Randy Couture Breaks Down Lesnar-Velasquez Fight at UFC 121

Filed under: UFCLOS ANGELES – When it comes to assessing a fight between Brock Lesnar and a smaller heavyweight with college wrestling credentials, Randy Couture may be uniquely qualified. He’s been there himself, even if it didn’t turn out how he’d ho…

Filed under:

Randy Couture celebrates his win at UFC 118.LOS ANGELES – When it comes to assessing a fight between Brock Lesnar and a smaller heavyweight with college wrestling credentials, Randy Couture may be uniquely qualified. He’s been there himself, even if it didn’t turn out how he’d hoped.

That’s why it’s interesting that when he looks at the match-up between Lesnar and Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 on Saturday, he sees a challenger with a very good chance at victory, despite the significant size disparity.

“Cain’s definitely going to give Brock a go,” Couture said Tuesday at the EA Sports MMA launch, adding that the fight was a difficult one to predict.

“It’s an interesting match-up. Both guys have great wrestling backgrounds, and I know from my own experience that my toughest fights were against guys with good wrestling backgrounds. If [Velasquez] can stay away and not end up underneath Brock early, not take any serious damage there, the longer it goes the better it is for Cain. He’s one of those guys at that weight class who has an unlimited gas tank. He’s not going to get tired.”

What-Took-You-So-Long Alert: Lesnar Finally Gets Culturally Insensitive on Velasquez

("UFC Countdown." VidProps: Megavideo.com)
At long last, here is the Brock Lesnar we all know and love/loathe. After weeks of playing it almost unimaginably cool about the fact he’s about to defend his UFC heavyweight title against a 2…

("UFC Countdown." VidProps: Megavideo.com)

At long last, here is the Brock Lesnar we all know and love/loathe. After weeks of playing it almost unimaginably cool about the fact he’s about to defend his UFC heavyweight title against a 240-pound Mexican(-American), Lesnar finally let the thin veil of cultural sensitivity fall away during last night’s “UFC Countdown” show. It takes approximately one minute, 13 seconds into the above vid for Lesnar to publicly debut the semi-racist jokes about Cain Velasquez that he’s no doubt been trying out for weeks behind closed doors at the DeathClutch Gym. The results are actually kind of comforting. At least now we have confirmation that this dude with the beard really is Brock Lesnar, and not just some politically correct imposter.

"Listen,” quips Lesnar here. “When I get done whooping your ass, I’m gonna go drink a Corona and eat a burrito just for your Hispanic heritage. How about that?"

read more

Brock Lesnar: Cain Velasquez Not the Guy to Take Title Away From Me

Filed under: UFC, NewsWhen Brock Lesnar steps into the cage on Saturday night for his UFC 121 title defense against Cain Velasquez, he has the chance to do something historic.

The UFC heavyweight championship is the belt with the longest lineage, fir…

Filed under: ,

When Brock Lesnar steps into the cage on Saturday night for his UFC 121 title defense against Cain Velasquez, he has the chance to do something historic.

The UFC heavyweight championship is the belt with the longest lineage, first awarded in February 1997. But since then, no one has managed to defend it successfully more than twice. If Lesnar beats Velasquez, he would become the first to defend the crown three times.

According to Lesnar, bank on it.

Report: At Some Point Brock Lesnar Thought it Would be Smart to Learn the ‘Fundamentals of Punching’

(“What you don’t seem to understand, *Pat*, is that our reliance on Lockean liberalism is precisely what’s allowed America to live under this guise of exceptionality that leads us to deny our own history in the name of social order. L…


(“What you don’t seem to understand, *Pat*, is that our reliance on Lockean liberalism is precisely what’s allowed America to live under this guise of exceptionality that leads us to deny our own history in the name of social order. Look, go read some Louis Hartz and then we’ll talk.” PicProps: @DCBrockLesnar)

Those of you who’ve been keeping up with “UFC Primetime” have likely already noticed two things: 1) Visiting sparring partner Pat Barry is far and away the most engaging and interesting (read: smartest) personality inside Brock Lesnar’s DeathClutch gym. 2) Yeah, it’s a little weird for Barry to be training with Lesnar leading up to his UFC 121 clash with Cain Velasquez. Somehow I just don’t see those two guys having compatible personalities. Nonetheless, Barry’s status as an invited guest at DeathClutch is another clear indicator that The Dark Lord is making an effort to get his leather together in the striking department. That endeavor, according to a recent article in the Boston Herald, has also included a second straight training camp with noted boxing coach Peter Welch.

“I never learned just the basics in boxing,” Lesnar explains. “I wanted to go get a grassroots boxing coach to get my feet underneath me, to try to combine my wrestling positions and mold into a boxing stance, and just lower myself and learn to punch from my feet to my hands. And so he’s been a huge help — just being able to understand the fundamentals of punching.”

Also, this is yet another situation that underscores how totally awesome it is to be Brock Lesnar. Here’s a guy who was already UFC heavyweight champion by the time he thought to himself, “Hey, you know what? I should learn a little bit of this crazy boxing stuff that everybody else is doing.” Must be nice.

read more

Enigmatic Brock Lesnar Brings Drawing Power, New Lessons to Velasquez Fight

Filed under: UFCWhether it’s about his career or his personal life, everyone wants to know more about Brock Lesnar. The UFC heavyweight champion seemingly pops into our lives once or twice a year, causes a hail of media coverage, then disappears back t…

Filed under:

Whether it’s about his career or his personal life, everyone wants to know more about Brock Lesnar. The UFC heavyweight champion seemingly pops into our lives once or twice a year, causes a hail of media coverage, then disappears back to the solitude of his Minnesota ranch.

While Lesnar has a reputation as gruff — he’s even described himself as “ornery” — he also has a way of slyly, almost innocently, revealing self-reflections that often go unnoticed. In the leadup to his last fight with Shane Carwin, he spoke of his vulnerabilities while going through the sickness that threatened his career. While that was more a physical challenge, Lesnar occasionally touches on the mind games that go along with being a pro athlete.

Yes, even the UFC heavyweight champion questions himself from time to time, as he noted when he spoke about what he learned from the Carwin fight that could help him in his upcoming UFC 121 title defense against Cain Velasquez.

Brock Lesnar Ain’t Got Time for Your Baiting Political Questions, MMA Media

(He might go home and try to get on top of his wife but he will not, we repeat not, get on top of your questions about immigration. PicProps: @DCBrockLesnar)
Since we’re already all so giddy to see these two behemoths get in the cage and crush sk…


(He might go home and try to get on top of his wife but he will not, we repeat not, get on top of your questions about immigration. PicProps: @DCBrockLesnar)

Since we’re already all so giddy to see these two behemoths get in the cage and crush skulls next weekend, it’s been pretty easy to overlook the fact that neither Brock Lesnar nor Cain Velasquez has done a great job selling UFC 121. Truth is they don’t have to, since these titanic heavyweight matchups have a way of promoting themselves. Nonetheless, Velasquez has thus far proved too media savvy and Lesnar too mind-numbingly obstinate to say or do anything interesting leading up to their clash in Anaheim.

Even with two-thirds of “UFC Primetime” already in the books, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a storyline for this bout aside from the run-of-the-mil “unstoppable force vs. immovable object” trope that’s worked so well for promoters for decades. For that reason, we’d like to offer up an earnest golf clap to whichever reporter tried to actually get the fighters to say something interesting during yesterday’s conference call by asking both Lesnar and Velasquez about Arizona’s recent controversial illegal immigration enforcement laws. Brilliant move that might’ve yielded solid gold results. Unfortunately, neither guy really took the bait. 

read more