Lesnar The Real Deal With Win At UFC 87

Lesnar's win over Heath Herring at UFC 87 puts him on the map in the heavyweight division

Inexperience and impatience did Brock Lesnar in at UFC 81 when he took a submission loss to Frank Mir in his first contest with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. At UFC 87: Seek and Destroy, we saw a much different Lesnar, as he remained calm, cool and collected in his unanimous decision victory over Heath Herring. With the win, Lesnar avoids being called a mixed martial arts bust and solidified himself as one of the best up-and-coming stars in the entire sport.

From the beginning of the first round, Lesnar was dominant against Herring. It took only seven seconds for Lesnar to connect a right first to Herring’s left eye and bust him open. Right after that, Herring hit the ground, where he spent a great deal of the three rounds in the fight. Throughout, Lesnar did a good job of smothering Herring while using his brute force in combination with sick fists, elbows and knees. In the end, Lesnar was a more confident fighter who knows he has something to offer in MMA.

Lesnar needs to be weary of getting too over-confident. His first win in the UFC definitely puts him on the map in the heavyweight division, where there aren’t entirely too many top-notch figthers. However, even in his impressive showing against Herring, he didn’t take advantage of several opportunities to relentlessly pound away at Herring or put him away with a submission. While Herring is a smart veteran fighter who was undoubtedly solid competition for Lesnar, there is much better talent out there that won’t allow Lesnar to get away with laying his bulky body on top and allow the seconds to tick away toward a decision. If a rematch against Mir is in the cards, I have to think Mir is one of those guys that just won’t stand for that.

But for now, Lesnar erased that loss at UFC 81, chalking it up to being new to the game. At UFC 87, he proved to be the real deal with immense potential to take his talents to the top of the heavyweight division in the UFC. It’ll be interesting to see who Dana White lines up next for the Minnesota native. Whomever it is, he just better be sure not to make Herring’s mistake of arrogantly looking past Lesnar. That didn’t work out too well for Herring.

Heath Herring took a beating at the hands of Brock Lesnar