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

it was highly ridiculous, even at the time, and no, hindsight doesn't excuse it. it was the beginning of the slide credibility-wise for the ufc, everything started to slip after that, with the immediate rematches and the conor crap and all the rest.
 
hindsight that brock won doesn't mean much considering it was 9001 year old bloated light heavyweight randy coming off a near year n a half layoff. Any number of guys would have plooked randy that night.
 
Pingu said:
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.
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The ufc doesn't want that, young dominant champs wield to much pull and power.
 
The amount of fans and money that Brock brought to the sport
Especially young WWE fans who would become UFC fans for life

It was such a valuable proposition. There's no way he wasn't gonna get a title shot.

And then the words of Brock "stop whining it's a business"
 
Brock was a freak athlete superstar with fantastic wrestling credentials, I would love if the sport could attract somebody like Brock again.. it needs characters, it needs superstars people can love or be hate not just generic cookie cutters that no one gives a damn about.
 
CasualBot said:
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
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LMFAO @ the insanity of this post. "It was the Jones vs Anthony Smith fight" yup Heath REALLY benefitted after taking that dive I mean wooo that 0-0 record over the next 8 years did wonders for his career 🤣 🤣

Yes it's so plausible that Heath Herring, the guy who got in the best shape of his life the fight before this and was on the verge of a title shot suddenly said "eh... I think I'm done with this whole fighting thing" and decided to get wailed on for 3 rounds when he could have just laid there and let Brock TKO him in the first 30 seconds and then retired into obscurity for 8 years after 🤣

And if they WERE going to rig a fight to make Brock look good, why the HELL wouldn't they have rigged the Mir fight?? You have a former champion who was doing nothing by that point and Brock had him down in 5 seconds and was on the verge of a TKO win... yet they stand him up and have the ref take a point away?? Sure sounds like the fix was in for Brock 😵‍💫

I fully acknowledge and believe that there are fixed fights but of all of the ones to pick from?? Brock grabbing the fence against Randy and winning with an unintentional illegal strike was infinitely sketchier than anything in the Herring fight.

Brock's punch knocked Heath off balance and Heath broke his fall and rolled out to try and create space as I'm sure he was quite shocked at how fast Brock could move as he was swarmed. What is confusing you (among many other things) is that you are thinking that Heath was severely rocked when in reality it was more a "slip" than a knockdown hence his immediate reaction (and awareness) as he is falling. It was NOT fixed.

Yes... Brock did pro wrestling. Yes I understand that MMA fans (probably closeted ex-wrestling fans) irrationally hate pro wrestling.

However, it is ridiculous to try to discredit an athlete of Brock's calibre who had WAY more credentials than 90% of HWs ever just because he got scouted by WWE right out of college at a time when the UFC was nothing.

Was Brock invincible? No. Did he just show up for a paycheque against Reem because he was done taking punishment after nearly dying from his illness? Yes. But that absolutely doesn't discredit the things he did in his short period of time in MMA. GTFO of here with this BS take.
 
Lesnar had crazy star power and was legit fighter . Gabke isnt the star Lednar was but is a better fighter thsn Lesnar.

I got no issue putting Gable vs Pav then he wins throwing him in vs champ.

Gable is not a bum WWE guy hes a legit athletic freak with crazy power and most important he has the cred winning gold at 25 . Unless HW has somethibg else reslly good like Nagnnou returns and Waldo looks great vs beast.
 
Context matters.

He was already an established freak elite college wrestler and he toyed with a top ten Heath Herring with ease.

The "loss" on his record which he violently avenged.... imo does not happen without having to fight Mir and Mazzagatti in a 2v1.

And he did it prior to the full UFC global fucking domination takeover, so a lot of the best guys were still in Strikeforce and Affliction.

If Gable Steveson chose to come to the UFC right now, said he wanted the smoke to jump in the deep end and take on a #3-6 type opponent and smoked them, or went thru let's say Derrick Lewis and Gane.... yeah, sure give him the shot.

But I doubt it happens like that. He has Jonny Bones who has already pledged himself to the Floyd Mayweather church of career management.
 
Brock Lesnar would be a perfect addition to the Trump Administration.

The butthurt is already uncontrollable, with Brock or Conor or Jon….man that would be a great way to pwn the libs
 
wrestlefan said:
The Lesnar fans back then were unbearable. Probably the worst.
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Brock went in with his prior wrestling experience and made a whole bunch of lifelong martial artists look like they didn’t belong there with him. If Brock was fake, he wouldn’t have pulled off what he pulled off. He got opportunities because of his fame and athletic prowess. There simply aren’t many humans like Brock which is why his title shot was even doable for him.
If there were new Bruce Lee like actor who got really huge being typecast into action/martial arts films and he decided to take a fight I almost guarantee Dana would give the guy a UFC opportunity (not a career)
 
cade187 said:
Brock was a special exception, but there were also special circumstances. Frank Mir returned from injury, and even though he had fought since returning, there were questions about his title that he never technically lost. So it was kind of a 4-man tournament (Brock, Randy, Mir, and Nog) to unify the heavyweight title.

The title picture gets weirder though, because back then they never really stripped people of the title unless they went somewhere else. After Mir came back from injury he was given some tune up fights, and lost two of them. That being said, Mir vs. Nog at UFC 92 was billed as a title fight for the interim HW championship.
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Huh? Mir was stripped of the title on August 12, 2005 due to injury.
 
cmw43 said:
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.
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You're asking who should have gotten a title shot over brock? When there was literally an Interim champion put on ice and made to defend his belt without gettting an undisputed matchup.
Also hoe can you gas up Herring as a big win while say Cain had only beaten a 9-1 O'Brian who himself had a UFC win over Herring.

Some sherbros will say to anything pretend brock earned that shit.

Anyways TS if there's another guy with millions of fans demanding it Dana will blow him to do it. So maybe jake paul if went to the ufc but also he kinda burned dana so he might not get brock treatment.
 
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CasualBot said:
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
Click to expand...
Herring wasn't paid to dive he just wasnt motivated to fight. Gotta look at the context he was already retired then the UFC called him back and said hey there's alot of money if you give us one more vs Brock. And he said sounds good, did little to no training then retired with his bag. The ufc just hand picked this to get brock the win they desperately needed to justify his jumping into a title next.
 
No, in fact they should do it again with Gabe Stevenson. Forget about tune-up fights and just sign him for an immediate title shot.
 
I don't think it was deserved, beating Heath Herring shouldn't have given any guy with a 2-1 record a title shot. Doesn't matter who it is (the second coming of Jesus even), it's unfair for others who actually earned their right to be in their high ranking and they should have got a title shot before Lesnar.

But I understand why the UFC did that. Lesnar was a hype machine coming in and they wanted to milk him as much as possible before their cash cow gets humiliated by a lower ranked fighter.

So they fast tracked Lesnar to a title shot for money. It's pretty obvious and it's crystal clear as it comes.
 
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