Brock Lesnar: Former WWE and UFC Champion Defined
By Sean Farrell
Ht: 6’3
Wt: 265 lbs
Reach: 81″
MMA Record: 5-2
Many fans are casual fans and know what the sport of mixed martial arts or MMA is, however they still are very unfamiliar with who the fighters are. I am going to be bringing you further into the world of MMA and everything these elite athletes have done and are currently doing, I am going to start with a very known fighter by name but not by accomplishment his name is Brock Lesnar.
Brock Lesnar attended Webster High School in Webster, Minnesota where he had a wrestling record of 33–0–0 his senior year. Lesnar then went on to attend the University of Minnesota where he was on full scholarship his junior and senior years. During his senior year in 2000, Lesnar won the NCAA wrestling championship as a heavyweight after placing second the previous year. Lesnar finished his amateur career as a two-time NJCAA All-American, 1998 NJCAA Heavyweight Champion, two-time NCAA All American, two-time Big Ten Conference Champion, and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion. Lesnar’s record was an astounding 106–5 in his four years of college and he is an all time great.
After leaving college, Lesnar signed with the WWE known then as the WWF. He was sent to the developmental Ohio Valley Wrestling. He wrestled several dark matches in 2001 and 2002 before being called up to the main roster.
Lesnar debuted for WWF television in 2002, the night after Wrestlemania XVIII coming through the crowd and attacking Al Snow, Maven, and Spike Dudley during the course of a match. He was accompanied by Paul Heyman, who was seen giving instructions to Lesnar. It was then confirmed Heyman was Lesnar’s agent and dubbed Lesnar “The Next Big Thing.”
Lesnar was a huge star instantly, in June of 2002, Lesnar won the King of the Ring leading to his first ever “title” match at Summerslam. At the main event of SummerSlam, Lesnar defeated The Rock to become the WWE Undisputed Champion, at age 25, Lesnar became the youngest WWE Champion in history (a record that was previously held by The Rock).
Lesnar’s rapid rise to the top of the entertainment world of the WWE in 2002 led to a feud with The Undertaker, which involved a match at Unforgiven. It ended in a double disqualification leading to Lesnar retaining the title. The next month, at No Mercy, he faced The Undertaker again, this time in a Hell in a Cell match. Leading up to the match, Lesnar broke the Undertaker’s hand with a propane tank. Despite Heyman begging McMahon not to let The Undertaker use his cast as a weapon, the request was denied and the match went on as planned. In a match that saw both wrestlers and even Heyman covered in blood, it ended when Lesnar reversed an attempted Undertaker finisher into his F-5 maneuver for the win.
In that quick time span, Lesnar had accomplished everything there was to do in the WWE and in 2004, he had a match at Wrestlemania XX. Only a week prior to WrestleMania, rumors surfaced that Lesnar was leaving in order to pursue his dream in the NFL.
After his final match at Wrestlemania XX, Lesnar made the move and upset many in WWE, as the company felt they had invested heavily in Lesnar, which they did. Lesnar said he had three wonderful years in WWE, but had grown unhappy and always wanted to play pro football, he did not want to be 40 years old and wondering if he could have made it in the NFL. In an interview about starting with the NFL, Lesnar made the statement “This is no load of bull; it’s no WWE stunt. I am dead serious about this… I ain’t afraid of anything, and I ain’t afraid of anybody. I’ve been an underdog in athletics since I was 5. I got zero college offers for wrestling. Now people say I can’t play football, that it’s a joke. I say I can. I’m as good an athlete as a lot of guys in the NFL, if not better… I’ve always had to fight for everything. I wasn’t the best technician in amateur wrestling. But I was strong, had great conditioning, and a hard head. Nobody could break me. As long as I have that, I don’t give a damn what anybody else thinks.”
Lesnar played for the Minnesota Vikings, where he created controversy in some games by starting minor fights and got heat from the Kansas City Chiefs for a hit on their quarterback which drew a big response from the crowd. After playing in the preseason, Lesnar ended up being a late cut and declined an invitation to play as a representative of the Vikings in NFL Europe because he wanted to be closer to home with his family.
From there, Lesnar went to Japan in October 8, 2005, where he wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling Lesnar won the championship quickly, by pinning Masahiro Chono after an F-5, which he had renamed the Verdict, since WWE owns the trademark on the F-5 name. After the match, he stated that the move name was referring to his lawsuit against WWE. The match was his first pro wrestling match since leaving WWE. Lesnar is one of the few American wrestlers to have ever held this title.
That December, WWE filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent Lesnar from continuing to work with NJPW, but the court denied it, then on January 13, 2006 WWE once again filed an injunction against Lesnar to stop him from defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on March 19. This was not enforced (nor granted), as Lesnar went on to successfully defend his title against the winner of the New Japan Cup, Giant Bernard on May 3, 2006. This was the first American vs. American title match in NJPW since 1990.
On July 15, 2006, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that Brock Lesnar had been stripped of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as he would no longer be returning to defend the title due to “visa issues.” A tournament was held on July 16 to determine the new champion, which was won by the man Lesnar was originally scheduled to face. One year later on June 29, 2007, Lesnar defended his recently stripped title as (IGF promoter Antonio Inoki had stated he still viewed Lesnar as the “proper” IWGP Champion, as he was not defeated for the title) against Kurt Angle. Angle defeated Lesnar to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as recognized by IGF and TNA, Angle challenged Lesnar to an MMA fight and this was Lesnar’s last match as a professional wrestler.
