By: Bill Thompson

Powerful, energetic, exciting, fast, freakish, and highly skilled are all adjectives that can be used to describe Brock Lesnar. All of this was put on display last night in his bout against Frank Mir. From the start people wanted to dismiss the UFC’s signing of Brock as nothing more than a sideshow attraction. Their signing of Brock was certainly nothing more than an attempt to make a few bucks off of a former professional wrestling superstar, correct? Last nights fights should have shown that not to be the case, that Brock Lesnar is all the adjectives described above and that he is a great addition to the UFC’s heavyweight roster. Unfortunately I think somewhere along the line the UFC themselves forgot this fact and as described above decided to try and make a quick buck off of Brock instead of waiting for the long term investment to develop. There is still time to rectify that erroneous assessment, but the real question lies in whether or not the UFC will be smart enough to take advantage of the best heavyweight to possibly ever come down the pipe line or if they will watch him fall to the wayside.

It is important to take in the state of the current heavyweight division roster the world over when discussing Brock’s merits in said division. The past few years have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a cream of the crop in the division consisting of a select few men- Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Outside of those men there are a few talented fighters that one day look like the cream of the crop and then the next look like your average middling fighter. Beyond them there consists a gaggle of mediocre to downright bad fighters, other than the fact that they can lay claim to being trained MMA fighters they don’t bring a thing to the table. Finally you have the prospects, and unlike other divisions where there are so many prospects that one can get lost in them, heavyweight is a division devoid of more than a handful of actual prospects. Antonio Silva, Jake O’ Brien, Brandon Vera, Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar can lay claim to being the only prospects amid a sea of otherwise turgid heavyweights. That is the way the heavyweight division looks today and I am scared of how it will look a few years down the road if those prospects are not brought along like they should be.

A major problem with today’s MMA and its fans is the complete lack of regard for the future of the sport. What will keep MMA afloat are contenders in the future, but the current MMA organization and fan don’t have the time for such contrivances. We live in a “get it now” world, and MMA is no different. Instead of allowing fighters to develop the current system favors taking a fighter and putting him in the spotlight the moment he shows even the tiniest bit of potential. In the lightweight or welterweight division you can get away with this because when one prospect falls there are twenty more waiting in the wings to take his place. In the heavyweight division this is not the case, when one prospect falls there are only four left to take his place. For this reason Brock Lesnar should never have been fighting Frank Mir last night and shouldn’t be fighting anyone that is remotely decent anytime in the future. The future of the heavyweight division depends on that type of thinking.

Brock Lesnar should have shown everyone last night just how dangerous a heavyweight that moves at the speed of a lightweight can be. Now that we know this it is important to allow Brock to further develop his skills and gain experience in MMA. What we saw last night was a green wrestler with power and talent in abundance, but instead of facing a run of the mill heavyweight that would barely test his skills as he gains experience he was squared off against a former UFC heavyweight champion. Fighters like Bo Cantrell exist for a reason and that is to engage in meaningless slugfests and be fodder for prospects like Brock. Once Brock gets done with a few Cantrell’s then it is time to move him onto the likes of Mike Kyle, more skill but still nowhere near a dangerous fighter. After he dispatches of a few them then it is time to bring in a Christian Wellisch or a Semmy Schilt, a specialist in one area so that Brock has to focus his training on negating or avoiding that area. Then after that you have him face a Frank Mir so that you can see if he is actually ready or if more time is needed. That is how you build talent and make sure the heavyweight division is still alive in a few years.

The UFC is a money making machine and Brock Lesnar is a monster that can make them a lot of money. Brock can make them this money right away and then no longer be a factor after his greenness and raw skill causes an early exit after a few losses. Or the UFC can do the right thing and develop Brock so that they have a monster of a fighter and a money making machine of their own for years down the line. Last night’s fight was lucky because Brock did look so powerful and monstrous that it ends up not being a setback of any real sorts. However now is the time for the UFC to realize what they have on their hands and to nurture that talent. If they don’t do this and Brock suffers a few more losses like he did last night then all the potential in the world won’t matter. Brock will be gone, the money will be gone, and the heavyweight division will continue to be the saddest division in the land. Brock Lesnar, Brandon Vera, Jake O’ Brien, Cain Velasquez, and Antonio Silva are the only future of the heavyweight division, now is not the time to waste that future. Allow those fighters to develop so that four years from now I can write an article about Jake O’ Brien versus Brock Lesnar in a titanic match-up for the UFC heavyweight title. I would much rather write about that than Tim Sylvia versus Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira having their fourth rematch because the heavyweight divisions future was flushed down the toilet for a quick buck.

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