Brock Lesnar Steps into the Cage for Real at UFC 81

He can wrestle. He can entertain. But can he fight?

Former WWE star Brock Lesnar will finally answer that question Saturday night when he climbs into the cage against former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir for his UFC debut at UFC 81: Breaking Point at the Mandalay Bay.

For Lesnar, after almost two years of MMA training, it's a chance to shed the "big question mark" on his back.

"Let's do it buddy," a relaxed Lesnar told Mir at Thursday's pre-fight news conference.

The 30-year-old Lesnar is 1-0 as an MMA fighter, having demolished unheralded South Korean Kim Min Soo on a lesser circuit in June.

Mir, a jiu-jitsu black belt who has been involved in martial arts all his life, is 8-3 in the UFC and a former title-holder.

Yet the bookies have made Lesnar almost a 2-1 favourite. Still, the big man doesn't seem fazed, saying he feels he has finally found his calling.

"There's a little pressure, but I mean I'm not going to piss my pants or anything like that," Lesnar said. "We prepared in this camp to fight Frank. I've had a good training camp.

"This is nothing new to me. Being in front of you people, I've had eight, 10, 12 years now, through college and whatnot and this, that and the other. It's going to be an honour to get into the Octagon finally."

The former NCAA wrestling champion is a physical presence at 6-3 and some 265 pounds. He has a 36-inch waist and an oversized upper body that fits into a jacket size of 54 to 56. With his blond crew cut, he looks like a farm boy turned NFL lineman (something he dabbled with during a brief 2004 stint in camp with the Minnesota Vikings).

The UFC has been talking Lesnar up for months and there was more of the same Thursday.

"This guy's a great wrestler, he's a great athlete. He won his (first MMA) fight. He deserves to be here," said UFC president Dana White.

"We'll find out Saturday if he can hang with the best in the world."

"He's an amazing athlete," added Tim Sylvia, who takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title the same night. "Seeing a big man like this move the way he does. He moves like a 200-pound man, which is really surprising."

"He's got a great wrestling pedigree ... He's a strong guy, he's a huge guy," said lightweight Kenny Florian.

Wrestling is seen as the base for most mixed martial arts fighters, so Lesnar is well served there. He has also chosen a good camp in the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, with MMA coach Greg Nelson and strength and conditioning guru Marty Morgan.

But in Mir, he faces a submission expert who seems to have found his form again after a near fatal motorcycle crash in September 2004. Remember Mir broke Sylvia's arm with a submission hold at UFC 48 in June 2004 to win the vacant title before being sidelined by the crash.

In his first few comeback fights, Mir looked boxy and immobile. And his conditioning has been suspect at times in the past. But he looked slick and dangerous in submitting Dutch kickboxer Antoni Hardonk in just 77 seconds at UFC 74: Respect last August.

The 6-1 Mir looks lean and in shape for Lesnar. He reckons he will be between 245 and 255 fight night.

"I finally figured out how to train properly . . . Now I realize that training's not something you do eight weeks out from the fight," Mir said. "After I fought Hardonk, I was back in the gym Monday."

Being overweight takes a toll, says the 28-year-old Mir, using an outdoors analogy to make his point. If you go hiking and someone hands you a 20-pound weight, "you're going to be hating life."

"Halfway up the mountain, I say 'Drop the weight.' You drop the weight and you're good to go."

"That's why I haven't seen any 300-pound triathletes yet," Mir added wrly.

Mir recalls he was also an underdog against notorious brawler Tank Abbott at UFC 41 in February 2003. But Mir needed just 46 seconds and a toe hold to force the veteran to tap.

Florian, a savvy handicapper of fights, believes Mir will have the advantage early on, based on his ground game and submission skills.

"And you never know how people are going react in there in the Octagon. I know Lesnar's said he's been here before, he's seen the crowds but being in the cage, once that cage shuts . . . all of a sudden you realize 'Wow, I'm here, It's going to happen right now. This other guy, across the ring, is going to hit me in the face as hard as he can.' Things change."

Florian wonders what Lesnar will do if he ends up on top, in Mir's guard. Will he aggressively try to ground and pound, which might open him up to a submission, or will he play it safe and chip away at Mir?

A mental error could be deadly against Mir, says Florian.

"It's a tough fight for Lesnar. Lesnar's got his hands full against Mir, a true UFC veteran."

Like Lesnar, Mir has been saying all the right things in the leadup to the fight. There has been no trash-talking, only respect. And Lesnar has earned props throughout the sport for telling the UFC he would fight whomever they put in front of him.

The Sylvia-Nogueira matchup seems to have got lost in the shuffle behind the Lesnar-Mir hype. In a pre-fight conference call, Sylvia was pretty much ignored and left the call early for some reason, although he was relaxed and friendly Thursday.

The other heavyweight matchup could be an interesting one, however. The six-foot-eight Sylvia is an awkward opponent, who showed against Jeff "The Snowman" Monson that he can defend submissions on the ground. He is also motivated as he bids to move one step closer to claiming the heavyweight belt for a third time.

Sylvia's reach and striking ability also make him hard to hunt down although Nogueira, a former Pride champion, has the submission skills to make him pay if he catches him. Still Nogueira did little to impress in his UFC debut win over Heath Herring, who stunned him with a kick to the head late in the first round.

With the UFC suing heavyweight champion Randy Couture over Couture's decision to walk away from his contract, the heavyweight title remains in limbo. White challenged Couture on Thursday to end the infighting.

"Come on Captain America, step up and be a man and give these guys the opportunity to win the title," White said.

"He's the heavyweight champion. He signed a contract with us less than a year ago and I expect him to honour it. And I expect him to be a standup guy and give these guys the opportunities they gave him."

Source: canadianpress.google.com