In April 2006, Lesnar appeared inside the ring after the final match of K-1: Hero’s Las Vegas and announced his interest to join the kickboxing promotion. Lesnar announced on August 12 in Las Vegas that he had signed a deal with the K-1 promotion, and his first REAL fight was scheduled for June 2, 2007, at K-1 Dynamite!!USA against Hong Man Choi. Prior to the match, Hong Man Choi was replaced by Min Soo Kim. Lesnar submitted Kim via strikes in 1 minute 9 seconds to win his first official fight.
During the UFC 77 Pay-Per-View, it was announced that Lesnar had reached a deal with them. On February 2, 2008, Lesnar made his debut with the promotion at UFC 81 against former champion Frank Mir. Lesnar secured an early takedown, but lost a point for hitting Mir on the back of the head. Following another takedown by Lesnar, Mir managed a kneebar and forced Lesnar to tap. Due to the large size of his hands, Lesnar was wearing 4XL gloves for the fight, making him the second man in Nevada’s combat sports history to wear such gloves after Hong Man Choi.
At UFC 82, it was announced that Mark Coleman would fight Lesnar at UFC 87. Coleman was forced to withdraw from the fight however due to a training injury, Lesnar’s opponent was changed to Heath Herring. In the early seconds of the first round, Lesnar dropped Herring with a straight right but could not finish Herring, and the remainder of the fight Lesnar kept it on the ground and went on to win by unanimous decision.
On October 26, 2009, it was announced that Lesnar had pulled out of his UFC 106 title fight with Shane Carwin due to illness. UFC President Dana White said that Brock had been ill for three weeks, claimed he had never been this sick in his life and that it would take him a while to recover. Lesnar initially sought treatment in Canada but claimed he was receiving “Third-World Treatment” and immediately returned to the US for medical help. On November 4, it was confirmed that Lesnar was suffering from mononucleosis Dana White stated, “He’s not well and he’s not going to be getting well anytime soon.” And that an interim title match might need to be set up. In addition to mononucleosis, it was revealed that Lesnar was suffering from a serious case of diverticulitis.
After further diagnosis, on November 16 Lesnar underwent surgery to close a perforation in his intestine that had been leaking fecal matter into his abdomen, causing pain, abscesses, and his immune system to slow down to the point that he contracted mononucleosis. From the level of damage to Lesnar’s system, the surgeon estimated that the intestinal condition had been ongoing for around a year.
In January 2010, Lesnar announced on ESPN that he was scheduled to make a return to the UFC in the summer.
A match between Mir and Carwin took place on March 27 at UFC 111 to determine the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion, and Brock’s next opponent. Shane Carwin defeated Frank Mir by KO in the first round, becoming the new Interim Champion. After the fight, Brock came into the ring and stated “It was a good fight, but he’s wearing a belt that’s a make believe belt, I’ve got the real championship belt.”
Lesnar faced Carwin at UFC 116 to unify the heavyweight titles. After Carwin knocked him down early in the first round, Lesnar survived a brutal ground and pound attack and Carwin gassed himself on punches. Early in the second round, Lesnar was able to take Carwin down, attain a full mount, then move to side-control and finish Carwin with an arm triangle choke. Lesnar again became the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion, earning his first UFC Submission Of The Night and giving Carwin his first loss.
Lesnar’s next title defense was against Cain Velasquez on October 23, 2010, at UFC 121 Dana White announced on SportsNation that the UFC would be bringing back UFC Primetime to hype up Lesnar vs. Velasquez. Lesnar was defeated by Velasquez via TKO in the first round and exposed as a fighter who doesn’t possess a good chin or decent stand up striking.
Which brings us to what’s next for “The Next Big Thing”? On January 11, 2011, it was revealed that Lesnar would be one of the coaches on the Ultimate Fighter season 13, his coaching opposition is also his next opponent, Junior dos Santos, a dominate striker from Brazil with the two expected to face each other on June 11, 2011 at UFC 131. This announcement was big as Lesnar is known to be very conservative of his private life and avoids discussing it in interviews. He recently spoke on this in an interview when he stated “It’s very basic for me. When I go home, I don’t buy into any of the BS. Like I said, it’s pretty basic: Train, sleep, family, fight. It’s my life. I like it. I’ve been in front of the cameras for 10, 12 years. I was a star at the University of Minnesota. I went on to World Wrestling Entertainment. Wannabe NFL player. And here I am, the UFC heavyweight champion. I just don’t put myself out there to the fans and prostitute my private life to everybody. In today’s day and age, with the Internet and cameras and cell phones, I just like being old school and living in the woods and living my life. I came from nothing and at any moment, you can go back to having nothing.”
Lesnar has one daughter, Mya Lynn who was born on April 10, 2002, with his ex-fiancée, Nicole. He left Nicole in 2003 in order to begin a relationship with Rena Mero known to everyone through her time in the WWE as Sable, Brock and Rena were engaged in 2004, separated in 2005, then reconciled later that year and married on May 6, 2006. Lesnar has one stepchild with Mero: Mariah, a stepdaughter born to Mero and her late husband, Wayne Richardson. The couple had their first child together, a son named Turk in June 2009. The couple had their second child, a son named Duke in July 2010. Lesnar also owns an MMA clothing line called “DeathClutch” which has become very popular.
In closing, I hope this piece gave you an insight on to who Brock Lesnar is and that he should not be taken as a joke. Brock Lesnar is a genetic freak of nature and there is no taking away the abilities he possesses from a physical standpoint, however he can be beaten since he is still just a man. If you want more Brock Lesnar you’re going to have to tune into the Ultimate Fighter 13 on March 30th, 2011 on Spike TV and see what everyone has been waiting to see “The Next Big Thing” outside of the ring or cage with cameras on him.