Filed under: Strikeforce
Two months shy of his 34th birthday, Brock Lesnar is forced to step away from mixed martial arts again. Since August 2009, he’s fought twice, had two bouts of diverticulitis and withdrawn from three scheduled matches, statistics he wishes he could erase from history. Though he once called himself the “baddest S.O.B.” on the planet, there might be more fear for Lesnar now than fear of him.
On Thursday, he announced that he would not be able to fight Junior dos Santos next month due to another diverticulitis flare-up, but at least he managed to put a confident bend on an otherwise disappointing scenario.
“I tell you one thing: I’m not retiring,” he said. “This isn’t the end of Brock Lesnar. It’s a speed bump in the road.”
He may be right. We should hope he is. When Lesnar is fighting, MMA seems to get a little more of the sports spotlight, a little more respect. But right now, his return timetable is a big question mark, largely because of the question marks facing his own care. Lesnar admitted that he is forced with the decision to either have surgery or simply deal with it the rest of his life. The former is no small procedure, involving invasive surgery and recovery time. The latter, as we have seen, can result in recurrences that take him out of action. Either way, there is no easy solution. Because of that, it is only human to wonder if Lesnar’s best athletic days are behind him.