Brock Lesnar Looking for Striking Partners? Brock Meets Up with Vitor Belfort

Yesterday, Around the Octagon reported that Brock Lesnar stopped by Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and met with Vitor Belfort.

Belfort is known to many right now as the man who will try to dethrone middleweight champion Anderson Silva this Saturday at UFC 126 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay.

Not much of a surprise here in and of itself. Brock Lesnar is in Las Vegas for the filming of the upcoming season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, and Brock has worked with Randy Couture in the past. Vitor Belfort trains at Xtreme Couture, so he and Brock crossed paths while Brock was visiting.

Nobody has reported what exactly went on between Brock and Vitor except that they met, but one could speculate that this may be the beginning of an alliance that could benefit both men, particularly Brock Lesnar.

It comes as no surprise that, after Brock's win over Shane Carwin at UFC 116 in July and his loss to current champion Cain Velasquez, Brock needs to work on his striking. Brock particularly needs to improve his defense and reaction to punches. What better man than Vitor Belfort to help the big man shore up his shortcomings in the stand-up game?

Vitor Belfort is a veteran of the sport. Thirteen of his 19 victories came by way of knockout and he is known for having some of the best boxing and most explosive hands in the sport. In fact, Belfort has fought and won a fight in professional boxing, and he has expressed desire to continue boxing over his career. Most recently Vitor has called out heavyweight boxer and one-time MMA contestant James Toney.

If Vitor is up for it, Brock Lesnar would be wise to spend some time with the veteran. Vitor could maybe even pick up a little bit on the wrestling side of the sport from Brock. If one looks at five of Vitor's eight losses, they have come to guys with strong wrestling bases, guys like Dan Henderson, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture (twice) and Kazushi Sakuraba. Working with a strong wrestler like Brock might add something new to Vitor's game.

Obviously the upside of a training alliance between Vitor and Lesnar heavily favors Lesnar's development in comparison to Vitor's, but the two could mutually help one another nonetheless.

The ingredients are there: Lesnar has a contact with Randy Couture, the owner of Xtreme Couture, Vitor trains at Xtreme Couture and the two have recently met. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this meeting, and if so, what kind of improvement we could see in Brock's stand-up.

Leon Horne has been contributing to Bleacher Report for two years now. He focuses mainly on mixed martial arts, but he has also written about tennis, football and hockey. Just send him a message if you want to talk sports or discuss any opportunities. You can follow him on Twitter for updates: