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Is Brock beatable? Four who have a shot

By Maggie Hendricks

After Saturday's dismantling of Frank Mir at UFC 100, Brock Lesnar seems pretty comfortable at the top of the UFC heavyweight division. Though his career in the UFC has been short, he has beaten two champions, Randy Couture and Mir, in a convincing manner. His size and strength will be a tough obstacle to overcome, but not impossible. Who can do it?

Fedor Emelianenko: If there is anyone who can take out Lesnar, it's the Russian fighter Emelianenko (pictured). He is at the top of the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings for good reason. With a 30-1 record, he has beaten fighters of every size, including the 7'2" Hong Man Choi and 6'8" former UFC champion Tim Sylvia. In January, he knocked out another former UFC champion, Andrei Arlovski, in the first round. In fact, he hasn't had a fight get past the first round since a win over Mark Coleman in 2006, which lasted until the second round.

Emelianenko's biggest obstacle in beating Lesnar isn't in the cage, it's actually getting him in the cage. He is signed with rival promotion Affliction for a fight with Josh Barnett in August. Fans have wanted Fedor in the UFC for years, but contract negotiations have gone nowhere between the groups. After the fights on Saturday, Dana White said that Emelianenko will be in the UFC.

"This Fedor thing has gone on and on and on," White said in the post-UFC 100 press conference. "Eventually, Fedor's going to be here. I want Fedor. I want him to come to the UFC and everything else.

"This guy (Brock Lesnar) just won the heavyweight title, and we'll end up getting that deal done. And then we'll do Brock vs. Fedor, and it'll be a huge fight."

Assuming that the deal gets made, Emelianenko has the best shot of beating Brock Lesnar.

Shane Carwin: How can you mitigate Lesnar's size advantage? By putting him up against someone that's equally as large. That's Carwin -- all 6'3", 262 lbs. of him. His hands are so big that the 4X gloves he wears to fight need to be cut and taped to fit his hands. He can take punishment and still win, as he had a broken nose when he knocked out Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96. Carwin is also motivated to beat Lesnar, who Carwin thought was incredibly disrespectful after his win on Saturday.

The fans are why we do this, Brock, this sport is not about fat paychecks and drama. It is about hard work and sacrifice for a shot to do what you did last night. It doesn't matter how much money you make if you can't earn your peers' respect and the respect and love of the greatest sporting fans in the world. Every autograph I give, every hand I shake I am thankful that you give me the opportunity to be a part of your world. This is the greatest sport int he world and most of the athletes in it deserve the love and respect they get and some just dont get it. From leaving the venue all the way to the Airport I have had fans of the sport ask me to take out Brock Lesnar for them.

The biggest knock against Carwin is that he is untested, but he is 11-0. He has much more experience than Lesnar. Carwin is slated to face Cain Velasquez, another exciting up-and-coming heavyweight, at UFC 104 in October. If he makes it through that fight, it wouldn't be surprising to see a matchup between Lesnar and Carwin.

Alistair Overeem: If someone of a similar size won't vex Brock, speed will. A fighter who is a champion kickboxer, can cut angles and move quickly? That might the perfect foil to Brock's wrestling and power. That fighter exists in Dutch kickboxer Alistair Overeem.

Overeem faces two problems in overcoming Lesnar. One, he is the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, is fighting for them on August 15, and contractually obligated to Strikeforce. Two, he needs to stay on his feet to be able to use high kicks, but as Lesnar showed on Saturday, his takedown is quite effective.

Bobby Lashley: Like Lesnar, Lashley is a fellow WWE veteran and collegiate wrestler. Unlike Lesnar, Lashley is taking the long and winding road to the UFC. He also has four wins, but his competition hasn't been nearly as difficult as Lesnar's. Lashley's biggest advantage is that he and Lesnar are the same size, and both have a strong wrestling background. With those two factors equal, the fight has the potential of being an all-out slugfest.

The problem with this fight is that Lashley doesn't want to fight in the UFC until he is ready to be a champion.

"When I go over there I want to be a top, top level guy," Lashley said. "I want talks of me fighting the champ when I get over there. I want them to say this guy's really good."

