The 265-pound Lesnar is a two-time NCAA All-American wrestler, the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion with a record of 106-5 overall in four years of college. He will debut in the UFC as one of the most accomplished wrestlers and most athletic men ever to enter the Octagon.
But these impressive credentials have little to do with why Lesnar's will be the most publicised debut in UFC history. The real reason he has immediately been given joint-top billing in Las Vegas is because of his enormous global fame as a former World Wrestling Entertainment champion.
Lesnar's conversion from 'fake wrestling' to Ultimate Fighting is one of the highest-profile sports-crossover stories in recent years.
Perhaps not as big a story as Michael Jordan quitting basketball in 1994 for an ill-fated career in professional baseball with the Chicago White Sox. But certainly bigger than Dwayne Chambers leaving athletics under a steroid-filled cloud for a luckless career in NFL Europa as a wide receiver with the Hamburg Sea Devils.
Lesnar, who has brought his WWE nickname "The Next Big Thing" over to the UFC, is not the first professional sports star to take an interest in Mixed Martial Arts. Neither will he be the last. Eurosport-Yahoo! takes a mischievous look at who might follow him over the next few months.
Joey Barton, footballer, Newcastle United:
Should Barton's off-field disciplinary problems continue, a move out of football might not be too far around the corner. At around 158lbs, Barton would have no problem cutting the three pounds to make the 155 limit for the UFC lightweight division where his slender 5ft 10in-frame would match that of the likes of Kenny Florian and Din Thomas. Reports from the training ground of former club Manchester City suggest he would favour a stand-up fight where he could utilise his striking ability; the only take-down Barton has seen recently is his name in a police notebook.
Wayne Rooney, footballer, Manchester United:
At 5ft 10in and 173lb, Rooney would make a stocky welterweight in the mould of Matt Hughes. That said, Rooney has always had a bit of trouble with his weight; shifting even those three pounds to make 170 might prove troublesome. Perhaps it might be better for the 22-year-old to abandon his Sir Alex-imposed diet of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables and return to his teenage regime of cheeseburger and spare-ribs; he could balloon back up to his natural weight and plan for a career in the heavies.
Of course, a great deal would depend on whether uber-WAG Coleen would permit her man to step into the Octagon, although on the plus-side, "Shrek" needn't worry about losing his looks in a ground-and-pound beating - he's no Dan Henderson (swoon).
Andy Flintoff, cricketer, Lancashire and England:
10 years ago, Flintoff was a gargantuan 265lb (19st) and would have been competing at the bulkier end of the heavyweight division against the likes of Lesnar or Tim Slyvia. Now at an ultra-trim 210lbs, you sense that his 6ft 4in-frame is as gaunt as it might be possible to get - and that dropping the final five pounds to make the light-heavy 205 limit might be a struggle.
A keen boxer, Flintoff is often found in the gyms of Amir Khan and Ricky Hatton when training his way back from injury, although as skilled as he might be in the stand-up, it perhaps wouldn't take too long for the world of MMA to figure out Flintoff's Achilles' Heel - or glass ankles, to be more precise. Merciless stomps in the clinch would surely leave him crippled within minutes.
At least "Freddie" has the bonus of a ready-made, UFC-friendly nickname.
Stephen Lee, snooker player:
Despite recently giving up drinking in an effort to lose weight in time for the World Championship, Lee is still (and there's no sense in sugar-coating this) very fat. Although he has - understandably - managed to keep the precise figure under his hat, I'm guessing he weighs, what, 265lb? Now I know that doesn't make him Butterbean, but it does mean he is carrying a lot of timber.
They call Lee "The Rolls Royce of snooker," although if you've ever seen him play, you'll know this ample motor is a real gas-guzzler - never in the history of non-strenuous sport has a man sweated so much after so little actual movement. And if he perspires this much simply by walking around a small table, it doesn't bear thinking about how saturated his soft, podgy frame would be after 15 minutes intensive wrestling.
Lesley Vainikolo, rugby player, Gloucester and England:
Of course, rugby is a sport choc-full of hard-hitting tough-guys who love nothing more than beating seven shades of sense out of opponents. Even with that said, Vainikolo remains in a class of his own when it comes to aggression and power. "The Volcano" stands at 6ft 1in and weights in at 230 lbs but also possesses impressive speed for such a big guy; as a 19-year-old he ran 10.8 seconds for the 100m in qualifying for the 1998 World Junior Athletics Championships.
Vainikolo would have been exposed to plenty of Greco-Roman wrestling training during his time in rugby league, where clubs often employ specialist wrestling coaches to help gain an advantage around the ruck. Neither would take-downs in the Octagon prove a problem for Vainikolo - as a trail of flattened defenders will testify.
Other rugby stars who might be interested in a career in the UFC: French star Sebastien Chabal, the 252lb, 6ft5 3in "Caveman", renowned for his hard-hitting, aggression and short temper; and 6ft 4in, 244lb England flanker James Haskell, who admitted last week he has been training in MMA at the London Shootfighters gym.
Tiger Woods, golfer:
Tiger will surely soon become bored with dominating the world of golf, won't he? Perhaps he might fancy a sport where he has more of a challenge, and the UFC would welcome him as a rangy 6ft 1in-middleweight.
Clues for where his MMA strengths might lie are found in his famously diverse heritage; Woods is one-quarter Thai, so opponents should expect an eight-limbed Mauy Thai attack, possibly with Tiger wearing a red tee-shirt in the final round.
Rafael Nadal, tennis player:
With Popeye-biceps and rippling six-pack, the 188lb-Nadal wouldn't look out of place in the middleweight ranks - although while his pre-match shadow-boxing ritual may intimidate his tennis peers, it is unlikely to scare the likes of UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Sure to be a fine all-rounder, although UFC dominance would only be likely if Dana White ever decided to move the Octagon on to clay. At least the UFC wouldn't have to put up with continual requests for title shots from Nadal; he was content enough to spend all that time as Roger Federer's number two.
Ricky Hatton, boxer:
Ricky could fight in any weight class he wanted, from his ripped, trim boxing weight of 140 to his in-between-bout weight, often a slightly softer 180. Despite earning worldwide fame as a boxer, Hatton's combat career began in kick-boxing - although he was only eight-years-old at the time. And judging by the way he wrestled Floyd Mayweather Jnr through the ropes in their recent super-bout in Las Vegas, Hatton might have other potential strings to his MMA-bow.
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