Weakness – Experience – Excitement:

Brock Lesnar has one weakness and one weakness only…experience. Now this can be broken down into many areas. First and foremost, we have to talk about his ground game. Unfortunately, Brock Lesnar never imagined that Frank Mir would slap a submission hold on him because I really believe that Brock thought Mir wouldn’t get the opportunity because Brock would probably knock him out before the first round was done. In a certain moment I thought it would actually happen but thanks to Steve Mazzagatti, that didn’t happen. Another thing that I saw in that fight was Brock’s excitement taking the best of him. He was just too damn eager to get in there and get it done. He wasn’t as relaxed as he needed to be but can you blame him? Here you have a guy who used to work for WWE and going from a scripted competition to real competition people were very skeptical of him being there. Brock had to prove to the nay sayers that he was indeed for real. He showed just that as within the first 5 seconds of the fight Brock took Mir down and Mir was actually shocked. I watched that fight so many times, I noticed something different every time. On the part where Mir locks the leg, you could see it on his face that he had a look of relief combined with anger. Perhaps anger towards himself for being shown off by a guy who was there for a minute. Also Mir kind of looked like he wanted to break Lesnar’s leg but that is just speculation.


Strengths – Wrestling Background – Power – Quickness – Endurance – Fast Learner:

For a man who weights around 275lbs Brock Lesnar moves around like a lightweight. His strength is unmatched and his ability to adapt is amazing. Brock Lesnar is the kind of guy who did great in everything he ever did. He even said it himself that nobody will tell him that he can’t do something because he will go and do it just to prove people wrong. After a loss to Frank Mir at UFC 81, Brock Lesnar went right back into training but this time he worked a lot more and focused on his ground game. Six months later he faced a very experienced Heath Herring and basically dominated the entire fight. That punch he landed on Heath that rocked him back was the highlight of the whole fight because the punch came with such an impact that when they showed it in slow motion you could see Herring’s face almost being mangled up as if he was in a car crash. So to say that Brock Lesnar improved since fighting Frank Mir is a huge understatement. Just imagine how much more he has improved for this fight against Couture? Brock is a fast learner and he has definitely learned from his mistakes and hopefully he will not make any mistakes tonight because this is the only thing that will keep him from winning. Also we have to take the fact that he has great conditioning. He is the kind of guy that can go all the way if he has to! Brock once wrestled Kurt Angle for an entire hour, yes I know it was not real but not a lot of wrestlers can wrestle for a whole hour because eventually fatigue starts to kick in, but with Lesnar, he has one of the most impressive endurances I have ever seen.

Fight Strategy for Lesnar:

Brock has all the advantage he can hope for, except for one…experience. Okay, I know, I know, they said the same thing about Heath Herring. Herring had way more experience than Lesnar, but Lesnar was able to control the fight for all three arounds. But here’s the thing, you cannot compare Heath Herring to Randy Couture, it’s like comparing cheap beer to fine wine. The most powerful arsenal that he has is his ability to take people down, which is something he does with ease. However, the strategy for Brock is not to take down Randy Couture, but to knock him down with punches and kicks, LOTS of them! Couture is more than able to win this fight by submission so I really hope that Brock keeps the fight standing up. We already established that he can go all the way so as long as he keeps landing punches, eventually Couture will give in because Lesnar is a much stronger fighter. Forget about Lesnar’s size for a moment, and focus on his strength.

Randy “The Natural” Couture:

Randy Couture is the definition of heart! He is living proof of the old saying “it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, all that matters is how many times you get right back up”. Randy Couture has had his ups and downs just like any other human being. Couture had suffered two huge losses to Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell a few years back. On the first one, Randy had won the Light-Heavyweight title, thus being one of two men in UFC history to win championships in two different weight divisions (in case your wondering, the other guy is BJ Penn). Maybe I’m not telling the story the exact way but this is a quick reference. Couture had first won the light-heavyweight title against Chuck Liddell for the interim light-heavyweight title. Then a re-match was set and Liddell knocked out Couture in the first round. After a win, Couture came right back into title contention as he challenged Liddell for a third time and Couture suffered defeat again with a knockout in the second round. After the fight, Couture announced his retirement. Then he got the itch to come back against a much larger Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight title and Couture just went off on this 6’8” monster and defeated him and becoming a three time heavyweight champion. This is just small example to let people know that Couture, when he is focused and when he wants something he will take it.