Lashley still has a while to go and much to learn before he can walk in and get a title shot. He will need to get a few more fights under his belt before we can see if he is truly ready for the champ.
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Fedor is the most complete fighter ive ever seen. His standup is just scary. The guy punches harder and faster and with more tenacity then anyone ive ever seen. Its gonna be a great day when him and brock finally meet. Its gonna be a close fight though Fedor is not use to guys like brock with his quickness and sheer power. I can see this fight going both ways. U have to be a fool to completely count brock out.
 
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http://mmajunkie.com/news/15488/dana...t-imminent.mma


Dana White says Fedor Emelianenko will fight in the UFC, Brock Lesnar fight imminent
by Dann Stupp on Jul 12, 2009 at 5:30 am ET

Prior to this past Saturday's UFC 100 event, an underground movement took root and called for mixed-martial-arts fan who would attend the show to begin "Fedor!" chants throughout the night.

The thought, of course, was to make UFC executives well aware of the fans' desire to have Fedor Emelianenko, the world's top-ranked heavyweight and arguably the greatest MMA fighter in the division's history, fighting in the octagon.

The chants were never heard, but after UFC 100, UFC President Dana White said he wants Emelianenko in the UFC, that it's eventually going to happen, and that a fight with Brock Lesnar is imminent.

Lesnar, the former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar and NCAA Division I national wrestling champion, picked up his third consecutive UFC victory and first-ever title defense with a dominant second-round TKO of interim title-holder Frank Mir in UFC 100's main event.

With Lesnar's current streak of wins over Heath Herring, then-champ Randy Couture and now Mir, many are looking to possible future opponents for the seemingly invincible ground-and-pound machine.

Emelianenko, the former longtime PRIDE heavyweight champion, is the man many see as most likely to topple Lesnar. At 30-1, with back-to-back Affliction wins over two former UFC champions (Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski) and a 26-0 record (with one no-contest) over the past nine years, many fans are clamoring for the Russian fighter to take on the top talent in the world's premier fight organization.

"This Fedor thing has gone on and on and on," White said in the post-UFC 100 press conference. "Eventually, Fedor's going to be here. I want Fedor. I want him to come to the UFC and everything else.

"This guy (Brock Lesnar) just won the heavyweight title, and we'll end up getting that deal done. And then we'll do Brock vs. Fedor, and it'll be a huge fight."

How soon could we such the fight?

"Who knows," White said. "He's obviously contractually obligated to fight (with Affliction). Once that's over, we'll figure it out."

UFC officials have met with Emelianenko and his representatives multiple times. However, the meetings proved far from productive and often left each side blaming the other for the inability to get a deal done. The UFC said Emelianenko's demands were too outrageous, not necessarily from a monetary standpoint (though Emelianenko is believed to make at least $2 million per fight) but because a deal would essentially require the organization to enter the Russian market as business partners with Emelianenko's manager, Vadim Finkelchtein. Emelianenko's people say the UFC's contract demands are too restrictive without any allowances, for example, for Sambo competitions and would dictate all aspects of the fighter's career.

Concessions will be need to be made, and that's often led White to predict a slim chance of a deal coming to fruition. In fact, White has often criticized the fighter, going so far as saying Emelianenko "sucks" while mocking past recent opponents such as kickboxer Hong Man Choi and Matt Lindland, who normally fights at middleweight.

However, White's tune has changed, and on Saturday, he spoke rather definitely about the fighter's future in the UFC.

Of course, that future could hinge on Emelianenko's upcoming Aug. 1 fight at "Affliction" Trilogy." There, Emelianenko meets another former UFC champ, Josh Barnett, who many rank among the division's top three or four.

However, don't expect Barnett to get the same invitation to the UFC is he knocks off Emelianenko.

Why?

"No one's beating down my door to get Barnett," White said.
 
barnett is black balled from the UFC for getting popped for juice a while ago
if barnett beats fedor the only logical thing for dana to do is try to bring him in
 
I think carwin has a shot, Overeem not even close unless he gets an opening seconds ko.

Fedor and barnett would both sub him imo, lashley gets tooled bad.
 
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