But don't take my word for it, just ask UFC hall-of-famer Randy Couture, who spoke to ESPN about the UFC 141 heavyweight headliner featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem on Dec. 30, 2011, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
"I don't think his difficulties will affect his ability to fight. If anything, the time off has given him time to develop more tools and add new skills, rather than trial by fire the hard way in the cage. I think he's going to be better having had, for the first time, the time to change and realize his potential. Something about being stood in front of a guy who is that size, but can still move as fluidly as he moves is a very unique thing. You don't find guys like that, he's an anomaly. If Brock closes the distance and gets his hands on Overeem, you're going to see Overeem on the bottom a lot. That's not a great place to be. If Brock's timid and allows Overeem to establish his range and throws those big knees, we've established that Brock hasn't made friends with being hit in the face yet. It's not flipping his trigger and letting him know the fight's on. Either way, it's a great fight and an exciting match-up, no doubt."
Couture knows a thing or two about the "Brockness Monster."
"The Natural" coughed up the division strap to the former WWE superstar way back at UFC 91, when Lesnar clipped him via lunchbox of doom in advance of his successful title defenses opposite Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.
The surgically repaired Lesnar (5-2) is coming off a first round shellacking at the hands of former division champion Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 back in October 2010. It was Brock's first loss inside the Octagon since serving up a ham-hock to Mir in his Octagon debut at UFC 81 way back in February 2008.He was expected to get back on his horse against Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 earlier this year, but was forced to bow out of the Canadian contest to deal with another flare-up of diverticulitis.
Now Lesnar is all patched up and gunning for that bout against "Cigano."
Overeem (35-11), who also wants to put his hands on the Brazilian kingpin, is considered one of the premiere strikers in all of mixed martial arts, despite a less than impressive effort against wily grappler Fabricio Werdum just a few months back.
Aside from the shortcomings in his winning performance against "Vai Cavalo," the Dutch destroyer is a consensus top ten ranked fighter who could pose problems for any UFC heavyweight -- but first he has to prove it against one of the division's elite wrestlers.
Who ya' picking in this titanic tilt?
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