Brock Lensar's next fight is against.....

Vince135792003 · 24-05-2008 12:50PM #1

HEATH HERRING TO FACE BROCK LESNAR AT UFC 87
Saturday, May 24, 2008 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com

MMAWeekly.com has confirmed that Heath Herring has agreed to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 on Aug. 9 when the Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its debut in Minneapolis, Minn.

Lesnar was originally slated to face UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in the main event of UFC 87. Coleman, however, suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in training, which will sideline him for at least six weeks. He was forced to withdraw from the bout with Lesnar due to the injury.

Herring has been on a roller coaster ride since his UFC debut in January of 2007. The former Pride heavyweight title contender has gone 2-2 in the Octagon, most recently defeating Cheick Kongo at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio.

Lesnar had a less than stellar Octagon debut, losing to former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir via kneebar at UFC 81 in Las Vegas earlier this year.

With the withdrawal of Coleman, the UFC acted swiftly, signing a new main event bout with welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, fresh off winning the title at UFC 82, making the first defense of his second reign as champion when he faces No. 1 contender Jon Fitch.

Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian will also square off at UFC 87. The bout, according to the promotion’s president, Dana White, will likely decide the next contender to the UFC lightweight title being contested on Saturday night at UFC 84 between current champion B.J. Penn and former champion Sean Sherk.

Pretty dam good replacement.

bombidol · 24-05-2008 12:52PM

Less than stellar? Brock murdered him. If it wasnt for the ref bringing them to their feet Mir was dead in the water.

chopperbyrne · 24-05-2008 01:13PM

This fight just got a lot more interesting. I wouldn't be as confident that Brock will beat Herring.

gimmick · 24-05-2008 01:15PM

If and but all you wish, he still lost in about 90 seconds. Thats the hard fact.

Herring will be no pushover. Lose this one and his UFC career could well be finito.

fatal · 24-05-2008 01:27PM

gimmick wrote: »

If and but all you wish, he still lost in about 90 seconds. Thats the hard fact.

Herring will be no pushover. Lose this one and his UFC career could well be finito.

+1

FX Meister · 24-05-2008 01:42PM

Boring!!!

Fozzy · 24-05-2008 05:58PM

gimmick wrote: »

If and but all you wish, he still lost in about 90 seconds. Thats the hard fact.

Herring will be no pushover. Lose this one and his UFC career could well be finito.

Not if it's an exciting fight and if people will still pay to see him. The UFC would rather have exciting losers than boring winners

I don't know if Herring is a wrestling fan, but he's got that sort of approach to his fights I think. He knows that it's about the entertainment, although he didn't succeed with that in his last fight versus Kongo. I think the buildup to this will be good

slicus ricus · 25-05-2008 03:49PM

The Texas Crazyhorse is gonna destroy Lesnar! He's always been a good fighter but recently he has improved his conditioning and become more focused. I watched his last fight against Cheik Konga and he looked very impressive.

I think this will be a far tougher fight for Lesnar than the original Coleman fight. Herring is 13 years younger than Coleman and unlike Coleman, he has been an active fighter during the last 2 years.

merlinsmerryman · 25-05-2008 09:02PM

slicus ricus wrote: »

I think this will be a far tougher fight for Lesnar than the original Coleman fight. Herring is 13 years younger than Coleman and unlike Coleman, he has been an active fighter during the last 2 years.

And he has been in some wars. If it wasnt for his own insistance on letting Nogueira stand up in their lost fight he would have won it.

slicus ricus · 26-05-2008 10:36AM

merlinsmerryman wrote: »

And he has been in some wars. If it wasnt for his own insistance on letting Nogueira stand up in their lost fight he would have won it.

Yeah, that was pure madness! His attitude towards training and fighting has changed since then tho, so i doubt you'll ever see him give a fighter that type of luxury again!

I really don't think Lesnar stands a chance in this one!

Vince135792003 · 26-05-2008 10:57AM

slicus ricus wrote: »

I really don't think Lesnar stands a chance in this one!

