Brock Lesnar Sick Means Time for a New UFC Heavyweight Champion

The UFC has made a lot of money and scored plenty of PR and Marketing points in promoting Brock Lesnar's success on his road to winning the UFC Heavy Weight Champion's belt. The WWE star showed that he can make money for the UFC and attract new audiences that would otherwise spend their money elsewhere.

Dana White, the UFC president has been one of the most vocal promoters of Brock Lesnar in especially claiming that Lesnar's wrestling and physical attributes are so overwhelming that finally the promotion has the best fighters in the world in all of its divisions including the heavyweight division. The fans of course anticipated the possibility of Fedor Emelianenko joining the UFC after the collapse of Affliction MMA but this would not happen. The Emelianenko vs. Lesnar fight would not take place at least in the next few years.

After overwhelming Frank Mir, Brock was heading for a collision with the undefeated rising star Shane Carwin with a similar background, size and considerable KO power, but then came the sudden news in early November. Brock Lesnar was diagnosed with Monocleosis commonly referred as the "kissing disease". This dealt a big blow to the UFC 108 card which already lost the Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort match-up scheduled originally for the event.

Then it came out. "Brock Lesnar may not fight ever again". He reportedly underwent minor surgery to his intestines after being diagnosed additionally with an intestinal disorder called Diverticulitis. For those that don't know what this is, his intestine had been leaking fecal matter into his abdomen, causing pain, abcesses, and overtaxing his immune system. Dana White commented that Lesnar will not be fighting any time soon and that is certainly true.¹

Much is still unclear nevertheless. If Brock Lesnar's prolonged absence is indeed confirmed, the UFC will need to setup an Interim UFC Heavyweight championship bout. There is a good number of likely contenders in fact in the heavyweight division for this event.

Firstly you've got Shane Carwin. His unblemished record indeed looks impressive but the competition he faced to get there is not as high as one would have wanted. At 11-0, he is still a force of nature in the top-10.

Antonio Rodrigo Noguira also known as Minotauro or Big Nog is another likely title contender. After a poor performance against Frank Mir, he was able to comeback and convincingly defeat the ageing Randy Couture. Minotauro's bout with Cain Valasquez was cancelled when Big Nog got a new staph infection once again, so he is surely out in the near term but soon to return. Minotauro is a Pride legend and one of the only fighters to ever hold both Pride and UFC belts.

Then you have Cain Valasquez, a really strong and hard working wrestler with feather fists. He has shown he can defeat strong fighters but is far from being well rounded. Still, a strong candidate given he has also a nice clean record and convincing wins over Cheick Kongo and Ben Rothwell.

Perhaps the other great candidate is Junior Dos Santos (JDS). JDS has fought often and well in the UFC, taking out some tough opponents Fabricio Werdum and Mirko Cro Cop. In fact JDS may have the strongest record of all the contenders to date except perhaps Nogueira.

So where does the UFC go from here? An eight-man classic tournament comes to mind. The UFC pool of heavyweights is not huge but this could be a great event entertainment-wise on the level of Pride. The problem with the UFC has typically been weak cards so a nice event like this could be what the MMA fans have been waiting for, a long time. What is left? Well some cool entrances Mayhem style and Bas Rutten commentary. If they did this, Strikeforce would not be able to compete.

^{1 - Source:} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Lesnar