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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Brock Lesnar's doubters continue to look for reasons, even after Saturday's fight, to disparage him as a fighter. What they're missing is that Saturday he displayed a quality we hadn't seen in him before - the intangible heart and ability to take punishment. His performance Saturday reminded me of Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko, two of the most respected fighters in heavyweight MMA history
Nogueira's entire legend was built upon an ability to withstand inhuman amounts of punishment before earning shocking wins in come-from-behind fashion. His victory over Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 stands out as a great example of this.
Well on his way to losing the fight in February of 2008, as Sylvia battered and bruised him throughout the first two rounds, Nogueira pulled off a guillotine submission victory in the third to become the Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Emelianenko, in his own way, built his legend on his ability to overcome adversity in fight after fight. Eating some tough punches from Brett Rogers against the cage, being put on his back and taking shots from Mark Hunt, getting suplexed onto his head by Kevin Randleman and some would argue getting out struck by Andrei Arlovski, Fedor always found a way to win his fights.
Lesnar's victory on Saturday night was no different. Pressed back to the cage by the hardest punching heavyweight fighter in the game, Carwin knocked Lesnar to the ground. But Lesnar covered up, and he defended.
Referee Josh Rosenthal deserves the praise he has received. There are many referees who would have stopped this fight; they would have been wrong to do so.
Carwin threw tons of strikes, from winging punches to a few vicious forearms and elbows that got through, but Lesnar intelligently defended himself. He kept his arms up, blocking most of the strikes. He even managed to kick Carwin off of him twice during the struggle.
Lesnar was never hurt so badly that he couldn't defend against Carwin's strikes. Getting hit like that wasn't his gameplan, obviously, but getting back to his feet and resting while not getting punched late in the round helped prepare him for what he did in the second round. He even landed a knee late in the round.
Carwin was fatigued. Lesnar taking Carwin to the ground and applying a textbook arm triangle choke showed he had plenty of gas left in his tank. Despite the onslaught of the first round, Lesnar was the fresher fighter. The way he took advantage of his exhausted opponent to apply the submission was no different than Nogueira doing the same to Sylvia just two years ago, but because it's Brock Lesnar - in merely his sixth MMA fight - many fans still don't want to acknowledge his win was as legitimate as some of the greats who preceded him in the division.
As much credit as Lesnar deserves for how he won, and as much as some are underrating what he showed on Saturday night, he still has holes in his game. His striking needs major improvement. He has to learn to avoid taking that kind of punishment, although Carwin may be the only fighter on the horizon with the ability to man-handle Lesnar like that. Lesnar has fought six times. He will get better. He has shown he is getting better every fight. He expressly says he is evolving as a fighter and learning all the time.
He's got an excellent wrestling base, a clearly better ground game than he has been given credit for, and a lot of power in his hands. This much we knew coming in, but he's now added the heart and determination that can put him on par with the best and most revered fighters in the history of the sport.
Those who refuse to see this for what it is are short-changing Lesnar and themselves as fans, because we are witnessing the continuing evolution of what could very well be one of the greatest fighters this sport will ever see. He's still in the early stages and has a long way to go to earn that distinction, but with what Lesnar showed on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, I'm not seeing anyone in the game right now who can defeat him.
Some will continue to discredit his accomplishments at every turn, likely due to an unjustified resentment of his few years performing for WWE. Lesnar, though, is a one-of-a-kind fighter that we're not likely to see again. Now it's time for those fans to realize that we are firmly entrenched in the Brock Lesnar Era. It's time to get on board.
RELATED STORY: PARK: Questions answered as Brock Lesnar submits Shane Carwin at UFC 116: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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