It took Lesnar four fights to win the heavyweight title. Was he ready? No, but he was a big name in a weak division. He suffered through two bouts of diverticulitis, a knockout loss to Cain Velasquez and another to Allistair Overeem before retiring. No one should be upset that Brock retired because he’s back where he belongs.

Lesnar in the UFC was a man with heavy hands, but no technique and as we soon learned no chin. His game was to use his strength and wrestling background to beat up opponents, but if it didn’t work he was in trouble. It took him two UFC fights to earn a title shot and he went 1-1 in those fights. He faced an undersized Randy Couture for the title where he was able to use his size to defeat Couture.

Brock just wasn’t right for the UFC. He wanted to be isolated and was a very quiet fighter. Lesnar was a less interesting Nick Diaz. We saw it as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, Brock was isolated and not a very good coach. He didn’t make the season interesting because he wasn’t a personality that would cause clashes.

I believe if Lesnar would have started doing MMA immediately after college he would be successful, but since he started so late there was no time for him to train and learn. The UFC rushed him to the top and that was ultimately his downfall. Now he’s back where he belongs and where he can keep making a name for himself.

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Main Card

Tony Ferguson (169) vs. Ramsey Nijem (170)
Clay Guida (155) vs. Anthony Pettis (155)
Tim Credeur (185) vs. Ed Herman (186)
Kyle Kingsbury (206) vs. Fabio Maldonado (203)
Chris Cope (170) vs. Chuck O’Neil (170)

Preliminary Card

Danny Downes (155) vs. Jeremy Stephens (156)
Josh Grispi (145) vs. George Roop (146)
Shamar Bailey (171) vs. Ryan McGillivray (169)
Justin Edwards (170) vs. Clay Harvison (171)
Scott Jorgensen (135) vs. Ken Stone (136)
Reuben Duran (136) vs. Francisco Rivera (136)

“Yeah, I’m very disappointed,” said Lesnar on “The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo”. “This has not only mentally but this has been very physically strenuous on me,  since my first bout with Diverticulitis in 2009. Having to back away from a fight is not something that I think anybody likes to do, surely me.

“The first time it happened to me and to fall under the same circumstances, I thought I had this thing beaten and I’m very disappointed but getting past that and understand that my health is very important. I got another doctor’s appointment on Thursday and a consultation where we’re going to go over and just try to figure out the best approach to try to handle this and it may be surgery and it may be not. We’re reviewing other options here to try to help me but, I want to get back into the Octagon sooner than later.”

Lesnar is one of the biggest draws in the UFC, so his return will be a very anticipated one. All Lesnar said in his quote was that he wants to get back sooner than later, but he did not give a specific time frame, however, UFC president Dana White did give us one.

White said, “I’m optimistic that Brock (Lesnar) will bounce back from this thing. Maybe by the first of the year.”

Having Lesnar on a card to open up 2012 would be huge for the UFC. They’d have back one of their big draws and a top level heavyweight fight to headline the New Year’s card. The most important thing for Lesnar is to be healthy and it will be great to see him back in action.