Thursday, May 29, 2008

UFC 87 Brock Lesnar?

This is from mmasplatter.com. But come on people. He has had a couple of fights. Should he really be getting this much attention?

Brock Lesnar is back on the fight card for UFC 87 ‘Seek and Destroy” . He will face Heath Herring in the event, scheduled for August 9th at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN. Lesnar was originally scheduled to headline the event, which is being held in his home state but those plans were scrapped when his opponent, UFC and all around MMA veteran, Mark Coleman was forced out of the event due to a knee injury. The main bout was then replaced with a Welterweight Title bout between current champion Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch. A co-main event was confirmed with a lightweight contender match between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta, who is another home-state hero.

The fact that Lesnar is on the card makes sense. He doesn’t come cheap to the organization and with the fight taking place on home turf, his fan appeal is heightened even more than usual. The fight with Herring is likely a more dangerous one than the original Coleman match. Coleman has not fought in 18 months since a loss to the elusive MMA super-hero, Fedor Emelianenko. Herring on the other hand, is coming off a tough split decision victory against Cheick Kongo. Herring is a talented and dangerous, if inconsistent fighter that is a veteran in the sport at 30 years old.

As for Lesnar, he certainly is taking tough fights for a guy getting his feet wet in the big leagues. Debuting against former UFC Heavyweight Champ Frank Mir and then after dropping the fight amid some level of controversy, taking a follow-up match against Heath Herring? Lesnar is certainly not running from anyone.

With a transition from the world of professional wrestling, Lesnar and the UFC certainly appear to be intentionally avoiding the type of critical spotlight that has followed Kimbo Slice in his transition from YouTube to PPV. As for this fight, I really have no preference for a winner but will be interested to see if Lesnar can pull out a win or even threaten a seasoned fighter such as Herring. In my opinion, this is truly a much improved match for Brock Lesnar and a better barometer for the world to measure his skill development.

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