he can take it. They don’t have to be power punches. I think Lesner will mentally fold well before the end of three rounds if he experiences some adversity.
I think that is...
as much of an assumption as those who think that he’ll have a chin like a rock. I’m not quite sure where the line of thinking came from that because we haven’t seen him take a punch that he is unable to take one.
While we could see him eat a shot and decide he wants none of it, we haven’t seen enough to know one way or the other.
I do know that I saw Brock almost break his neck and give himself a concussion messing up a move at Wrestlemania 19 (shooting star press attempt where he didn’t get full rotation and landed on his head) and he was able to continue functioning. Obviously this is different because his opponent in a wrestling match isn’t coming at him once he is hurt trying to finish him. But I do consider being able to land on your head after a 10 foot (aprox) fall and not go out a reasonable indicator that he isn’t a walking lightswitch.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
but of course...
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't know what...
either of those have to do with getting Kayoed. But yes, with the schedule they’re on most pro wrestlers are on some sort of pain medication…and it would be naive to think he wasn’t on any sort of steroid/hormone. But he has always been a big dude.
Regardless, those don’t prevent you from going out from a shot to the dome. You may feel it less, but when brain meets skull it messes you up.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions
I admit I have a grudge...
I will explain. First I am small. I am about 150ish 5 foot 10 and I have been small my whole life. I wrestled in high school because I was to small for football and not talented enough to make up for it (I was the same hieght and about 125 lbs then). I have had a grudge over people being naturally big all my life even if they worked at it because trust me I worked at it (until I had to cut weight for wrestling). But that is not the only reason I do actually have good ones.
Heavyweight is not just a weak weightclass in MMA, its also weak in NCAA simply because there are not a whole lot of humans that are that large and don’t live at Burger King. Although his record is still impressive and he was a champ I don’t hold it in the same regaurd as other NCAA champs at lower weights.
Next, He was in the WWE and quit. He had a contract and opted to sit out.
Then, he tried out for the Vikings. He got a little injury and left. He stopped showing up. He quit. The Vikings said they had not other option, but to cut him when he just stopped coming to camp.
I don’t know if Herring can flip his switch, and I am not saying that will happen. I just think that when Brock gets hit a few times he will be looking for a way out. He is mentally weak and he is a quiter. I am not saying he has a weak chin.
C’mon, give him credit for owning up to a bias. That’s pretty rare, especially on the intertubes.
by AJB on Aug 7, 2008 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
You little guys have no Idea how much it sucks being big. Gravity is a bitch, every day, there it is, weighing you down. You little guys bounce around like little dogs yip yip yip.
As someone over six foot, I can sympathize. Doesn’t mean I don’t think the small guys don’t have it rough in their own way.
by AJB on Aug 7, 2008 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions
You must be joking. Comparing a botched pro wrestling move that you’re performing to getting kneed in the face when you don’t see it coming?
I'm not saying it is exactly the same..
..at all. But again…brain meeting skull…is brain meeting skull.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions
Well, let’s see how he handles fist meeting chin, fist meeting temple, knee meeting face, and what nots.
True...
...i’m quite excited to see how it goes
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Excellent idea…. hit him in the face. Why hasn’t anyone tried this gameplan before?
Probably because he’s only really had one fight so far and he tapped out before he got a chance to get punched in the face.
If I recall correctly, Cheick Kongo was a pretty huge physical freak of nature, but with proven unbelievable cardio. Before that fight, most people expected Kongo to be able to have his way with Herring because Kongo’s such a physical freak, too. Not to mention that Kongo was coming off a victory against Cro-Cop. Instead, Herring was able to scramble, survive on the ground, and pull out a victory.
I’m not suggesting that Kongo is necessarily as strong as Lesnar. But there are some similarities in both being huge physical specimens. Kongo is more of a striker, for sure, but the biggest difference seems to me that Kongo was somebody that everybody knew had crazy cardio and he was coming off a win against one of the all time greats. Lesnar’s cardio in mma is completely unproven, and he’s coming off a very quick submission loss to somebody everyone around here seems to think is a low-tier fighter (although I strongly disagree with that assessment of Mir).
