Former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar made his debut in the UFC last night at UFC 81. Lesnar went up against former Heavyweight champion Frank Mir. To nobody's surprise, the fight ended in the first round with Lesnar submitting to a kneebar.
As expected, Brock Lesnar was disliked as much as Tim Silvia (maybe more), which was evident by the boos from the fans. What wasn't expected was Lesnar's great performance in the first 30 seconds of the fight. Lesnar came on strong and shot in right away on Mir. On Lesnar's first takedown of Mir, Lesnar unleashed a flurry of punches which initially seemed to overwhelm Frank Mir. Unfortunatley for Lesnar, a couple of strong punches connected with the back of Frank Mir's head which prompted a timeout by Steve Mazzagatti and gave Mir some time to recover. Lesnar got a point deducted however, it was pretty obvious that this fight was not going to go to a decision.
As the fight continued, Lesnar got another seemingly easy takedown. Mir used his jiu-jitsu tools right away and attempted to get into a more dominant position but, Lesnar proved to be a lot stronger than Mir. Lesnar easily got out of Mir's initial traps and stood up, which was Lesnar's fatal mistake. Mir went right for Lesnar's leg and easily got a knee bar on him. Lesnar tapped out before Mir did any major damage and Lesnar had a free lesson on what real MMA is all about.
I left the fight having a little more respect for Brock Lesnar, but even more appreciation for Frank Mir's jiu-jitsu skills.
At age 30, Brock may have a bright future in MMA with the right training. The hype leading up to the Lesnar-Mir fight wasn't all hype, and taking on a former champion for a UFC debut is respectable. The early stoppage of the fight left you wondering, "what if they hadn't have stopped it?".
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