According to the original mixed martial arts master, Bruce Lee, a fighter who drills exclusively to a set pattern of combat is losing his freedom of choice.
He then becomes a slave to one pattern or style, and it becomes a self-defeating learned behavior.
Understandably, this translates into an extremely repetitive form of fighting and can easily be interpreted and then countered by an opponent.
The fighter, however, after having successful fights early in his career when using this style, becomes convinced that this pattern is the real thing.
Unfortunately, he sticks with it.
Master Lee stated in his 1971 videotaped interview with Canadian Pierre Burton that these bad habits—in regard to self defense—eventually lead to stagnation.
This, Lee said, is due to factual evidence that suggests the way of combat is never based on personal choice and fancies but instead will constantly change from moment to moment.
Lee further stated that this disappointed combatant may soon find out that his "choice routine" lacks pliability; by then, however, it may be too late.
The legendary MMA master also says there must be a "being" instead of a "doing" in combat training. One must be free.
Instead of complexity of form, there should be simplicity of expression.
Lee, of course, was right on the mark.
What's highly remarkable is that someone from his era, a time when studying video tapes of other fighters was unheard of, was—at the time—essentially predicting the future.
Today's technology allows a fighter's training team to study the lazy and predictable bad habits of his future foe; all this is part of a master plan to determine which is the best counter-attack to use against him.
Therefore, it wouldn't be incorrect to state that "well-rounded" was a term first coined and explained in detail to the world by Lee during that famous interview.
Brock Lesnar is listed as being 6'3" and fights at a solid 265 pounds; the former collegiate and pro wrestling star who hails from Webster, South Dakota, made his grand entrance into the world of MMA in June of '07, at the Japanese promotion known as K-1.
Lesnar's opponent that night was Asian fighter Min Soo Kim, and the behemoth Lesnar won the match by grounding and pounding his opponent into a TKO submission.
In February of '08, Lesnar made his "big show stage debut" at UFC 81 against former heavyweight champion Frank Mir; there, once again, Lesnar attempted and succeeded in taking his foe to the ground and hammering him into defeat.
The fight was then stopped, and Lesnar was deducted a point for a foul strike to the back of Mir's head.
It was a controversial incident, but it proved to be just the break that Mir needed.
When the fight resumed, Mir was then immediately taken to the mat once again by the sheer size and brute force of Lesnar.
This time, however, just as master Lee had mentioned in his interview, Mir used the bigger man's size and strength against him.
Mir, while spinning on his back, grabbed the first appendage he saw, which happened to be Lesnar's tree-trunk-sized leg.
The truly great Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt then proceeded with arguably one of the greatest knee-bar submissions ever witnessed in the sport.
Unfortunately for Lesnar, he had fallen into a set pattern, form, or style which can be clearly predicted and overcome with the right preparation obtained through rigorous training.
The next event for Lesnar, at the UFC 91 event, featured two accomplished collegiate wrestlers who took different paths but ended up meeting at very same summit.
Lesnar was once a four-time All-American and 2000 NCAA champion with a wrestling record of 106-5—impressive indeed.
His opponent on this night would be Randy "The Natural" Couture, who was a three-time All-American, with two second-place finishes in the finals, and a three-time Olympic team alternate.
This decorated wrestler would pose a problem for the big Lesnar when clinching along the ropes.
This set pattern or technique that previously had allowed him to control Mir wasn't quite working as well against Couture, who had trained long and hard to prevent the predicted throwdown-type style of Lesnar.
Thus, the size and strength factor was eliminated to an extent; even though one would think that Couture would be at a serious wrestling disadvantage, he clearly wasn't.
Yet, when the two decorated wrestlers were forced to stand and trade, "The Natural" Couture's chin was unfortunately proven to be the chink in his armor.
His head snapped backward against a thrust from Lesnar's powerful right hand.
Couture's legs turned to rubber after receiving a message from his brain suggesting some sort of electrical power failure.
He lay wounded near the center of the octagon.
Lesnar then proceeded to jump on the fallen Couture, eventually raining down what commentator Joe Rogan described as "hammer-fists from hell."
My final thought is this: Lesnar can be beat again, and the easiest way to accomplish that is just the way Mir did it—by submission.
Big Brock quite possibly lacks the confidence in his stand-up necessary to stay on his feet and trade punches.
He used his striking against Couture only after failing to get the takedown; it was born more out of desperation than anything else.
Lesnar's M.O., in my opinion, will not stray far from the norm. Old habits are hard to break, as was proven in the rematch against Mir.
Lesnar's next opponent will be Shane Carwin at UFC 106 in November.
If I were advising Carwin, I would say "You have great stand-up knockout power; however, so does Lesnar. I seriously doubt he will want to gamble with that sort of game plan, however, as it would be far too new and foreign for him."
I'd probably say "Go hire the best heavyweight submission specialist that money can buy—possibly even Frank Mir. He would possibly love to help you defeat Lesnar."
Lesnar's old pattern is stagnating rapidly. Another loss is coming soon.
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