What’s next?: UFC 141 post-mortem
It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Alistair Overeem would beat Brock Lesnar last night. However, Lesnar had almost no offence, and after being blasted by a liver kick and finished on the ground, he announced his retirement from MMA. Lesnar only attempted 1 takedown and was pounded with body shots by The Demolition Man.
Whether you love him or hate him, Lesnar came into the UFC with 1 fight, and proceeded to win the heavyweight title by beating Randy Couture in fight #4. Additionally, Lesnar has been the UFC’s best box office draw, with Lesnar anchored events all drawing more than 1 million PPV buys. To put this in perspective, in 2011 there has not been a single event to hit 1 million buys. The UFC is going to miss Lesnar’s drawing ability if nothing else. In hindsight, the fact that Lesnar had a disease that threatened to kill him twice in the last couple years makes his retirement easier to predict.
Overeem will now face Junior dos Santos for the heavyweight championship. This fight will go a long way into determining who is the best heavyweight striker in MMA. Overeem’s striking defence hasn’t been tested in any significant manner from the perspective of an MMA fight. In K-1, he used the big gloves to cover up and fire counters. The 4 ounce gloves used in MMA will not allow this strategy to be effective. If Fabricio Werdum was able to land some shots on Overeem, what’s going to happen when Overeem fights JDS? JDS probably also has a speed advantage, while Overeem has the better kick/knee game.
Nate Diaz basically seems to be following the career trajectory of brother Nick Diaz, where a fighter wins some matches and then starts beating good opposition to a point where you can’t ignore him anymore. Unfortunately, the brothers fight in the 2 deepest divisions in MMA. After Nick beat Paul Daley, he was put into the title shot picture at welterweight. Donald Cerrone is ranked similar to what Daley was, so is it time for Nate to fight a true top 10 opponent?
Speaking of Nick and the welterweight division, the old guard of contenders has been further swept away as Johny Hendricks knocked out Jon Fitch in 12 seconds. Fighters like Diaz, Hendricks, and Jake Ellenberger have beaten BJ Penn, Fitch, and Jake Shields, and present a new challenge to Georges St. Pierre, who basically looked invincible against the old challengers. With GSP needing a significant layoff due to injury, will he be able to come back as the conquering king of the welterweights?
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