I think come Saturday night there are going to be a lot of people who should be coming on here and owning up to underestimating how Herring might be able to do against this “great” Brock Lesnar. If it turns out that he steamrolls Herring, I’ll come back and eat my words. I just don’t understand the disrespect for Herring’s history, experience, and ability in light of Lesnar being such a completely unknown commodity in mma. I don’t get it.
Herring should go back to his old strategy and cheap shot his opponent during the referees discussion.
I just don’t think Herring will be able to stop Lesnar from bulldozing him down and pounding him out. Lesnar is way too big and way too strong for Herring. But this is all IF Lesnar can get him down without getting punched in the face…
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EXACTLY what I was thinking. Lesnar has dominating takedowns (I can’t imagine too many people stuffing them), but anyone can get caught with a well-timed knee, and Herring knows how to time his strikes. However, unless Lesnar does something stupid (decides to stand and trade; l’n’p to standup repeatedly; etc.), Herring’s options get pretty limited after that.
by AJB on Aug 7, 2008 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions
The other thing about Herring’s ground game as displayed in his fight with Kongo is that he can scramble pretty quickly, not a lot of heavyweights can do that on the ground.
I do wonder that had Kongo won the last fight would he have been in contendership for the belt. Hmmmmmmmmmm
Herring’s scramble is nice, but compared to Lesnar’s it looks like molasses in January. Lesnar has absolutely mind boggling quickness. I really truly think no matter who wins this bout, it’s going to be one of the best fights of the night!
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I’m going to sound like a broken record, but…c’mon his scramble looked good against CHEICK KONGO. Kongo has no top game.
And...
Lesnar’s natural speed on the ground (something you can see watching his NCAA Wrestling) is something that hardly anyone in the heavyweight division has.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions
... and I’m going to sound like a broken record, too, but so far we don’t know if Lesnar has any game anywhere—top, bottom, sideways, upside down. All we know about Lesnar so far is that his head is bigger than Tito Ortiz’s, his hands are roughly the size of Volkswagens, and he can effectively strike to the back of the head, stick his leg out into a knee bar, and tap in less than 5 minutes.
He may be the next great thing. He may become THE dominant heavyweight in the UFC. He may become champion and reign for many a harvest moon. But I’ll wait to see him last more than 3 minutes in a fight before I let myself get too excited. Like I said, if he steamrolls Herring, I’ll be happy to come back here and eat crow. I’ll even post a FanPost apologizing to the Lesnar-lovers. But until I actually see him do something in the cage (and he has done absolutely nothing yet) I’ll need to be convinced.
That seems fair..
I think that Brock should have a good top game in that he SHOULD be able to translate his wrestling skills to that area. If he can cool down and not just spaz out as soon as he has the fight on the ground he should be able to show it.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 8, 2008 8:51 AM EDT up reply actions
UFC 87 will answer so many questions
This is the first UFC since 84 that I’m truly pumped for. So many answers that need to be answered.
1 Is GSP overrated? Is Fitch underrated?#2 Is Lesnar for real? Has Herring turned it around after all these years?
#3 Huerta: Pretty boy or bad ass mofo?
My answers...
#2 – Yes, Lesnar is for real. Herring, however, is a guy who doesn’t play up his strengths often enough.
#3 – Both…
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 2:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep...
I just ruined the show for you. Just skip it.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 7, 2008 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions
I like to think of Brock Lesnar as a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic. He could drift harmlessly out to sea, or he could come in and tear the heavy-weight division up with a little bit of time.
One thing I feel confident of, is that you aren’t going to see Herring dominate Lesnar. That is, unless, you consider Frank Mir’s performance as dominating.
I will reiterate that I’m not on the Brock hype-train, but we’ll be more likely to see Herrings chin tested more than Brock’s. My game plan if I’m Herring is to work a ton of JJ, as he will more than likely be working from his back. (and I know that isn’t an astonishing thought).
What would your game plan be if you were fighting a 300lb silverback?
I’d probably do my best Kalib Starnes impression.
by AJB on Aug 7, 2008 6:37 PM EDT up reply actions
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