Friday, July 2, 2010

Clash Of The Titans

Tomorrow night two of the biggest (literally) heavyweight stars in MMA will face off at UFC 116.  Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin both will weigh in at the limit of 265 pounds but by the time the bell rings both will be significantly bigger.  This fight as the potential to be the biggest PPV draw ever for the UFC and its almost sure to live up to the hype.  The reason being is that these two behemoths are both brawlers by nature and strikers by training.  As much as I enjoy the chess game of a good jiu jitsu fight, that ain't what this is right here folks.  Somebody is getting their block knocked off come tomorrow evening.

For me I actually like both guys well enough.  Carwin is seen more as an up and comer although he probably has more experience and formal training in MMA at this point than Lesnar.  And Lesnar while immensely physically gifted, is somewhat of a dick.  Let me rephrase that, he's a major league asshole.  And while I'm not necessarily always anti-asshole, he did turn me off with his antics initially.

Well although Im still not what you would call a "fan" of Lesnar's, I have a helluva lot of respect for what he has done in his first 5 fights.  The guy is like a force of nature.  So big and quick that it should be against the law.  And he's vicious on top of it.  Many times with MMA or even boxing you find guys with one or the other.  Guys with a lot of killer instinct but a lower level of athletic ability, or a guy who is immensely skill that is perfectly happy with a decision every time rather than a stoppage. (*cough* Mayweather *cough*)  So while I won't be cheering the guy on, I will DEFINITELY be front and center to watch his fights.

Mind you I felt that way BEFORE reading this article.  Now I know that words are just words, but if this guy has really stepped his game up the way its inferred in the article, that's what I would call down right scary.

“I’ve been kinda like a steam locomotive ever since January 5th,” he said. “We threw a little coal in the fire, we got the engines going a little bit, and every week, the locomotive kept building more steam and building more power, and that’s really what this has been. Everything’s coming together, and I’ve said this before – the Brock Lesnar now would annihilate the Brock Lesnar of a year ago. That’s how crazy this is. I had to have a major setback, and it was almost a good thing. We started from scratch in January and really built my strength, my core, and I was able to work on a lot of different things, and I wasn’t under any pressure. I brought different training partners in and got a different look from some different coaches. We got this piece of clay, and we said let’s mold it again.”

Now that’s scary, considering that the first piece of clay won four of his five pro bouts, won the heavyweight title, avenged his only defeat, and basically steamrolled everyone in his path. But Lesnar knows that if you’re not improving, you’re slipping, and while he didn’t completely change his team, he did revamp it in certain areas, with key additions to this camp being UFC Hall of Famer and the man Lesnar beat for the title, Randy Couture, and standout boxing coach Peter Welch.

“I looked around across the board and analyzed my life in general,” said Lesnar, 32. “First of all personally and family wise and then I analyzed my fight situation. How can I get better? How can I evolve? What’s stagnant in my training and what are some different things that I can do? I bumped into Peter in Las Vegas a while ago, (UFC President) Dana (White) introduced me to him and we hit it off, so I brought him out here. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna get, wasn’t sure if our personalities were gonna match, but he came out, it worked out, we got along great, and more importantly, he’s a great teacher. I learned a lot of good stuff from him and I wish I had brought him in sooner. I’m happy with the decision and it’s been great.”

Peter Welch AND Randy Couture?!?!

Man listen, Carwin is a certified BEAST and I take nothing from him. But if Brock is even better on the feet now its gonna get really really ugly. And I mean that in the best sense of the word.

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