Does Brock Lesnar have what it takes to be UFC heavyweight champ?

Question

Taking into account his last fight ,where he outclassed heath herring , the guy looked like a monster , a BIG beast ! with one punch he send herring across the cage and on the ground he controlled the fight with ease ,and herring is no slouch on the ground , someone can argue that he was lying and praying but herring wasnt unable to get out of that position also! And in the MIR fight where he should have won ,means this guy is the white hope in the sport and he has tons of potential we are talking about him demolishing herring which is a top 15 in any list and is just lesnars second fight ,the guy is a beast , does he has what it takes to become a champion one day ?

Answer 1

With more training and time he can challenge for the belt. His size and strength are impressive and his ground control over Herring was quite impressive. However, we did not see how he would react on his back. Wrestlers, and he is a very strong wrestler, are historically bad off their back because they are trained from day 1 not to be in that position. He could panic a bit and put himself in a vulnerable position. Also, during that fight he was in a dominant position several times but failed to capitalize (several mounts and also took his back). He clearly is not comfortable with Brazilian Jujitsu yet. I would like to see him face Congo or someone with a strong Jujitsu background next. Ultimately I think he could become champion, but it is still early.

Why is he the white hope? There are a large number of top white mma athelets.

Answer 2

Does he have what it takes as of right now, no he doesn't but he most definitely has the potential to become a heavy weight champion. He has a great wrestling background. (college wrestling not the WWE BS) He has been working on improving his overall skills and I am sure he will continue to do so. Yes he is an absolute monster in terms of size and strength and that will help.

He did dominate his fight with Herring, but he also let several really good chances to finish the fight slip away from him. He is working and making improvements and it shows, if he continues to do so then there is no doubt that he could easily become a champion. Look at what Tim Sylvia did and I don't think Tim was any where near the athlete that Brock is, but that kind of size can be hard to deal with.

Answer 3

As far as hyped fighters, he probably has the most legit skills of them all.  He walks around at about 285 and has to cut a lot of weight to get to the 265 lb max.  Look at Heath Herring beside most fighters...he's big.  But beside Lesnar he looked small...So Lesnar definitely has a size/strength benefit that nobody else has right now.

As far as skills - Lesnar's takedowns/shots were insane.  He's REALLY fast for a guy his size, and getting hit by that guy must be like getting hit by a bison.  I think Herring was shocked by Lesnar's sheer power and couldn't recover enough to fight effectively on the ground. (Plus Herring hasn't looked so hot in the UFC...)  So Lesnar has one incredible skill set plus his strength that make him look pretty impressive.

Now when you look at the numbers of missed opportunities that a more skilled grappler would have taken advantage of is where you see the weakness of Lesnar - I'm no grappling guru, but I saw a dozen simple chokes, armbars, triangle opportunities, etc. that Lesnar didn't even try for.  What did Lesnar DO once it went to the ground?  Punch and stay on top...That makes me think that an opponent who has really good ground skills off his back would have a HUGE advantage over Lesnar - Herring simply didn't have it in him.  The fight hardly ever got into Herring's guard, and stuffing a takedown against a big strong guy like that is REALLY hard.  

Who can do it?  Every other HW in the UFC is around 240 walking weight, so Lesnar has 40 lbs or more on any of them - and that's not fat.  There ARE more skilled fighters, but they are all 15-20% smaller than Brock...That's like a 205er fighting a 170 lb fighter...insane weight advantage.  The only guy close size wise is Shane Carwin who's 9-0-0 and a former NCAA Div 1 Wrestler and I think he won the Ring of Fire a few years back.  I haven't seen him fight, but heard he's got decent submissions...We'll see in Oct.  But mu guess is that Lesnar will be able to overwhelm just about anybody with his size and speed.

All in all I think Lesnar has the physical attributes to be the champ - he's training hard at BJJ & submission escapes, so he'll be a force for a long time, and probably the champ by end of next year.

Answer 4

I don't really think he doesn't have a chance for gold but I think he can become a solid mid-tier fighter and possibly a gatekeeper for the title but if he fought Nog he lose pretty much every time because Brock isn't something Nog hasn't dealt with before(Bob Sapp is much larger then Brock and Nog beat him) we still don't know about Brock's chin and if he can do five rounds yet because he looked tired after three rounds with Heath with him only doing kneel 'n' feel the whole fight.  Brock's build and size is probably going to be more of a hindrance to him then a help.

To add also he did drop Heath but he did not knock him across the ring like people claim he rolled to get out of Brocks way its something Heath has done with in many fights when he has been rocked and saying that he should have been Mir is untrue he never hurt Mir and never rocked Mir(watch the fight in on slow you can see that the punches just barely touch Mir and how Mir drops shin first and goes instantly for guard).  Mir acted hurt to sucker Brock to the ground and those tip-tap hammer shots were going to stop anybody, Mir simply outsmarted Brock made him go to the ground and Mir subbed him its really that simple.

Mir is not going to beat Nog for the title Nog is pretty much the same style fighter Mir is but Nog is just better at it.

Answer 5

Heath Herring is no top 15 fighter. Brock Lesnar will never be the heavyweight champion of the UFC. If he was as good as you seem to think he is that fight would have ended about 10 to 15 seconds after the first hit. Lesnar held him down but not much else. A better fighter wouldn't have even been hit by that first hay maker anyway. I could have hit Herring more from the ground. It was a horrible fight.  TAO: He was a college wrestler. Those guy can cut 20 in their sleep. He was back at 285 when they fought. Oh and a knee to the face would pretty much defend his take down.

Answer 6

yeah dude his strikes are so light but so heavy at the same time he dropped mir twice with 1 flush blow that didnt even look strong and same with herrring

Answer 7

He has what it takes.  I don't think there is anyone in the sport that can defend his takedown attempt.  His hands are pretty good and strong as he dropped Mir and Herring.

He needs to improve his submission game to be a top guy in the UFC.  It is something he needs to train everyday, not only on how to defend, but how to get them.  

Answer 8

Yes, he has what it takes to be UFC Champ.

But first he must refine his wreslting skills, and learn a little jujitsu

And get over the part of not knowing what he should do next.

Brock shouldn't have won that fight by a decision.  He should've been either to submit him or TKO'd him.

Plus the knock down wasn't all that impressive. He punched Herring, Herring went down, and rolled himself over.

Lesnar rushed wrecklessly in.  

Mir will defeat the current Champ. And in late 2009 Lesnar vs. Mir rematch for the title.

Answer 9

Yes.  That is the short answer.  The long answer is he can if he stays focused and works dramatically on his Jiujitsu and striking.  Otherwise he will be a big brute ready to be taken down by another guy like Frank Mir.