Brock Lesnar vs. Hong-Man Choi

[DixieDestroyer]

Fyi, interesting article on former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar preparing for his upcoming MMA fight versus K-1 kickboxer Hong-Man Choi (7'2, 360) on June 2nd. This is going to be an interesting fight because Choi is a giant & has devastating knees & Lesnar is a physical specimen(ran a 4.68 40 yard dash in his tryout for the Vikings, NCAA Champion wrestler with freakish power/explosiveness). Brock's been training striking & BJJ preparing for an MMA career. I might have to catch in on PPV (K-1...Softbank presents DYNAMITE! USA in association with ProEl), and I'll be pulling for Brock "The Next Big Thing" to tear Hong's head off!

Brock Lesnar Speaks On MMA, WWE, Angle, More

411Wrestling

Brock speaks out...

Between The Ropes
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team
Simulcast online at BetweenTheRopes.com

On Wednesday night, May 2, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar joined hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci live on Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team to discuss the preparation for his MMA debut against Hong-Man Choi on June 2 nd, the transition from wrestling to MMA, his time in WWE, and much more.

The discussion started out with Brock being asked about the transition from professional wrestling to mixed martial arts. Brock said that he enjoyed "getting back to competing again. I was an amateur wrestler for 18 years, then I got out of it, but it's always been in my blood. Now, I'm training like an amateur wrester again, along with implementing my stand up, striking, and jujitsu. It has been really exciting because when I was done with amateur wrestling I was kind of worn out with it. Now it's refreshing while I learn the mixed martial arts game. It has really allowed me to make the adjustment."

Next, Brock was asked if he had any troubles transitioning from the competition of amateur wrestling into professional wrestling where he had to put on more of a show. Brock replied that "as a professional wrestler I used a lot of my amateur wrestling background and mentality. I approached every match as though I was going to go out there and compete. For me now it's definitely the real thing...it feels like I'm competing again, so I'm really at home with it."

Regarding his training Brock said "cardio is the key factor in any sport. If your gas tank isn't on full then you're not able to compete, you're unable to do any technique. Cardio is my primary focus." Brock said he has also been working on submissions and sparring while he trains 6 days a week and that as the fight draws near he has been working more on specific game plans and techniques.

Asked about the commonly held belief that wrestlers don't like being on their back in MMA Brock said "I think that it's some myth that some jujitsu guy made up after some wrester choked him out...I know he won't win by pinning me so I'm totally comfortable being on my back."

Brock then talked about what he was doing to prepare for his opponent, Hong-Man Choi, who is a seven footer and has a significant size advantage in the fight. "The guy is taller, so I've got to move my hands higher, the advantage is that he has a big-ass head which makes for a nice target...We've got to watch out for his reach, I just don't want to be at the end of his punches...If I can get inside and take this thing to the ground I think he's really going to be in trouble."

Brock also discussed how he felt fortunate to have been a professional wrester over the past few years, which allowed him to be entering into MMA at this point in time. After he got out of college "there weren't too many options for me. I could have gone to the Olympics or tried football right away, but nobody had the benjamins on the table like professional wrestling offered me. I was tired of starving, I wanted to provide from my family and make a living...Now I feel very fortunate that I was able to go through that and to be a part of this now."

Asked to describe his WWE tenure Brock emphasized that he did enjoy his time there but that it was time for him to try something else. "I made a lot of money there and it fit me for that time, but now I'm at a different stage in my life where I'm very content with what I'm doing."

Brock said that he hoping to make a big impact in his debut fight. After the fight he will then look to spend some quality time with his family while seeing what else happens in regards to an MMA contract.

Brock also claimed that he didn't feel any pressure heading into this fight. "I look at it as a win-win situation. I'm able to do what I want, to be a part of the MMA world and come out and fight. You can put any kind of pressure you want on yourself , but my main focus is just to get in the ring and perform."

Asked how he is preparing for his seven foot opponent Brock said "I tried to go down and talk to some of the guys from the Timberwolves, but none of them wanted to come and train. KG (Kevin Garnett) didn't want no part of it." He also said that while he has had trouble finding seven footers he is training with people taller than him, raised his mitt levels, and has moved his punch locations higher. He also said that he had been fortunate and avoided major injuries during training.

On the topic of whether a Kurt Angle v. Brock Lesnar shoot fight would ever happen in MMA Brock said that he "would be all for it, but as far as anything happening I really doubt it. It's all up to Kurt, if it did happen...it would be great." Brock also said that "Kurt's a great guy. He's given his heart, soul, body, and mind to professional wrestling and it takes a toll, definitely." Brock also recounted traveling with Kurt and shooting with each other "all the time" on the road and doing amateur wrestling to get their cardio together. "I really enjoyed my time training with Kurt."

