Brock Lesnar Salvages Career with Vital Victory Over Frank Mir

UFC 100, Brock sent a message to the whole MMA world and also all “old school” MMA fans by beating Frank Mir on Saturday. In the process, Brock managed to salvage his MMA career which was on the brink of potential collapse. Had Brock lost to Frank, his career would likely be jeopardy.

Why? How would the UFC market a Lesnar vs. Mir 3 after Mir beat Brock twice? Seriously, though it may not be readily apparent given Brock’s enormous success, Brock was in serious peril.

Frank? He’ll be back and the UFC could certainly market a Lesnar-Mir rubber match. That’s an entirely different scenario than the one posed in the previous question regarding marketability.

So how did Brock’s victory “trample old school MMA” fan’s? Well, the fact that he won, and the way that he won, basically force fan’s to question the validity of fighters such as Sakuraba, Randleman, Cotoure, Fujita, Coleman, and yes, even Fedor. This WWE wrestler basically walked into MMA, took it over, then flipped everyone off.

So that’s how the UFC seems to be leaning these days. The addition of Kimbo Slice to Season 10 of TUF is a perfect example of this. Having Brock Lesnar as Heavyweight Champion—playing the Heel, as they say, is another. Now more people will tune into his next fight, just to see him get hammered. They will be disappointed, however, because the UFC will not allow Brock to face any serious competition for at least another year.

As reported by Alex Marvez on Fox Sports, the UFC will likely have Lesnar face the winner of Cotoure vs. Nogueira at UFC 102. This means that he will probably not fight again 'til next year. It also means that legitimate contenders for the heavyweight belt will be left on hold beating each other up while they wait for a crack at Lesnar.

Who are the fighters that could face Lesnar? There are several, but as Marvez also states, “Only hard core fans could pick them out of a police lineup.” These would include Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, even Cro-Cop, and yes, eventually perhaps Gonzaga. No, the earliest Lesnar could possibly face one of those men would be in late 2011 or 2012.

Perhaps by then Affliction will have gone under and Dana will finally be able to get his hands on Fedor’s contract. Fan’s should not expect to see Lesnar vs. Emelianenko for at least two years, however. Still, one could say there is light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and eventually the UFC will have a champion fan’s can be proud of.

Whether it be one year, two, or three, knowledgeable fan’s and fighter’s from around the world would likely agree that the marketing for such a fight would be huge. They would agree that it would be hyped as the greatest MMA fight of all time.

They would also likely agree that the fight will not last 90 seconds, and Fedor’s hand will be high in the air at the end.