Immediately after Alistair Overeem made him shake with a kick to the body that made my ribs hurt, Brock Lesnar retired from UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts after just eight career fights.
While his career was short, it was also impactful.
Love him or hate him, no one in UFC moved the needle as Lesnar did. His presence will be missed, particularly with Georges Sr-Pierre—who is the second-biggest draw in the sport—out for 2012 after knee surgery.
But before we start to look ahead for Lesnar, we wanted to take a look back at some of the best moments in his MMA career.
The First One
When Lesnar decided to try his hand at mixed martial arts, no one knew what to expect. He made his debut at the K-1 Dynamite show on June 2, 2007, with a dominant victory over Min-Soo Kim.
It wasn’t the most memorable fight ever, but it did launch Lesnar into the stratosphere, and he was able to catch the eyes of Dana White and the UFC to become the next face of the heavyweight division.
Frank Mir, Part One
Even though Lesnar had only eight fights in his career, he did have a fun and captivating rivalry with Frank Mir that started in 2008 and lasted through the summer of 2009.
Their first match was one of the most exciting 90-second fights that you will ever see.
Lesnar came out like a house of fire and even had Mir beat.
But he left his leg open, and Mir, being the savvy veteran he is, was able to make Lesnar submit with a leg lock.
Still, this was the fight that let the world know that, with more experience, Lesnar could be a force in the UFC.
The Champion
MMA purists were furious when Lesnar was given a shot at Randy Couture and the UFC heavyweight championship after just two fights and a 1-1 record, but Lesnar’s fights were doing such great business that any opportunity the company could find to put him in a high-profile match was going to be taken.
The heavyweight division was in desperate need of a makeover in 2008. Couture was great, but he was 45 years old.
Someone else had to step up.
Lesnar was given the shot, and took full advantage of it, with a second-round TKO.
Revenge
After Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight title, it made sense that Frank Mir would be the first challenger, since he did hold a submission victory over the former.
But things would be different when the two men locked horns at UFC 100.
Lesnar’s style had improved by leaps and bounds from the first time they fought, and on this night, he would leave no doubt about who the better man was.
It helped that Lesnar delivered one of the greatest heel promos ever after it was over.
The Comeback
Lesnar did not have a lot of time to celebrate being the undisputed champion because he was stricken with diverticulitis, which would end up taking away one year of his career, from July 11, 2009, to July 3, 2010.
He made his triumphant return against Shane Carwin at UFC 116 in one of the most memorable fights of the year.
Carwin destroyed Lesnar in the first round, but because he exhausted so much energy and couldn’t finish it, there was no way for him to win this fight.
Lesnar came back in the second round and picked Carwin apart.
The finish came when he locked in an arm-triangle choke to get the submission. It was the most emotional victory of Lesnar’s career.
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