UFC 141 is set to feature the biggest main event in UFC history, literally.Brock Lesnar and Strikeforce acquisition Alistair Overeem are paired up to headline the upcoming event on December 30 live from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Lesnar is ret…
UFC 141 is set to feature the biggest main event in UFC history, literally.
Brock Lesnar and Strikeforce acquisition Alistair Overeem are paired up to headline the upcoming event on December 30 live from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Lesnar is returning after a second bout with diverticulitis, which prevented him from competing for the UFC heavyweight title. Lesnar might carry little experience in his career, but he has made an immediate impact on the heavyweight division, capturing the UFC heavyweight title in only his fourth professional bout.
Overeem is one of the UFC’s major signings after acquiring the Dutch heavyweight from Strikeforce earlier this year. The former Strikeforce heavyweight champion is one of the most experienced fighters in the sport, having competed in multiple organizations throughout the world.
The official trailer was released earlier this week, featuring a face-off between the two massive heavyweights.
The winner is expected to challenge newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos next year.
The next No. 1 contender will be decided in the UFC 141 main event when gargantuan heavyweights Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem go toe to toe.The official promo video for the highly anticipated bout was recently uploaded to Lesnar’s YouTube page.Sinc…
The next No. 1 contender will be decided in the UFC 141 main event when gargantuan heavyweights Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem go toe to toe.
The official promo video for the highly anticipated bout was recently uploaded to Lesnar’s YouTube page.
Since returning to the heavyweight division, Overeem has been on a tear. He is currently on a 10-fight win streak, and his résumé includes a Strikeforce heavyweight title, Dream Interim heavyweight title and K-1 World Grand Prix title.
It has often been debated whether or not Overeem is the best heavyweight in the world. MMA fans will finally get the answer to that question as “The Reem” enters the mix with world class opposition including UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos and former champion Cain Velasquez.
Before Overeem gets a crack at another world title, he’ll have to find a way to get past a monumental test in Lesnar, who should make things interesting with his explosive takedowns, strong top control and underrated cardio.
It’s been over a year since Lesnar last competed inside the UFC octagon. After losing his UFC heavyweight title to Velasquez at UFC 121, the former WWE superstar suffered a second case of diverticulitis, which forced him to undergo a major surgery.
There were concerns about Lesnar’s future in the sport, but after months of hard work and rehabilitation, he is once again competing on the big stage against one of the most fierce heavyweight contenders in the world.
Can Lesnar bounce back from a career-threatening illness and prove the Overeem hype as merely a façade, or Will Overeem continue his path of destruction in winning every major world title in combat sports?
UFC 141 is set to take place on December 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The card also features a heavyweight tilt between MMA legends Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and a light heavyweight battle between Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
The year’s most anticipated bout couldn’t come at a later date, but the year-long wait will be well worth it when former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem takes on former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.In a recent Yaho…
The year’s most anticipated bout couldn’t come at a later date, but the year-long wait will be well worth it when former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem takes on former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.
In a recent Yahoo! Sports blog, the heavyweight kickboxing specialist let fans know he is training in Holland in preparation for his UFC debut, and for reasons outside of fighting.
“I don’t want to go too deep into personal matters, but what happened was my mother is recovering from cancer and needs my support,” Overeem wrote. “She needs me in Holland over the next couple of weeks and I came back for her.”
The 31-year-old is regarded as one of the top five heavyweights in the world, and his 10-fight win streak has led him to a No. 1 contender’s bout in the world’s leading MMA organization. The winner will face reigning UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos, who recently knocked out Cain Velasquez in November for the title.
Overeem’s victories include those over Fabricio Werdum, Vitor Belfort, Sergei Kharitonov and Brett Rogers. Outside of MMA, he is also a former K-1 kickboxing champion.
Lesnar hasn’t fought since losing his title to Velasquez over a year ago.
“I have no problem saying that I think I can match power with Brock Lesnar,” Overeem wrote. “In fact the UFC poster for our fight has Brock and me side by side with our measurements and I am the bigger man.”
“There are some fighters who I think are born great, guys like Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones,” he continued. “I was born a very good fighter, but I have to work very hard to get to ‘great’ and that’s why I have made so many sacrifices already to win the UFC title.”
UFC 141 will be available on pay-per-view, Friday, Dec. 30.
As if the barrage of fight announcements last week wasn’t enough to keep every MMA fan busy in the coming months, even more fights have been revealed for upcoming cards.The biggest reveal of the week came in regards to the UFC’s next event on network t…
As if the barrage of fight announcements last week wasn’t enough to keep every MMA fan busy in the coming months, even more fights have been revealed for upcoming cards.