Weaknesses – Age – A Year Out:

Right off the bat we have to acknowledge his age. He is 45 years old and has not stepped into the octagon in over a year. His last official fight was at UFC 70 back in August 25th of 2007 where he faced Grabriel Gonzaga, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist and a powerhouse. The fight ended with a TKO victory for Couture. Couture became stressed because of contract and money issues claiming that he was getting low balled and walked out by quitting. At this moment I just don’t care about him because if you ask me he was being greedy. For a guy who was making “$250,000 plus $936,000 of PPV revenue for his comeback against Tim Sylvia. He also reportedly received a $250,000 purse for defeating Gabriel Gonzaga, as well as a $35,000 bonus for "Fight of the Night" and $787,000 in PPV revenue” (wiki). I mean this is being completely greedy. I don’t make that much in a year, but then again he’s got plenty of expenses and when people have a lot of money they spent a lot of money! He has obviously resolved the issues and will fight.

Strengths – Years of Experience:

Randy has the experience and the know how to survive inside the octagon. This isn’t new to him. Pay-Per-View title fights, there is no pressure. He will probably go in with a clear head on what he needs to do in order to take down the much larger opponent. He doesn’t have the strength standing up but if the fight goes to the ground, Randy will probably have the advantage there. Randy will be allowed to make quite a few mistakes because Brock may or may not capitalize on it, although it will be hard to say.

But going back in his career, Couture made his debut in 1997 at UFC 13. Wow 13! That’s a loooong time ago since we are already at 91. But anyway, Couture at the time was only 34 years old but in UFC years, that’s still a bit old. Many guys start out in their early 20’s but Randy went in there with a very small frame and defeated two guys in what was a four man tournament. One of these men was Tony Halme, a 6’3” 275 pounder…does that stat sound familiar? Couture went in and just beat the crap out of him. But I know what you’re thinking, that was 11 years ago and Randy was much younger. I agree but the thing is, when an athlete has the will and the heart to go out there and give it his all, he will shock some people. Randy Couture has a background in wrestling, which is exactly what Brock Lesnar has so, in that area they will be pretty much even. However, this is what people need to think about, Couture will not reveal all of his tricks he’s got up his sleeves. You don’t think that Couture has some of the most influential jiu-jitsu specialists out there helping him? I bet Frank Mir is probably helping Couture in that area because Mir got a little embarrassed in his fight with Lesnar. Randy is old, he is probably rusty, but then again he’s had since the beginning of September to prepare for this fight and I guarantee you, he will be as ready as he has ever been in his entire life. Couture has the ability to beat Lesnar and just like I said earlier, all it will take is one mistake from Lesnar and Couture will capitalize on it!

Fight Strategy for Couture:

Obviously Couture is not as strong as Brock is, so Randy will want the fight to go to the ground. He will want to take control at all times. He will want to gain as much points as he possibly can, just in case they go all the 5 rounds and the fight ends with the judges decision. He will also want to use his jiu-jitsu which he will indeed have in his arsenal. In case Randy cannot control the fight on the ground Randy will need to hit and run since he is lighter than Lesnar, he can move quickly and maybe try to get Lesnar to either lose his patience or get tired. It is more likely that Lesnar could lose his patience rather than getting tired and if Lesnar somehow loses his patience, he will likely commit a mistake which is probably all that Couture can hope for.


Predictions:

There is no way for me to be bias when it comes to predictions because I want Brock Lesnar to win. I predict that he will win because he showed great improvement in his last fight. There is no doubt that Randy will be ready for this fight, but Lesnar is going in as the underdog, many within the MMA world do not really believe the hype that is Brock Lesnar. This fight is being promoted as the biggest fight in UFC history and why shouldn’t it be? You have a UFC legend and hall of famer, the only hall of famer to be a current champion and the only man to hold the heavyweight title three times. On the other side we have the newcomer, the newest bad ass in the UFC, the man who will be a force to be reckon with in the upcoming years, or so they thought. If Lesnar beats Randy Couture, for them, it will be the biggest shocker in UFC history. To us, the Lesnar fans it will not be so shocking but it will be a great time for us to rejoice and celebrate. Anyway, I got side tracked again, sorry. The fight will be great, so I will go out on a limb here and predict that the fight will end in a fourth round TKO win for Lesnar. I had to think long and hard about this because there are so many other possible outcomes. But again I had to come to this conclusion based on Lesnar’s last fight. As I said, Heath Herring is no Randy Couture, so I got to think, if Brock didn’t knock out Herring during the three round fight, I had to think if he would be able to knock a way better fighter in Randy Couture. Heath was already busted up, he looked like Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies. I believe that if there was a fourth round, Brock would have knocked him out.

Closing:

Thank you again for taking time to read my blog and be sure to watch the fight tonight which will be epic! Until next time!



John