Brock Lesnar: Mass to be Reckoned With

Two weeks after Brock Lesnar's pummeling of Frank Mir for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, mixed martial arts fans are still debating just how good of a fighter, or how average to some, the former professional wrestler is.

As usual with these kind's of debate's, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Beating a fighter like Frank Mir is not easy, and doing it as easily as Lesnar did warrants recognition from even his harshest critics. Lesnar is probably not going to execute many beautiful knockouts with his striking while on his feet, but his clubbing shots do pack enough power to knock a fighter to the mat. This gives Lesnar the little time he needs to pounce on top of his opponent.

This is when the serious trouble comes for any fighter taking on Lesnar.

Once Lesnar is on top and has control, he can use his size and mass advantage to smother a fighter, no matter how skilled on the ground. The kind of strength advantage that Brock has, is a lot to overcome. Lesnar probably outweighed Frank Mir, who is a big heavyweight, by 40lbs when they stepped in the octagon.

Once on the ground, Lesnar can also end it quickly with devastating ground and pound. Lesnar is the first fighter who is going to put a legit argument out there for a super-heavyweight division.

Unlike a medical mess like Hong Man Choi, or a Mr. Olympia muscle man such as Bobby Lashley, Lesnar's a fighter who's size looks natural and comfortable with his massive frame, has long arms, and despite the size, he doesn't lack speed.

Now the match the fight world wants to see is Lesnar against pound-for-pound great Fedor Emelianenko.

Most Fedor fan's have no doubts that their hero will dispatch the big man without much trouble, but in reality it's not going to be that easy, far from it. Honestly, Brock has a very good chance to beat Fedor.

Why? Because he's better?

No, he's not better, but he will carry a 50 lb advantage in muscle and he's not just a big fighter at this point.

It's a fact that Fedor is a much more talented fighter than Lesnar, I don't think anyone, even Lesnar, would argue that.

Lesnar is much larger, he's a strong wrestler, and he knows how to use his advantages. To land his strikes, I think Fedor will have to come inside and risk a potential tie-up or clinch where Lesnar's strength can force anyone to the ground.

If Lesnar somehow ended up on top of Fedor, you're kidding yourself if you don't believe he would be in serious danger. The positive for Fedor is he is deceptively fast, maybe the fastest heavyweight in the world, but still it's going to be tough for any fighter to keep Lesnar off of them if the fight goes the distance.

The heavyweight gap between divisions of 60 pounds triples that of the light-heavyweight gap between divisions, and when you have a fighter like Brock who has to cut weight to actually make the 265 limit, you have the chance for some major mismatches in size.

A perfect example of this is when Lesnar fought Randy Couture. With a giant mismatch in size like that, I can’t help but feel things are a bit unfair while watching fights unfold.

This can’t be blamed on Lesnar, he is merely taking advantage of a favorable situation. It's hard to blame the UFC either because up to this point there has not been another fighter like Lesnar around.

If Brock and Fedor are to get it on and Lesnar overwhelms and beats Fedor in the way he did Mir, there will be talks of "if Fedor cant, who can possibly beat this guy?" 

If that did happen it may no longer be who is good enough to beat Lesnar, but who is big enough. If this were to happen the current heavyweight division would need to be cut in half to give the super-skilled fighters who cant make the 205 lb weightclass like Fedor a weight class.

When you think about that, even Frank Mir could possibly make a 235lb limit if he were to cut weight.

For now though, everything is speculation because the biggest fight in the sport has not happened and possibly the best fighter in the world does not fight for the #1 fight organization.

With the collapse of Affliction, now is the time that these things need to happen.