The interview wrapped up with Brock talking about his debut show June 2nd at the LA Coliseum. He also confirmed that Royce Gracie will be on the show.

To listen to the Brock Lesnar interview, including who he's training with, the story behind his negotiations with WWE last year, his favorite submissions, as well as the entire May 2 edition of Between The Ropes in streaming audio, visit the show online at http://www.BetweenTheRopes.com. Join us for Between The Ropes for two hours every Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team and worldwide on BetweenTheRopes.com. Edited by: DixieDestroyer

 

[guest301]

I have always liked Brock Lesnar from the time he spent in the WWE. He has always had a tremendous physique but that doesn't always translate well to the MMA. Fedor isn't exactly a physical freak of nature but he gets the job done. I hope he does well in this fight and would love to see him in the UFC someday if he earns it.

 

[hedgehog]

I dont understand why Kevin Garnet does not want to train with Brock. Think of how many punches he could throw at Brock. After all Garnet likes to punch white athletes in practice all the time (Wally Szerbiak, Rick Rickert and one other I cant recall who.)

 

[Alpha Male]

Maybe they should lift some weights together too. I'm sure Kevin would show him up! Edited by: Alpha Male

 

[dkr77]

I'll disagree with him about wrestler's being comfortable on their back. People like Mark Coleman, Don Fry and Kevin Randleman alway's looked lost on their back. They paid the price for it too.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

Fyi, it looks like Brock will be fighting Min Soo Kim instead of Hong-Man Choi (due to medical reasons). Kim has a 2-5 record with losses to Bob Sapp, Don Frye, Ray Sefo & Semmy Schilt (with a win over former WCW & WWE wrestler Sean O'Haire). Also, here's a good article from Sherdog on Brock...

The MMA Education of Brock Lesnar

May 30, 2007
by Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

Using the antiquated body mass index provided by our good friends in Washington D.C., we can make absolutely certain of one fact: Brock Lesnar (Pictures) is a morbidly obese individual.

Fluctuating between 265-300 pounds, the former collegiate wrestling champion's body mass seems ridiculously disproportionate to his 6' 2" frame, more suited to perpetual rotation at a fast food drive-thru than any athletic endeavor.

That's the story on paper. In reality, Lesnar is a mammoth human being, layered in enough muscle to put Hasbro's sculpting department to shame.

Unlike most men of his dimensions, his physique is functional: as a high school senior, he amassed a 33-0 record on the mat; in 2000, he placed first in the NCAA Wrestling Championships; in four years of college, he lost five bouts and won 106.

He is, in short, a very scary man.

With a reputed mean streak and a deep-sea diver classification in the waters of grappling, Lesnar seemed a good fit for MMA, where hard-nosed wrestlers had dominated. Unfortunately, his graduation in 2000 ran parallel to a poor year for the sport, with limited exposure on television and weak crowds stateside.

Professional wrestling courted Lesnar ... understandably eager to inflate the traditionally empty bank account of collegiate grapplers, he listened.

To the dismay of fight fans, Lesnar became a sentient action figure, competing in faux matches that had more in common with cartoons than professional sports. He traveled the world for three years, playing the Bearded Lady to Vince McMahon's P.T. Barnum, before realizing that he hated it, hated the schedule and hated the theatrics.

And then Lesnar simply quit.

There was the attempt at playing professional football, though no one since Vince Papale had managed to walk off the street and into the league. (Lesnar had never played college ball, making his NFL hopes suspect at best.) There were the lawsuits against WWE, which had hoped to tie up Lesnar in a no-compete clause through 2010. (He eventually extricated himself from the agreement.)

Nearing 30, Lesnar was approaching that valuable window of physical opportunity for a combat artist, where a career that starts at 35 is likely not going to be a career that lasts very long.

So it comes down to Saturday, where, after roughly one year of training, Lesnar will strap on four-ounce gloves and attempt to spike Min Soo Kim (Pictures) -- who, rumor has it, has replaced Hong-Man Choi in the "Dynamite USA!!" main event -- through the mat. No points are given for a pin, and no script is memorized before the party.

And with a win or a loss comes a realization: either we'll witness the beginning of a tyrannical heavyweight legacy, or we'll be shaking our head at yet another alleged tough guy who couldn't hack the peerless rigors of an MMA ring.

Is Lesnar the most credentialed wrestler to compete in the game? Not hardly. Kevin Jackson, Kenny Monday, and Matt Lindland (Pictures) all have Olympic medals in their display cases. Is he the most athletic? Doubtful. Egypt's Karam Ibrahim (Pictures) has more fast-twitch muscle fibers than an African safari.

