Lesnar had surgery on his intestine (colon) -- Reem kicked him in the liver. It was was a perfect shot -- the delayed reaction (crumpling to the ground) is a classic reaction to a liver shot.
The sport can grow as much as it wants to and I don't deny that it will continue to do so but Nobody will EVER be as big of a draw as Brock Lesnar. I guarantee that. Jon Jones or anybody else won't ever come close. #1) Lesnar attracted all the fans from the WWF. There's a **** ton of people who followed/follow that. #2) Lesnar was a heavyweight #3) Very charismatic and marketable Lesnar will always be the king of UFC PPV's. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...will-replace-brock-lesnar-as-the-new-ppv-king http://weheartmma.com/post/944730795/top-5-biggest-draws-for-the-ufc
Well if it continues to grow then that likely means that someone will outdraw Brock. The main reason Brock was the top draw is because people knew who he was before hand. Thus making it intriguing to see if he could actually compete in the UFC. When people see guys like Jones,I bet a superfight between Silva and GSP would draw bigger than a Brock fight. Brock was a known name getting into MMA just like James Toney. MMA is still young so not everyone actually knows it's best fighters.
Brock is no different than Kimbo Slice -- the UFC will do just fine with Lesnar. If Carwin hadn't gassed out - Lesnar would have lost 3 fights in a row by brutal beat down -- I think that Mir would beat him in a rematch. The guy is the UFC's version of Bob Sapp -- nothing more.
One thing i'm curious about is - will Overeem pass his drug tests? I like him, but there is no way he's not taking something. When they were showing promo highlights leading up to the fight they showed a bunch of Reem at 205. I just don't think you can put on the kind of muscle he has without some help.
the gain in weight was not all of a sudden and you can see the progression of Overeem to Ubereem going from 225 (pre-cut LHW) to 250ish not that large of a gain considering he was still growing
Yeah, it's possible... but he has gotten so much better since he became a HW. And his new mass is pure muscle -- zero fat... (see Manny Paq).
Also, was it not just a little odd that he had 'no idea' he would have to take random drug tests? Then Reem has to suddenly fly out of the country to Holland the day a random test is ordered? Yes, he mom was sick, but it is fuel for the fire.
I'm not saying Brock is a great fighter but he was huge before coming into the UFC. Kimbo was basically a bum off the street working security for p*rn companies and his claim to fame was shoddy backyard fight videos where he's fighting other nobodies. Not even a real comparison. The sport is not that young and there have been huge draws, legends with whole countries backing them that still can't touch Brock's numbers. GSP has all of Canada and fans elsewhere and he never came close. Anderson Silva, Shogun, Big Nog, Wandy etc are all legends in Brazil and Japan and have hardcore MMA followers and fans in the USA and they never came close to being the draw Brock was. Chuck Lidell was the UFC poster boy during his run and he's a legend and probably the all time post popular fighter in the US and he didn't come close even when he was paired with other big names such as Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture. I'm no Brock fan but I find it hard to believe someone will be a bigger draw than him. He had the perfect combination of things going for him. The fame from WWF, physical specimen, heavyweight, the look, charisma etc. I'd like to see a bigger draw than him but it's not gonna happen anytime soon. He was like the Mike Tyson of boxing not in terms of skill set but in terms of the Name and draw.
I watched a lot of overeems fights when he was with k1. Him and bad boy badr hari were my 2 favorites. Brock fought scared and I laughed at the announcer saying expect a freight train. He had no defense and his wrestling skills are overrated since I saw him fight Cain.
It is possible. I think he's non-fighting weight was 220lbs when he was at 205lbs. So all he had to add was 40 lbs to get to 260ish. It's possible to add 40lbs in a year and a half or two without doing steroids. I know this personally for sure. (I'm sure not everyone can do so, maybe genetics or other factors come into play but Overeem may just have the right genes to pack on the weight needed to move up to heavyweight).
I get most of your points but I can't agree with the Brock-Charisma point. He barely has any! Marketablity wise, that's a bit pointless since that's not Brock's cup of tea. He's not big on the external stuff and marketing wise I don't think he endorsed a ton of stuff. He's not exactly Rampage Jackson-Charisma or marketablity wise.
Actually, it isn't possible unless you were emaciated to begin with and Overeem was far from that. 40lbs (of muscle) in a year and a half is difficult even with steroids.
Compared to other sports it's pretty new. It being televised and becoming a spectator sport, that's new for it relative to other sports. Chuck was fighting in a different era pretty much, as was Tito and the rest of those guys. UFC didn't have as many eyes on it then and at the time it just wasn't as big as it is now. I'm not doubting Brock's drawing power. All I'm saying is that if the sport continues to grow as it has been there will be another guy. If not then the sport itself will stop growing. It needs superstars(just like every sport) and if Brock is the epitome of what a MMA superstar is and can become than the sport has stopped growing already. Think about it, as big as Brock was/is he still wasn't this mega superstar on the likes of say Lebron James or Peyton Manning. Different sports sure but that's what I'm saying. If the sport is going to continue to grow than there will be other superstars to help it do that. Right now the only guy that has a chance is Jones. He's still like 24 I think, has a great personality and is a exciting fighter.
I beg to differ. I've seen it done in a span of two years and steroids weren't involved. (Not saying Overeem couldn't have taken 'roids but it's equally plausible that he could have put on the 40lbs of muscle without the help of 'roids.)