It's hard to know. His last 2 fights combined have lasted about 3 minutes.

da ax murderer · 28-05-2008 04:14PM

frank mir and now heath herring, maybe dana white just likes to punish pro wrestlers

ShawnRaven · 28-05-2008 04:50PM

da ax murderer wrote: »

frank mir and now heath herring, maybe dana white just likes to punish pro wrestlers

To be fair, Lesnar gave Mir a run for his money, his only mistake was that he didn't know how to defend himself properly. Mir took a few nasty shots from Lesnar in that fight. That's been a few months now, which would have given Brock plenty of time to work on his defence. So his match against Herring will be interesting to say the least.

I'll be tuning in, that's for sure.
VR!

da ax murderer · 28-05-2008 09:52PM

i agree im a lesnar fan too but he should get a few easier opponents to start off his ufc career

chopperbyrne · 28-05-2008 10:19PM

I would love if Heyman came out to the octagon before the fight and introduced "The Next Big Thing" Brock Lesnar!!!!

ShawnRaven · 28-05-2008 10:25PM

da ax murderer wrote: »

i agree im a lesnar fan too but he should get a few easier opponents to start off his ufc career

MMA doesn't really work that way though, you get thrown a few fighters that suffered a few losses, they're almost considered easier opponents as they're mentally weak from their losses (for the want of a better term). Mir was in that category at the time the match was signed.

Personally i didn't expect Lesnar to win that fight, however expected him to lose a lot worse than he did, i laughed the first time i saw the match, but i watched it again last week and it really wasn't as bad as i'd remembered it. Lesnar isn't in the MMA game that long either by comparison, and that has to also be taken into consideration.

VR!

Mossy Monk · 29-05-2008 06:46AM

da ax murderer wrote: »

i agree im a lesnar fan too but he should get a few easier opponents to start off his ufc career

I disagree. Why give him easier opponents?

slicus ricus · 31-05-2008 11:17AM

Mossy Monk wrote: »

I disagree. Why give him easier opponents?

In boxing for example, fighters are normally given easier opponents (normally journey-men who are past their prime) to start off so they can develop their skills and learn the game under competitive conditions. That way, they can make the rookie errors against guys who aren't likely to punish them to the extent that they'll lose the fight. It also helps build a fighter's reputation and make them a better draw - kinda like how a new wwe wrestler would be introduced and developed.

There's an argument to be made for allowing Lesnar to learn the MMA game by fighting easier opponents and then taking on the more skilled guys when he knows what he's doing in there. Against Mir, while he did very well, he made a basic error that an experienced fighter wouldn't make. Fair enough, that fight drew money because it was Lesnar's debut. However, if they don't set Lesnar up right, UFC are gonna miss out on the potential of making tonnes of money out of him. If he loses too many fights, people's interest in him will dwindle and it could well reach a point where he won't be worth the investment any more.

Vince135792003 · 31-05-2008 11:37AM

That strategy has its weakness too though.

Look at a boxer like Audley Harrison. They molly coddled him for like 3 years, in the hope it would gradually build him up as both a draw and a boxer. If anything, the opposite happened.

And then he lost to a nobody and it killed his career.

So maybe there's something to be said for how UFC is handling it.

slicus ricus · 31-05-2008 11:49AM

Vince135792003 wrote: »

That strategy has its weakness too though.

Look at a boxer like Audley Harrison. They molly coddled him for like 3 years, in the hope it would gradually build him up as both a draw and a boxer. If anything, the opposite happened.

And then he lost to a nobody and it killed his career.

So maybe there's something to be said for how UFC is handling it.

Harrison was never cut out to be a top class fighter in the first place though! You could see that in his early fights when he was having boring 6 round point victories against complete no-hopers!

Look at Ricky Hatton (or any top class boxer for that matter) as an example. Hatton fought easy opponents to begin with and if anything, Frank Warren gave him too many unbalanced fights. Now look at the amount of money a card with Hatton heading the bill draws!

My point is that UFC could build themselves a massive drawing card in Lesnar if they developed him correctly.

Vince135792003 · 31-05-2008 12:00PM

slicus ricus wrote: »

Harrison was never cut out to be a top class fighter in the first place though!

