Brock Lesnar: What a Loss to Junior Dos Santos Means for His Career

Nick CaronApr 20, 2011

Brock Lesnar’s debut in the UFC back in February of 2008 was perhaps the most highly anticipated in the history of mixed martial arts. But now with two losses on his record, Lesnar faces a fighter who may actually be his toughest competition yet, in Junior dos Santos, at UFC 131 later this summer.

But what would a third loss in the Octagon do to the career of the former heavyweight champion?

To answer that question, we need to delve deeper into where Lesnar has been and what could realistically be in his future after two straight losses to top-end talent in the UFC heavyweight division. At that point, we’ll have a better understanding of what a loss to Junior dos Santos would really do to his career.

After a dominating career as a collegiate wrestler at the University of Minnesota, Brock Lesnar took his 106-5 record to the WWE, where he became what was then the company’s youngest world champion in history, at just 25 years old.

Lesnar eventually left the company, citing a lack of desire to continue with the company’s exhausting travel schedule. He later tried out for the Minnesota Vikings NFL football team, but was one of the final cuts in training camp and did not make the final 53-man roster.

Then after a short stint with a Japanese pro wrestling organization, Lesnar made his debut in mixed martial arts as part of K-1’s Dynamite!! USA show, against Min Soo Kim.

Though Kim is a 250-pound kickboxer and Olympic silver medal Judo expert, he was no match for the unbelievably powerful Lesnar, who tossed him to the ground and smashed his face before the referee stopped the fight just over a minute into the contest.

Just a few months later, during UFC 77, it was announced that Brock Lesnar had signed a contract with the world’s largest mixed martial arts organization.

He made his debut for the company at UFC 81, facing former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir. The fight was perhaps the most highly anticipated debut in mixed martial arts history, with Lesnar carrying over a very large fanbase from his days in the WWE.

The UFC is generally very cautious with their newer talent, often giving them fights against opponents who they are expected to completely dominate. This was not the case for Lesnar, who stepped right into the cage with a fighter who could beat just about any fighter on the planet on a given night.

From the opening bell, Lesnar looked amped up and ready to fight. He quickly took Mir to the ground where he began unleashing a furious flurry of punches that looked like they may spell the end of the fight. But the fight was stopped when Lesnar connected with a punch to the back of the head that ended with him being deducted a point and the fight being stood back up.

Much more cautious after the stoppage and point deduction, Lesnar again secured a takedown, but did not appear to be as willing to go wild with his punches. Mir eventually secured a knee bar that will go down as one of the best submissions in the history of the heavyweight division, which forced Lesnar to tap at 1:30 in the first round.

The loss was disappointing to Lesnar, but many fans and the UFC themselves saw tremendous potential in their new star. It was in his next fight that Lesnar earned what many believed to be an undeserved UFC title shot, when he defeated veteran Heath Herring with relative ease.

He proved all doubters wrong, though, when he defeated Randy Couture to become the UFC heavyweight champion in just his fourth professional MMA fight at UFC 91. Needless to say, the entire sport was flipped on its head by the Goliath-like creature who had taken over the heavyweight division.

Lesnar would go on to win a rematch with Frank Mir in one of the most one-sided beatdowns in the history UFC title fights.

All was looking good for the champion as he had already begun to receive accolades as one of the best the sport had ever seen. There didn’t appear to be a man on the planet who could stop him on his warpath.

What we didn’t count on was a battle with Diverticulitis, which nearly took his life and kept him out of of the Octagon for nearly a year after defeating Mir.

He returned at UFC 116 in a fight with then-interim champion Shane Carwin, who brought an undefeated record into the contest. After being rocked early, Lesnar took advantage of Carwin’s lack of conditioning and was able to finish him with ground-and-pound and an arm-triangle choke midway through the second round.

Despite his victory, Lesnar later revealed that he believed he wasn’t yet back at 100 percent following his illness. He was a fighting champion, though, and prepared to defend his championship again just three months later.

It was at UFC 121 that Brock Lesnar truly showed the first sign of real physical vulnerability when he faced his second undefeated fighter in a row, Cain Velasquez. Velasquez rocked Lesnar early and was even able to get back to his feet after being taken down. After he got clipped, Brock never seemed to be able to regain his composure and the referee eventually stopped the fight.

With his title now around another fighter’s waist, Lesnar must begin again on his quest to become the world’s top heavyweight mixed martial artist. The upcoming fight with Junior dos Santos will tell us a lot about what will become of the career of Brock Lesnar.

From what Dana White has said, a win will likely mean a rematch with Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight championship, but a loss could mean something completely different.

Back-to-back losses would all but kill the mystique of the former champion. While he could still be considered a quality heavyweight, his title contention may be all but over.

Given his tremendous drawing power, even after two losses, Brock Lesnar would be in absolutely no danger of being cut. In fact, he could probably lose five fights in a row before he had to even worry about his job.

However, it’s highly unlikely that we would ever get to that point.

There would still be plenty of fights for him under the now stacked Zuffa banner that includes heavyweights like Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, but Lesnar has always said that he doesn’t want to compete near the top—he wants to be at the top.

But even more importantly, he has also made it well known that he has already considered retiring.

According to ESPN the Magazine, Lesnar had likely already made enough money to live very comfortably for the rest of his live. According to the report, he made an estimated $5.3 million in 2010 with prize money and pay-per-view shares.

Without a title fight likely in his near future, and with money not really being much of an issue, there is a very real chance that the 33-year-old Brock Lesnar would strongly consider retirement after a loss to Junior dos Santos at UFC 131.