UFC 140 Fight Card: Nik Lentz Suffers Huge Setback in UD Loss to Mark Bocek

Nik Lentz entered his UFC 140 bout with Mark Bocek as the clear favorite, but Lentz was mauled throughout the match and unable to mount any sort of offense as Bocek pulled the upset in his hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Lentz entered the match undefeated as a UFC fighter and with an overall record of 21-3 with two draws and one no contest, but Bocek clearly had the right strategy to win the fight. Lentz was grounded for almost the entire match and unable to lock in any submission holds.

Bocek was successful in wearing down Lentz with a series of ground punches. Although they're essentially the same size in actuality, Bocek simply seemed to be the bigger and stronger fighter as he continually frustrated Lentz.

While Bocek certainly isn't an easy fighter to go up against, especially on his home turf, he is the type of opponent that Lentz has to beat in order to become a legitimate contender. Instead, Lentz took a major step back in losing his first UFC bout.

This isn't to say that Lentz's career is over or anything of that nature, but now he has to go to great lengths in order to rebuild his reputation. The secret is also out now with regards to how to beat Lentz; he struggles against fighters who employ ground-and-pound tactics.

Had Lentz won the fight, there certainly would have been a decent opportunity for him to move up to some higher-profile fights. Instead, he is likely stuck where he is at the moment, and that is low on the card. Luckily for Lentz he is still quite young at 27 years of age, but Bocek was a very beatable opponent.

Lentz essentially has to restart from square one now, however, so the loss was a big blow to his development. Perhaps the loss will be a good learning experience for him in the long run, but Lentz needs to go back to the drawing board after an uninspiring unanimous-decision loss.