The UFC continues to outdo themselves.
Fresh of the heels of announcing that a Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos heavyweight title fight would headline their first fight card on FOX, Dana White & Co. stunned everyone with a fight that fans may anticipate even more then the aforementioned title fight.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem is a fight that fans have been drooling over for some time now, but it was simply filed under “fantasy fight” as most held out little hope of Overeem ever signing with the UFC. But fantasy is now reality and we even have a date and location: December 30 and Las Vegas.
Dana White also said that the Lesnar-Overeem winner would be a front runner to take on the Velasquez-dos Santos winner, setting up a mini Heavyweight Grand Prix of sorts akin to when the booked Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir vs. Antonio Nogueira back in 2009. Lesnar ended up beating Couture and Mir beat Nogueira to set up the Lesnar-Mir title fight at UFC 100.
There have been some BIG heavyweight fights in UFC history, but Lesnar vs. Overeem and Velasquez vs. dos Santos is the biggest thing to hit to heavyweight scene since…ever.
It begs the question: Which fight is bigger…which fight is more important to the UFC?
Declaring which fight is bigger is almost as impossible as picking a winner in the respective fights:
You have a heavyweight title fight headlining the first ever UFC fight card on FOX squaring off against the second career return of Brock Lesnar, a man who has generated more PPV buys then any other fighter in UFC history and he just happens to be taking on the mythical figure that is Alistair Overeem in his UFC debut.
Which is more important?
How can you argue against the heavyweight headliner on national television? It could single handily move the needle on the sport becoming more mainstream, embraced by sports fans who usually only follow mainstream sports. It could be a game-changer.
How can you argue against the man that took the sport into the stratosphere? Brock Lesnar is a game-changer in and of himself. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir at UFC 100 was the 2.0 version of Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz at UFC 66. The ripple effect of his return could be seismic, unless he loses and retires?
In the short run, it is likely that fans will anticipate the Lesnar vs. Overeem more so then Velasquez vs. JDS but there is no question which fight is bigger and more important and that is the one that people wont have to pay to see.