The Blueprint To Beat Brock Lesnar

 So how do you beat Brock Lesnar?

“Styles make fights” is one of the longest lasting clichés in the fight game, and it’s endured because of a very good reason: It happens to be true as well as self-evident.

Since very few fighters take the time to add new dimensions to their game, they become susceptible to certain stylistic match ups. 

Georges St. Pierre is one of the few guys who breaks that mold, but generally speaking, we witness the takeover of habitual patterns.

Next up we have Mr. Personality, Cain Velasquez facing Brock. We'll get to that a bit later. Back to beating Brock.

We have to first ask the question: What style would beat Brock Lesnar?
 
He is a 270 pound beast.  A freak of nature athlete with superb wrestling skill, he is a load to deal with for anyone in MMA. There is an ideal style that would beat Brock repeatedly if Brock continues to fight within the same patterns..

The ideal style to beat Brock Lesnar would have to resemble something to Mirko “Cro cop” Filipovic in his prime.

Perhaps, an even better example would be to say, a 250-pound version of Chuck Liddell in his prime.

For reference fights, an MMA fan can watch “Cro-Cop” vs. Marc Coleman during their Pride days. Coleman, a celebrated wrestler, has his eyes on taking Cropcop down to the mat and pounding on him.  After all, Coleman, had been and is the godfather of the “Ground n’ Pound.”

Coleman expectedly shoots in for a takedown. Crocop stuffs it. Coleman is relentless in trying to take Mirko down and tries  another about five or six times, and in the process, blows his wad doing so.

After that 5th or 6th attempt, Coleman has lost the explosiveness to shoot in aggressively. His energy level has diminished and so has his ability to shoot in for a takedown.

His future takedown attempts are telegraphed and slow. Mirko Crocop who had stuffed Coleman’s full-power takedown attempts, has little trouble stopping these haphazard ones.

Coleman is forced to a striking match. At this point, it's target practice. Crocop
picks apart Coleman as though he were practicing on a heavybag at the gym.  

It's only a matter of time before he knocks out Coleman. Game over.

Crocop of 2005 matched against the Lesnar of 2010 would have been a fantastic event.

• The Quintessential stylistic example – Chuck Liddell

 
  For case studies, you can watch the following fights:

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell vs. Randy Couture Part 2, 3,
Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz,       Part 1, 2.
Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell vs. Renato Sobral  part 1, 2

In all six of the aforementioned fights, seasoned grapplers, Wrestlers and BJJ guys alike, failed to take chuck down. 

When that happened, it was only a matter of time: Worse than the Redshirts on the old Star Trek, they were all going down. 

15 Seconds: That’s the most amazing stat in Chuck’s career. When he was taken down, that’s how long he spent on the ground before he somehow escaped and got back up.

In fact, if the Iceman ever decides to open MMA Studios, he ought to consider calling them, “15 Seconds or Less .”  (With an honorable mention to me.)

That's how you beat Lesnar. Chuck has already provided the blueprint for everyone. At this point of his game, Brock’s striking skills are rather poor. You don't want to grapple with him, and you definitely don't want him on top of you

You don’t grapple with a grappling master just as you don’t trade blows with a kickboxing master. You don’t stand in front of someone like Anderson Silva. Doing so only makes him appear to be something out of the Matrix where he is “Neo” and you’re one of the second rate agents he is running around.  (No, you don’t even get to be agent Smith.)   

Taking him down to the ground doesn’t guarantee a win, but trying to trade punches as Forrest Griffin did, does guarantee a loss and better night’s sleep than an overdose on Ambien.

 Force Brock to trade punches, kicks, and knees and you can pick him apart.  Of  course, defending his takedowns are much easier said than done.  Unless chuck can somehow magically transfer his ability through some "Vulcan mind-meld", the next fighter is in trouble.  (And yes, for those of you keeping track, I worked TWO Star Trek references into an MMA post.  Very proud of this.)

Which brings me back to Cain Velasquez.  He is next up for Brock, and the anti-Brock fans are excited to see if Cain can put Mr. Lesnar out of commission.

The problem is Cain has two chances of beating Brock Lesnar: Slim and None.

 Cain is primarily a wrestler who is going against a better, heavier, physically stronger wrestler.   Yes, we all know he knocked out Big Nog, but it remains to be seen if that were legit or a fluke.
 
Unless Cain has trick up his sleeve, he is going down quickly.  Maybe Lesnar can ground and pound some personality into him. 

You never know.  

  Out of the current heavy weight class,  Junior Dos Santos has the best chance of beating Lesnar.  Dos Santos sports exemplary striking in the heavy weight class.  Thought I don't know if he can emulate exemplary takedown defense or escapes ala “Cro Cop” or Chuck Liddell, he can definitely reproduce their success formula through his striking.

 The other intriguing match up, of course, is fedor.  Fedor is crafty with catlike agility on the ground.  He can pull an arm-bar out of his rear end at any given moment and his stand-up is better than Brock's too.  Since that fight will seemingly never happen, let's not even get excited talking about it.

  Dos Santos, Fedor, Carwin (in a rematch) have the best chances to beat Brock.  Shane came awfully close and given a second chance he may do it.  Of course, Brock may surprise us all with vast improvements in his Striking ability.

  Frank Mir, Velasquez, Randy Couture, Nogeira, and the rest of the heavy weight class's opportunity of window may have already been shut down.

Chuck the Iceman gave us the blueprint.  Who's going to execute it?