The biggest reveal of the week came in regards to the UFC’s next event on network television. Headlining the Jan. 28 in Chicago will be light heavyweight contenders “Suga” Rashad Evans and Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis.
In some disheartening news, former cast member of The Ultimate Fighter season one, Chris Leben, was suspended for an entire year by the UFC following a positive drug test at UFC 138 in November.
Finally, the promotion announced that an event will be coming to Fuel TV in February and will be headlined by a welterweight collision between red-hot Jake Ellenberger and TUF winner Diego Sanchez.
Rob Tatum is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. You can also find Rob’s work at TheMMACorner.com. For anything related to MMA, you can follow Rob on Twitter @RobTatumMMA.
Brock Lesnar is one of the best athletes to ever grace the UFC heavyweight division, and the former champion will reclaim his glory in 2012. Lesnar has had a couple of bad defeats to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez, but he’s a winner and will be able to l…
Brock Lesnar is one of the best athletes to ever grace the UFC heavyweight division, and the former champion will reclaim his glory in 2012. Lesnar has had a couple of bad defeats to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez, but he’s a winner and will be able to learn from his mistakes.
Lesnar’s slated to face Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in Las Vegas on December 30th. It will be a huge fight, as both fighters bring an interesting dynamic to the fight.
I think it will ultimately be the superior wrestling of Lesnar that will come out on top. Overeem is an elite striker, but I doubt he will be able to stop takedowns forever.
In the past, striking has been something that Brock Lesnar has had trouble dealing with. He got caught by Velasquez in his last fight and by Carwin in their fight. Boxing has been a weakness for Brock, but I believe that he’ll get to a point where his standup game is feared.
If he’s able to get past Overem, Lesnar will most likely face Junior Dos Santos for the title, barring any injury.
Once again, I believe that Lesnar will just be too good of a wrestler for the champion to be able to stop him. He should be able to ground-and-pound his way to victory.
Lesnar is a natural athlete and a born winner. Some guys just have that X-factor that puts them on another level from other athletes. Brock Lesnar has it.
At one point he was the best college heavyweight wrestlers in the entire country, and won the national championship to prove it.
Brock has been winning his whole life and is not about to stop now. He’s been working tirelessly to get back the gold that he once lost.
Brock Lesnar will be the UFC heavyweight champion in 2012. Watch for him to start tearing through opponents the way that everybody knows he has the potential to.
December 30th will mark the return of the most polarizing fighter in UFC history, as Brock Lesnar will make his way back inside the Octagon. The UFC will likely pull out all the stops to market this event, which features its most marketable star fighti…
December 30th will mark the return of the most polarizing fighter in UFC history, as Brock Lesnar will make his way back inside the Octagon.
The UFC will likely pull out all the stops to market this event, which features its most marketable star fighting for the first time since October of 2010.
Lesnar’s opponent at UFC 141 is former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem, a fantastic fighter and a huge test for Lesnar in his first fight in over a year, but Overeem has never fought inside the Octagon and is an unknown amongst casual fans.
The bulk of the promotion for the fight is going to fall on Lesnar, and rightfully so, but is that what’s good for the sport or the organization?
The fact is that Dana White and the UFC depend on a former professional wrestler with a 5-2 career record to give them monster PPV buys and be the face of the sport.
Look, I get it, Lesnar had a ton of hype and brought a lot of fans over from the WWE when he made the crossover to MMA, and it would have been stupid for the UFC not to try and cash in on his popularity.
But the fact remains that Lesnar is just 4-2 inside the UFC and while he has fought some of the toughest competition in the sport, he still has a long way to go before he is considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.
Ask a random fan on the street who the best MMA fighter in the world is and the odds are you’ll get one of two names: Brock Lesnar or Kimbo Slice.
This has to make most fans sick to their stomach.
As long as Lesnar remains in the UFC, he will continue to steal the spotlight and the headlines from far more deserving fighters. This isn’t his fault and is a little unfortunate for Lesnar, but his popularity is undeserved from an MMA standpoint and it will only hurt the sport if he decides to stick around.
ESPN loves to cover Lesnar’s fights, the mainstream media gets excited the week of every one of his bouts and people who know nothing about the sport are all of the sudden hearing more about MMA in just seven days than they have all year.
It’s not a good thing if the poster boy for the sport has a record that barely reaches .500 and is about as friendly as a rabid pit bull.
MMA deserves a better ambassador for the sport, and while it’s obvious that Lesnar wants nothing to do with that role, he’s stuck with it and until he walks away, the UFC will be stuck in the same position that they currently are: a niche sport.
For those of us that want to see the sport continue to grow and eventually break into the mainstream, one of the biggest steps towards that is becoming more and more clear.
UFC 141 is set to feature the biggest main event in UFC history, literally.