But what Lesnar does have is the kind of complete physicality that anyone in any athletic pursuit should envy: despite his bulk, he's incredibly quick. (Using a highly complex mathematical formula, we can deduce that "speed + power" = "hospitalization.") And though strikes make greater demands on the cardiovascular system, Lesnar's lungs seem up to the challenge of oxygenating his considerable muscle mass.

There was a time when that was all a wrestler needed to dominate. Mark Coleman (Pictures), a fellow collegiate champion, came into the UFC in 1996 and ran roughshod over his opponents, to the point where you actually began pitying the next one; Kevin Randleman (Pictures) was a multi-time UFC champ because no one could reverse his positional control; and Randy Couture (Pictures) ... well, hell, it's easier to recommend you read his forthcoming autobio for that story.

But because MMA's landscape is under consistent tectonic shift, wrestlers who remain wrestlers are no longer the buzz saws of the genre. Strikers learned how to defend a takedown, and promoters learned that the glorified dry-humping that some grapplers engaged in on the mats were anathema to fans.

If you're a wrestler, you'd better know how to punch. And if you're a puncher, you'd better know how to wrestle. That's the mandate for 2007.

We don't know if Lesnar can punch. We don't know if he can take a punch. (Though that bull neck shouldn't hurt the cause.) We don't know how formidable his ground striking is, and we don't know if he can defend submissions, or apply them.

The training is more than respectable: Lesnar started out spending time with Pat Miletich (Pictures), who is arguably the most effective coach in the game today, the same Miletich who took another farm boy in Matt Hughes (Pictures) and turned him into the most decorated welterweight of all time.

Greg Nelson then settled in as Lesnar's primary coach; his protégé, Sean Sherk (Pictures), became the UFC's lightweight champion.

The pedigree is impressive and indicates that Lesnar understands he's a ball of clay at this point, mostly potential and no real work of art. But how effective Kim is going to be in sculpting him remains to be seen.

Kim presents with a far different approach than what Lesnar had been training for in Choi, a gigantic South Korean kickboxer with a background in modified wrestling. An Olympic silver medal judoka during the 1996 Atlanta Games, Kim will happily engage Lesnar in the clinch.

In the wrestler's favor is the fact that Kim is, to put it mildly, a wet washcloth of an MMA fighter, with a 2-5 record and no significant wins to his credit. Against strikers, he's been knocked out four times. Against reformed pro wrestler Sean O'Haire, he pulled off a submission win. (O'Haire is 1-2 in the sport; Kim's other submission victim, Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Pictures), is 6-16.)

He's bulbous, with the physique of an athlete who enjoys his cheat meal on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. Completely ineffectual on his feet, he doesn't like being in the pocket: against Mighty Mo, he was positively bashful, keeping his distance before kissing canvas.

It's obvious that a fight between Lesnar and the unheralded South Korean won't pack the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but K-1, mindful of financial support from Asian TV networks, needs Kim's ethnicity. And Lesnar, being a debuting MMA athlete, needs to cut his teeth with a pillow fight rather than a gunfight.

But a punch to the face is a punch to the face, and Kim has the benefit of being a ring veteran.

The closest approximation to this bout in terms of experience and style is a 2004 clash between Olympic wrestler Rulon Gardner and judoka Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures). While Yoshida had logged plenty of time in the PRIDE ring, Gardner was making his MMA debut. The rookie battered Yoshida from ring post to ring post, laying heavy hands and imposing his will when it went to the ground. He won a decision.

Lesnar would certainly enjoy a similar outcome; beholden to the erratic and obtuse K-1 for only one bout, an impressive win would leave him open for generous offers from the UFC, Pro Elite, and other suitors. The elephant in the room is undoubtedly Kurt Angle, whose rivalry with Lesnar from their WWE days would make for explosive box office in a reality setting.

"I humbled him," Angle told Real Fighter magazine of their grappling contest behind closed doors. "Everybody knew who the man was."

Imagine that kind of talk from both men for months on end, and you can understand the kind of business a showdown would generate.

Future plans aside, the idea that a decorated wrestler with a desire to compete and the most complete athletic tools of any heavyweight fighter to date should be enough to bait observers into seeing what the "Next Big Thing" can do, regardless of their distaste for his prior vocation.

As for the outcome? Common sense gives the advantage to the bigger, stronger grappler, but that's the appeal of this bout: no one really knows what Lesnar has to offer. And that ignorance breeds a certain kind of suspense among fans, one that recalls the single-discipline ninjas and death-touch practitioners in the early days of the Octagon.

Lesnar may be turn out to be a mediocre mixed martial artist, but he possesses something that no amount of training, diet, or drills can teach: he's a charismatic presence that people will pay to see, an enigma that piques curiosity.

