Physical specimen, elite level wrestling. Awesome cardio. Not going to do anything but get better at striking and BJJ. Willing to walk into a new way of life and fight people with decades of experience.

Not trying to dog you out, but I’ve heard this all before. You said you’re not convinced of Lesnar’s evolution, but that’s just silly. It’s clear that he’s come a very long way as a mixed martial artist. You call his stand up sloppy and claim that he should have finished Herring to impress. That’s bizarre, because he shattered Herring’s orbital bone and sent him barreling 15 yards on his ass with one strike, and man-handled him in a manner that I’ve never seen in over 20 fights of Herring’s that I’ve personally viewed. This, in Lesnar’s third professional bout. You’re not impressed that he knocked down Couture, but he TKO’d him, so nevermind that. I’m not even going to touch on Lesnar’s BJJ training with Comprido, because I should have a template prepared considering how often I have to preface it.

I get it if someone wants to pick Mir to beat Lesnar. So pick him. But I don’t get it that people want to discredit Lesnar’s progress, determination, work ethic and clear physical advantages. I find it curious that you would specifically define Shane Carwin as an individual you could see beating Lesnar. What is it, exactly, that Carwin has that Lesnar does not? He’s a Lesnar ape, no pun intended.

He’s a huge mother, he’s ripped, he has KO power, and he also has the means ($) to bring in elite level trainers. In just 3 years time (it’s reported that he started training in April ‘06), he’s absorbed a tremendous amount of knowledge and skills, and seems to be getting rapidly better with every fight.

Does he have Black Belt Jiu Jitsu? Not even close. Is his striking K-1 caliber? Hardly. But he does have explosive, technical wrestling, and is a behemoth- which was enough to smother Heath Herring, blitz Randy, and beat the shit out of Mir for a minute and a half (before getting his leg nearly torn off).

Here’s where I stand- IMO, he takes the rematch with Mir if he can sprawl/ brawl, and keep out of Frank’s guard for any significant length of time. I don’t think he can beat most of the upper echelon HW’s like Fedor, Arlovski, Overeem, Barnett, or even Werdum. I do think that he matches up well with several elite HW’s, though (and most of them are in the UFC). Those HW’s being guys like Carwin/ Velasquez, Kongo, Gonzaga, and at this point in time- probably Nog.

Top 10 HW for sure.

I was so militantly against Brock in MMA and the UFC. I thought it would be a mockery, his legit wrestling not withstanding. I have to say, my opinion changes a little every time out.

His first fight at Heroes was a joke, imo, but by no fault of his own. Based on that, I thought he would fail immensely when he signed with the UFC and the Mir fight did nothing to sway me. He wasn’t hurting Mir, he simply had position and was fighting like a spaz (though I wouldn’t want to have been underneath him, lol) and got caught. Bot I think this lit a fire under him and propelled him to get better.

Landing that massive shot to Herring’s head was a huge confidence boost, imo. No he didn’t finish him, but he dominated and beat down a legit HW who was, not so long ago, supposed to dominate HW mma.

In the Randy fight, it was somewhat back and forth, jockeying for the dominate position, seeing who was going to get the edge. The shot that grazed his head was enough to topple the champ and let Brock finish him.

I think Brock has amazing size, strength and explosiveness, as well as a great amount of potential. I’m not convinced he is unbeatable, but in a division dominated by guys nearing the end and young up and comers, he certainly has some time to improve.

The last thing that has moved my opinion, was the interview he did for InsideMMA. I was expecting a cocky, wrestling persona and instead got a real, hard working, non flashy guy. He didn’t talk a lot of trash, yet was confident. He wasn’t full of himself and expressed a belief in hard work and competition.

Now I wouldn’t say I am a big fan of Brock and he certainly has a lot to accomplish, but I have had my doubts erased that he takes the sport serious and is a force to be dealt with.

And yes, this is a well traveled topic, but your points are very well thought out and intelligible, which is somewhat uncommon in discussing Lesner. Nice job.

I watched Brock’s first fight and honsetly it was really sloppy he was barely a MMArtist. With Couture he’d improved by leaps and bounds in every area he was having trouble in. And that was in only 4 fights. Now I did write a more extensive article on the Brock haters in ExtremeFightingNews.com. While he did beat a ledgend for the title I still think he needs to beat a few more people in the HW division before he can be crowned THE heavywieght for the next ten years or whatever.
On a side note this may sound cheesy but I would love to see Fedor vs. Brock not sure if anyone agrees.

If Lesnar beats Mir the next fight I want to see is Lesnar vs Fedor.

Never was that more apparent than “UFC heavyweight champion brock lesnar”

Yes it can be argued whether he should of got the shot but lets not act like Randy Couture was just some placeholder or a can fed to Brock he is one of the best the sport.

You almost had me there. You guys are on fire today! lol