Brock Lesnar was given a UFC title shot with a 2-1 MMA record. Would fans riot if something like that happened again?

It would be extremey refreshing if the UFC started giving 25 year old HWs their shot so people can stop pretend bigger guys enter their athletic prime after 30.
 
Yeah i mean if Roman Reigns went to the UFC and had a couple of good wins he'd get a shot straight away too
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Who would you have given the shot to?

This was when the rankings after Brock won the belt.

1. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (Interim Champion)
2. Brock Lesnar (Champion)
3. Randy Couture
4. Gabriel Gonzaga
5. Frank Mir
6. Shane Carwin
7. Cain Velasquez
8. Junior De Los Santos
9. Cheick Kongo
10. Heath Herring

You gotta note that Nog then fought Mir, Mir won and fought Brock and got destroyed.

Cain was 2-0 in UFC but didn't have much name value and his biggest win was Jake O'Brien.

I think JDS made his debut a month before Brock's title fight.

At the time Brock beat Herring, Herring himself was coming off a win over Kongo.

There wasn't really an obvious choice, Brock with the money fight makes sense.
This is exactly the kind of context people need to revisit if they are going to make comments on stuff that happened 10+ years ago. It's easy to say "2-1 Lesnar", but the UFC clearly put up money for the guy, wasn't going to give him a slow route.

Pretty funny because Randy's inactivity after defending against Gonzaga was a giant pain for the division and it felt like an eternity. Yet we had 2 HW fights the year prior and he fought Lesnar the year afterwards. Now those 3 fights would be a heaven send to get the HW champ to fight 2x in 2026 and once in 2027.

Sylvia was "out for awhile" when he fought 4x in 2006, then took until March 2007. It's wild how perception has changed in MMA. It was such a fast moving sport. Shame we have so many divisions stalled with 1 fight a year, 2 if we're lucky.
 
In hindsight, he won it and even defended it a couple of times, so it worked out.

However, I can't imagine fans not going crazy today if someone who was such an MMA novice was given a title shot based only on name recognition from outside MMA.
Imma hafta disagree. Going by Sherdog, seems fans are MORE than ever into freak fights, exciting fights, challenging for extra belts and whatnot. I wouldn’t be surprised if a top kickboxer gets a UFC title shot in the next two years. Fans would salivate.
 
In hindsight, he won it and even defended it a couple of times, so it worked out.

However, I can't imagine fans not going crazy today if someone who was such an MMA novice was given a title shot based only on name recognition from outside MMA.
In HW, no one would care. Rightfully so.

I'd say give him someone like Tybura to style on, then someone like Volkov or Gane to show that he's legit.
 
Herring fight was rigged.
Heath took a dive. That backwards somersault was absurd pro wrestling behavior.
Never respected Herring after that.

It was jon jones vs anthony smith.
Anthony got treated like royalty AFTER that performance, got a career in broadcasting, TWO fucking retirements, montages, a song ...
Shit was embarrassing.
Anthony definitely got some backroom monies to curl into a ball against Jones ...
Who couldn't finish him.
Just like lesnar was "soooo dominant" but couldn't finish Heath.

Lesnar had all the makings of rigged career steps. From Mir, to undersized Randy, to Herring all to boost his confidence. Fedor would've ate him alive. Hell Kevin Randleman would've tuned up Lesnar. Lesnar without the roids was hilarious. Turtled. Blamed a stomach issue.

The way people blame Tom's eye these days,
We would be destroying Lesnar's tummy issue from steroid abuse ... Err sorry ...

Gas Station Dick Pills = Deer Meat Diet
 
Was it in a worse place than UFC HW in 2026?
HW overall had good talent it's just the timing of it nobody was available.

Barnett, Fedor, and Arlovksi were all not in the UFC. Werdum who was a fringe top 5 guy had just gotten cut (ended up in Strikeforce as a result). Nog and Mir were tied up with the ultimate fighter show.
 
There was plenty of hate when Brock was given the title shot. If Gable went to the UFC this year and got a title shot after 1 win, I suspect there would be less backlash than Brock received.
 
The way the UFC HW 2026 division is you could put a 0-0 sherdogger in there and it would be fine, at least we haven't officially lost a fight yet. The division is beyond crap and stale.

We most likely would win too, I know I would, no question about it
 
i didn't like it when it happened to Brock. i didn't think he deserved it, but he proved me wrong
 
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