Easy to say that now. But let's run with it, whose to say Lesnar is cut out to be a top class fighter either? With 3 minutes of in ring action, the jury is still out.

My basic point though is that their are different strategies you can go about it. UFC's strategy with Lesnar seems to be:

Put him in there with known guys. If he wins great. If he loses, it's annoying but at least he lost to a top guy rather than a nobody who they can now do something with (e.g. Mir getting a shot at Heavy weight title).

The strategy you talked about works better if Lesnar delivers. However if you put him in there with say a Christian Wellish and he loses, no good comes out of it. Lesnar loses to a nobody and you can't do anything with the nobody after it either.

slicus ricus · 31-05-2008 12:17PM

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Easy to say that now. But let's run with it, whose to say Lesnar is cut out to be a top class fighter either? With 3 minutes of in ring action, the jury is still out.

Very true, its tough to judge a fighter on 3 mins. The only difference as I see it is that Lesnar has a world class background in one of the 3 major disciplines in mixed martial arts: That being Amateur Wrestling. Harrison was a defensive Superheavyweight boxer who won olympic gold at the age of 28 and turned pro a year later - people were writting him off left right and centre and all were proved right in the end.

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Put him in there with known guys. If he wins great. If he loses, it's annoying but at least he lost to a top guy rather than a nobody who they can now do something with (e.g. Mir getting a shot at Heavy weight title).

Please tell me you're not saying Frank Mir is a nobody! The guy is a former heavyweight campion who came back from a career threatening motorbike accident. Before that accident, he was the top dog in the division by streets!

Vince135792003 wrote: »

The strategy you talked about works better if Lesnar delivers. However if you put him in there with say a Christian Wellish and he loses, no good comes out of it. Lesnar loses to a nobody and you can't do anything with the nobody after it either.

I agree with you on that. If they did put him in with a Wellish and he lost, he'd be finished. Much like Cro Cop when he lost to Gonzaga and Congo who were both seen as lesser fighters. Just to put Herring's ability into perspective here - Herring destroyed Congo when they fought in January!

Vince135792003 · 31-05-2008 12:20PM

slicus ricus wrote: »

Please tell me you're not saying Frank Mir is a nobody!

My point was the exact opposite. To sum it up again, if Lesnar was to lose to someone like him, at least he's losing to a credible guy who they can then do something with e.g. Mir is getting a title shot later on in the year.

slicus ricus · 31-05-2008 12:27PM

Vince135792003 wrote: »

My point was the exact opposite. To sum it up again, if Lesnar was to lose to someone like him, at least he's losing to a credible guy who they can then do something with e.g. Mir is getting a title shot later on in the year.

Ah right, I get ya now. Thats a good point as well. I'd say if Herring beats Lesnar (which i think he will), there's a good possibility he'll be in line for a title shot.

Vince135792003 · 31-05-2008 12:29PM

Yeah I mean it's a tough 1 to judge how to handle Lesnar. The next fight he has will tell us alot I think.

slicus ricus · 31-05-2008 12:38PM

I just hope the fight lasts a few rounds so we can see more of Lesnar's ability and have an idea about what sort of fighter he is.

ShawnRaven · 31-05-2008 07:51PM

slicus ricus wrote: »

I just hope the fight lasts a few rounds so we can see more of Lesnar's ability and have an idea about what sort of fighter he is.

I do and i don't. I hate it when fights go to judges decision.
VR!

nacho libre · 01-06-2008 02:13PM

Vince135792003 wrote: »

That strategy has its weakness too though.

Look at a boxer like Audley Harrison. They molly coddled him for like 3 years, in the hope it would gradually build him up as both a draw and a boxer. If anything, the opposite happened.

And then he lost to a nobody and it killed his career.

.

Yet Harrison looks likely to get a shot at the WBC Heavyweight title held by Sam Peter:pac:

Vince135792003 · 01-06-2008 02:42PM

nacho libre wrote: »

Yet Harrison looks likely to get a shot at the WBC Heavyweight title held by Sam Peter:pac:

I guess it may not have killed his career then!

Brock Lensar's next fight is against.....

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