I've been doing a lot of thinking about the upcoming match between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture at UFC 91, and so I have to ask the question: Can Brock Lesnar can beat Randy "The Natural" Couture?Brock Lesnar is a unique opponent. He is relatively inexperienced in MMA, a factor somewhat offset with his huge size, brute strength, and surprising speed. In addition, while we haven't yet seen him take a hard blow to the head in MMA, it is more than likely that Brock has a strong chin given that he took some mighty hard bumps in his WWE pro wrestling days.
While MMA fans tend to poo poo on Brock's pro wrestling experience, it did give him some useful skills for MMA. Not fighting, mind you. But it did get Brock used to being in front of huge crowds, stepping up to perform while injured, and being able to stick to a game plan to achieve a desired outcome
And while Brock didn't necessarily wow anyone with his skills during his victory over Heath Herring at UFC 87, he stayed calm and composed, faithfully stuck to his strategy, and took the victory. He didn't try submissions, he didn't try to knock Heath out except for that first punch, and he stuck to a simply but effective plan of taking Heath down and beating on him.
Randy is a far superior wrestler to Herring, but Randy will be giving up at least 50 pounds to the stronger Brock, who also moves incredibly fast for such a monster. The size/strength difference will also make it tough for Randy to dominate the clinch where he is highly effective.
For Randy to win, he's going to have to play matador with Brock, baiting him into uncomfortable positions to force mistakes. Randy is one hell of a crafty fighter so while it should be tough, if he gets proper positioning on Brock in the clinch, he might be able to drag Brock down and get on top. Brock has never been on the bottom in an MMA match, so he might not be able to handle Randy.
Even though Randy has a hell of a lot more experience than Brock, the match-up is pretty damn compelling. Unless the betting odds were really out of whack, I would be in no hurry to put money on this match.
So to answer the question, yes, Brock Lesnar can beat Randy Couture. But will he? I'm leaning 60/40 towards Brock, but I'm not counting Randy out just yet.
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I think that Randy has a decent chance, I'm leaning 55-45 to Randy. Randy has proven that he can take on the big guys (although Tim Sylvia's lumbering movements are rather statuesque compared to Brock) and that he can hold his own against faster opponents (do I remember correctly him literally spanking Tito?) and I think that he is ready to pull all the stops out to prove he still has what it takes. Either way, it's going to be a great match.
Let’s look at the ways Couture could win this fight.
By submission, which if you look at his fight history he has only won three fights based on wrestling submissions all chokes. Good luck getting his arms around Brocks monster neck.
By decision, if the fight goes this long for it to come to a decision I feel sorry for Couture because his head will be ground beef from the constant pounding of the sledgehammer like fists of Brock. Remember people this is a 45 year old fighting a 5 round championship fight not 3 but 5 rounds.
By strikes, which I think is Couture’s only real way of winning this fight. For this to happen he will have to get some big time luck to knock the young bull out.
I'm not saying The Natural, Captain America doesn't have a chance, but I think the stars will have to align for him to come out the winner. It is the biggest test of his wrestling career. Either way MMA wins. We either get a Champion who truly has beat everyone there is to beat or a Champion who is in the prime of his life that will take MMA to the next level.
As a MMA fan I could not ask for anything better. Thanks Dana
great match up
Interesting comments Shaen. Did you guys see the ESPN E:60 show about Lesnar? Couture said he can put Lesnar on his back. That comment alone got me more pumped up for this fight.
I agree with what you're saying Shaen, but when I watch the two of them fight, I get the feeling that Randy has had the stars align for him many times before, and Brock still just looks a little clumsy or awkward to me. Kind of like Tim Sylvia looked before Randy took him to school. I think Randy's got this.
im a huge fan of randy but i have wrestled brock back in my college days and there is no way captin america can handle brock. the beat can take a hit and will lay it all out on the line. randy cant handle the bruste strength and take the shots from brocks 3xl gloves. love randy but brocks got this.
YES HE CAN! YES HE DID!
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