After Brock Lesnar's impressive UFC debut in a loss against former heavyweight champion Frank Mir and his demolition of perennial UFC contender Heath Herring, I thought it was a little early to award Lesnar a title shot against Randy Couture. Even so, the UFC is a business, this fight drew great pay-per-view and live gate numbers, and I think Lesnar is a worthy top-of-the-card fighter.
My prediction going into this fight was that, unless Randy clocked Brock early in the fight like he did against Tim Sylvia and Gabriel Gonzaga, thereby stunning him and allowing him to grind out a ground-and-pound decision, Randy would probably lose. I thought Brock's size, reach, strength, and youth were just going to be too much for Couture to overcome, and as I saw in the fight tonight, I was right. The first round of the fight was pretty pedestrian, with both guys testing the other's punching range and jockeying for position in the clinch along the cage. In the end, I gave it to Brock because his strikes were a bit more solid and Randy couldn't take him down. In the second round, after a little bit more of the same type of fighting that took place in the Round 1, Brock landed a crisp, but not crushing right hand behind Randy's ear that stunned and floored Couture. Brock then mounted him and dropped what seemed like 30 or 40 hammer fists until the referee mercifully stopped the fight, making Brock Lesnar the new UFC heavyweight champion.
Brock is an exciting fighter, but he still has a lot to learn, and outside of his training camp, he will learn it against top notch competition. His next fight will be against the winner of the interim title fight between Frank Mir and Anotnio Rodrigo Nogueira in December, and in the future, I can't wait to see him fight other heavyweights like Shane Carwin, Gabriel Gonzaga, and especially Cain Velasquez. For tonight though, it's a tip of the cap and a toast to the new UFC heavyweight champ, Brock Lesnar.