He is, in short, an attraction -- even if the FDA thinks he could drop a few pounds.



***Reference article link/URL...

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=7703

 

[guest301]

Very interesting article, Dixie. I hope Brock wins and he must be serious about MMA to walk away from the millions he could have made in the WWE. It would have been interesting to watch Brock and Bobby Lashely go at it in the WWE.It would be real hard to figure out who was the most athletic between those two guys.

 

[white is right]

He looked dominant against his Korean opponent. Who wasn't a total scrub(he looked like it though). Anybody who won a medal in an Olympic martial arts contest has decent knowledge of MMA techniques, yet Brock toyed with him. Did anybody see Johnny Morton go down? I think the Titanic gave the iceberg a better fight....

 

[JD074]

Excellent performance by Lesnar. Obviously it's just the beginning for him, but so far so good. I can't remember ever seeing someone tap out so quickly due to strikes. A couple of short left hands to the temple did it. Deceptively powerful shots. His takedown was good, and he easily passed his opponent's guard. And I liked how excited Goldberg was after the victory. I get a feeling he was rooting for the former pro wrestler. Here's the video, check it out before it gets pulled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Es2XJCdFcw

Man, Johnnie Morton was brutally KO'd. He was out for a few minutes. Here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no-qv-KdIU4&NR=1

 

[JD074]

And to add insult to injury:

Morton was responsive to the doctors in the ring. He was taken to California Hosptial, where he was reported to be alert. But he was suspended indefinitely by the California State Athletic Commission for refusing to take a post-fight banned substance test.

KTFO, and suspended! Ouch!

[url]http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/6880270?CMP=OTC-K9B140 813162&ATT=209[/url]

 

[White Shogun]

LOL @ the commentator saying 'shades of what Rampage did to Liddell.'

Not even close. Jackson hit Chack with a much harder punch and still didn't KO him. From what I saw in the vid, Morton didn't take that hard a shot, but he was OUT. For MINUTES. I hate to say it, but I kinda like it when guys like Morton or other crossovers get knocked out because they think it's nothing to come into MMA and take over just because they played in the NFL.

Lesnar is simply a beast.

 

[JD074]

I thought the same exact thing, Shogun. So irritating. That was absolutely nothing like Jackson/ Liddell. Chuck suffered a flash knockdown, then was ground and pounded and for a very brief moment seemed incapacitated, but probably could have continued. Morton was KTFO for a long ass time. If he wanted to make a comparison, Cro Cop/ Gonzaga would've been better (except that it was a punch instead of a kick, of course, but the results were much more similar.)Will these dumbass commentators ever learn? Probably not.

 

[nopictures]

I was wondering why he didn't face off against Hong Man ;_;, I wanted to see Brock, who seems to be doing good at pretty much anything he tries, face off against that giant. It would have been a better match, I think.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

nopix, Hong Man had a medical issue of some sort...not sure on the details. I hope Brock becomes a MMA superstar...he has the physical tools, amateur background & is in a good camp in MN (Sean Sherk, "The Goat" Thompson, etc.).

 

[white is right]

nopix, Hong Man had a medical issue of some sort...not sure on the details. I hope Brock becomes a MMA superstar...he has the physical tools, amateur background & is in a good camp in MN (Sean Sherk, "The Goat" Thompson, etc.).

I heard he has an over active pituarity gland. But that makes me wonder if Valuev would have been licensed in California too?

 

[DixieDestroyer]

Fellers, here's another link to the fight. Note how former WCW, WWE Champ & NFL player Bill Goldberg alludes to the strength, power & ferocity of Lesnar. I also heard (super-buff) WWE Superstar Batista say Lesnar would tear his arm off in an arm-wrestling match because Brock is freakishly strong. I think he has the potential to be an MMA superstar folks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k63hOWLBhkY


***P.S. - Here's Dave Batista speaking on the super-human strength of Lesnar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuBl57NQ0pIEdited by: DixieDestroyer

 

[nopictures]

though I was a bit disappointed by him not touching gloves. Oh well, we can see how the media reacts to a white guy who isn't "boring"

 

[PitBull]

He touched gloves before the opening bell. His opponent was so scared of
him he wanted to touch again. He got touched alright!

Its never boring when a white guy kicks ass! You just have to develop the
right mindset, that's all. Welcome to the forum, white brother.

 

[nopictures]

hahah, he did alright, thanks man.

I was really impressed with his first performance though, He did everything right and passed his guard with ease, too bad the other guy didn't have enough heart to go on after that short amount of time though... I just wish he got to face off with the giant korean, that would have been good. Especially if he won in similar dominating fashion.


Edited by: nopictures