WWE to UFC to Where: What Happens to Brock Lesnar?
By SJ Jarapa
Given the big bang which all the sudden endowed the UFC’s heavyweight division the much needed attention from the media and the fervor it continues to receive, I can’t help but think all these would not have been availed or its deprivation from such elements that once crippled it would not have been filled if not had been for the presence as enormous as what the ailing UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar brought us.
The big guy, with all the fandom and charisma he comes with, has done a great deal not just for the UFC but for MMA in general. He came in an unwanted guest, an intruder from a circus that sported fake matches, coming to fight in a legitimate sport, being overlooked that he was in fact a true athlete, one who, even through a passing glimpse, would leave no doubt was certainly a colossal specimen of an entity, long before he was an entertainer. Being in the WWE, he had it made – fame and money. He was a superstar. At first, on the outside all seemed well, after a while, however, the organization’s demanding hours began to take its toll on his health and the athlete deep inside him did not enjoy it; his soul was apparently being pounded into something of a great depression by all its temptations. So he left the world of Entertainment Wrestling to getaway from its persuasions and swapped its fast-paced way of existence to a simple life with his wife and kids, distant and away from it all. Fragments of his nature were lost somewhere along the way, in all the confusion. To put it simply, a huge chunk of his athletic front was gone.
Following his departure from the WWE, he sought for ways to recover that part of him. However, upon failing to secure a career in the NFL, he believed it was over, that he would instead be flipping burgers, and was doomed never to recapture again what made him whole. That was when the world of Mixed Martial Arts caught his attention. After training for only 2-years, he took an offer to fight in Japan, and won without breaking a sweat. Finding it too easy, he knocked on UFC President Dana White’s door and implored that he be given a chance to fight in the big leagues.
Frank Mir, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, would give him a taste of exactly what it was like to be fighting in the Ultimate Proving Grounds of MMA’s premiere organization. Brock would shock everyone with his speed and power early on but would eventually show his inexperience – he became too frantic to finish the fight quickly. The veteran, Frank Mir had him analyzed pretty good. With the big guy standing and pounding on top of him, Frank swung his legs upward and locked him in a knee-bar and made him tap out for the first time in his career.
But since that faithful defeat, Brock Lesnar has improved leaps and bounds, learning the curves and corners of the game, and has seen nothing but victory afterward, having steamrolled Heath Herring towards a unanimous decision, seized the Heavyweight Belt from Randy Couture via KO, and avenged his loss from Frank Mir via TKO.
He has shown discipline since and through it, we all saw what he can be. With only just 4 wins in MMA, he is a champion. Before Lesnar, little cared about the big dogs in the Octagon, unless Randy Couture was fighting, no one really gave a damn. Compared to the now defunct PRIDE Fighting Championship’s heavyweight talent pool, the UFC’s was a joke. It was even laughable at one point that they would have a crowned champion in it when everyone knows who was who. Its former champions Andrei Arlovksi and Tim Sylvia were both considered greatly inferior to PRIDE’s Big 3 – Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio “Minautoro” Nogueira, and Mirko CroCop.
Now the suit has a champion, a true heavyweight champion, and with just only 4 MMA wins under his belt, Brock Lesnar is a champion whom many see would beat CroCop and Minautoro Nogueira handily and a man who in one instant became a real threat to the man who is widely considered as the one true MMA Heavyweight Champion, Fedor Emelianenko. Even though he’s yet to show his mettle against someone who can actually thump with him, despite his obvious size advantage, he has tremendous fighting acumen complimented with great technique. Unlike Kimbo Slice, his potential actually seems boundless.
But now, all that, is endangered of disappearing in a blink – whisked away, before this potential is even realized, by an illness he possibly kept hidden from most likely everyone until it was too late.
Last year, Brock Lesnar became severely ill and was forced to back out of a couple UFC events against top contender Shane Carwin. Little is known about the true state of his condition with him refusing to say anything more about it. What we know so far is that he had been sick for a year, probably over, and it has forged a hole in his intestines and it has slowly but surely weakened his immune system, severely damaging his body, making him constantly sick. Presently, there has been mixed rumors being floated out there. Some say, he will be back fighting this year, some claims early next year. While a cryptic message that was recently posted on his Facebook page suggested that he might not return to fighting at all. That and the fact he doesn’t want to talk about it has everyone truly disturbed.
What is the real case here?
I guess all we can do is wait and pray that he recovers.
What happens to the UFC in the light that the big guy cannot fight again? One can say, it still has a horde of rising heavyweight stars in his place… but it is not the same without Lesnar. Will his legions and legions of WWE fans flock the UFC scene still if he’s no longer in the picture? Perhaps not or maybe some of them might, since they might have seen what excitement MMA can bring that they would opt to stick around. The truth is WWE fans or not, the majority wants to see Lesnar fight or wants to see someone fight Lesnar to see if he can actually hold out or even beat Lesnar.
More importantly, everyone wants to see Fedor Emelianenko take on Brock Lesnar.
Without Lesnar, I would like to think MMA’s heavyweight scene goes dull again. Why? For one, Fedor Emelianenko has wiped out all the contenders whose names actually beckon people’s interest except for one Brock Lesnar. Sure, Minotauro’s still out there, Junior Dos Santos looks prime and ready as Cain Velasquez is, Shane Carwin is still huge and packs a big punch, Frank Mir appears crazed for vengeance… but what will he do with that impetus without the very man that has encouraged that psychotic drive?
We’ve seen them all before.
Brock Lesnar is unique in a lot of ways.
Hate him or not, you actually would like to follow his progress because there is a real sense that he could just be one of the greatest forces to ever come and set foot on this sport.
Should he be forever barred from fighting again, Brock Lesnar would leave us an everlasting mark as the fighter, the athlete, who had it all – the Size, Speed, and Power, which are without doubt gifts from above, all that compounded by his sheer capacity to learn quickly and swiftly adapt when circumstances call for it… he is of a breed out of fantastical tales of brawn and robust heroes the likes of which you can never believe save for the fact that he is actually real… the fighter, the athlete who could be deprived of an opportunity to show the world what he is made of.
Get well Brock.
The rest of us may criticize you for your unfair size advantage, but honestly possessing such is not your fault, and despite the criticisms, we are all just mere supporters.