Brock Lesnar: He Ate, He Slept, He Conquered

So, the monumental UFC 200 card was on Saturday night, and that could mean only one thing:

It’s just 43 days until WWE Summerslam!

Oh yeah! It’s on! Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton! The Beast vs. The Viper! The F-5 vs. The RKO! A college wrestling and MMA champion vs. a chin dimple and an ungodly amount of bronzer!

Who will prevail? WHO!!!!

Then again, we know who will win that fight. It will be the man who stood tall on Saturday, although that outcome wasn’t so reasonably assured.

It was easy to think that Lesnar, the man who main evented the colossal UFC 100 event and who main evented the monumentally stacked sequel, or at least he did for about a day before UFC realized that maybe they should still respect the champion who was defending her title on the card, would struggle in his UFC return.

I mean, it was his first fight in four-and-a-half years and, while he certainly stayed in shape during those intervening years, he wasn’t staying fight ready. He was mostly maintaining his physique so he could get paid ridiculous sums of money to ragdoll John Cena and Seth Rollins 2-3 times a year, a life that was satisfying financially but not competitively.

All these years later, Brock still had the itch to scratch and he used the Octagon as his scratching post, taking a fight on relatively short notice on the biggest show in company history against a top 10 ranked fighter whose strength was Brock’s biggest weakness in his MMA heyday: getting punched in the face.

Thankfully for Brock, he didn’t allow Mark Hunt too many opportunities to smack The Beast with his “frying pan hands.” Brock did get a little taste in the first round but he lived to tell the tale by dumping Hunt on his Super Samoan ass shortly thereafter.

The question of this fight was always going to be which fighter’s strength was stronger than the other’s.

Could Brock’s NCAA Division 1 championship wrestling be able to put Hunt down and give him fits or would Hunt’s excellent takedown defense be enough to keep the fight standing?

Could Hunt knock Brock out with his K-1 championship kickboxing or would Brock prove durable and elusive enough to stay more (or less) than an arm length’s away from Hunt’s deadly overhand right?

The question was who could impose their will and execute their gameplan?

The pain was certainly coming on Saturday, but who was it coming for?

When the question is posed like that, it seems like the answer never should have been in doubt as Brock, while he struggled to take Hunt down in the second round of their three round fight, he had no issues doing so in rounds one and three, grounding his stocky opponent and pounding on him with punches and hammerfists until Hunt could barely get up.

Brock fought the way he needed to get his hand raised, which really shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. Everyone knew what Hunt’s gameplan was going to be coming into the fight. That was no secret. Hunt knew that. He had no problem sharing his strategy to anyone who asked on UFC Embedded, while also proclaiming himself to be a “KFC fighter,” because he knew all he needed to do was land one good shot and he could put Brock’s lights out, just like he’s done to so many other heavyweights.

Brock knew what he was up against. He was also aware of all the other pressures, internal and external, that he carried on his back into the Octagon on Saturday night:

The dissatisfaction he felt after losing his last two UFC fights. The lack of excitement he felt exiting a real sport to go back to a scripted one that had burned him out years earlier. The frustration he felt constantly wondering how different things could have been had he not been battling a debilitating illness through the majority of his first UFC run.

The realization when he knew that, not only could he fight again, he needed to fight again. The validation that he needed for himself, and maybe a little for his coaches and fans, that he can still compete at a high level and look as good, if not better, than he did back in 2010. The recognition and admiration he has for his employers at WWE that allowed him to communicate with UFC and work out a deal to allow him to find out if he was right about himself all these years later.

The satisfaction when he ultimately proved himself right.

Brock getting his arm raised after the judges awarded him a unanimous decision victory in Saturday’s co-main event was a win for a lot of people. It was a win for Brock (obviously). It was a win for the UFC, getting their biggest drawing fighter to return and make UFC 200 the spectacle they always wanted it to be. It was a win for the WWE, who got primo advertising space for one of their most popular performers and one of their biggest events of the year.

It’s even hard for a lot of Brock’s detractors (either known as “haters” or “logically minded MMA fans” depending on what cesspool of a comment section you choose to frequent) to not revel in the result a little. It was a win for one of the few men who can straddle the line between MMA and professional wrestling and treat both with respect while commanding respect from both fanbases.

(something something CM Punk)

Plus, maybe Brock’s performance and win created a few new MMA fans. At the very least, they might stick around for McGregor-Diaz 2 next month. That’s better than nothing, right? Our new UFC overlords should be pleased with that one…

Brock may have received a lot of golden opportunities in MMA before he deserved them, but there’s no question that, when it came time to put up or shut up, he had his hands in the air ready to put everything on the line. It was true when he debuted in 2008 and it was still true when he returned in 2016. He belongs in the sport and I’ll be happy to have him back any time.

Or at least I will until UFC releases video of Brock backstage moments after the fight ended when RKO OUTTA NOWHERE! WHERE DID ORTON COME FROM?! WHAT KIND OF MAN COULD DO THAT TO ANOTHER MAN?! THAT DASTARDLY SCOUNDREL! HE BETTER GET WHAT’S COMING TO HIM!

WE’RE OUTTA TIME! SEE YOU NEXT MONTH FOR SUMMERSLAM!

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.