MMA Fighting - DAMN! They Were Good | Was Brock Lesnar The Most Athletic Fighter In UFC History?

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

DAMN! They Were Good celebrates the careers of the most exciting and influential fighters in MMA history and on this episode it celebrates the career of former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, an athletic marvel and one of the biggest stars in the history of the sport. A national champion collegiate wrestler, Lesnar made his bones as a professional wrestling superstar before shifting to MMA in 2007 (after a brief flirtation with the NFL!). What followed was a transformative four year run where Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight title in just his fourth professional fight, and helped usher the promotion fully into the mainstream. What were the most iconic performances, what were our favorite memories, and what did we miss out on in Lesnar's short but remarkably significant run? Listen in as the MMA Fighting crews remembers one of the biggest anomalies in the history of MMA. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaheen Al-Shatti: @shaunalshatti Follow Steven Marrocco: @MMAFightingSM Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, the downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. Available now, only from

Audible. Hello everybody. My name is Jed Mushu. I'm a writer from M.M.A.fighting.com. It's a damn good website. And this is Damn. They Were Good. The podcast dedicated to remembering dudes. Dudes in MMA. And this week, You couldn't tell from that intro. We're remembering none other than former UFC heavyweight champion,

Brock Lesner. Because 15 years ago this week, Lesnar won that title by knocking out Randy Gattor. And we decided, hey, it's a great time to talk about Brock. Mix it up a little from our normal fare. And joining me on this adventure, we've got a full cast and crew today this week, ladies and gentlemen,

and then three of my esteemed colleagues from not another the MMAFindon.com, great website, Mr. Stephen Morocco, Shaheen Alshadhi, and Mike Heck, fellas, how are we doing? My ears are ringing from that intro. I knew you wouldn't see that can you see me now coming. And that's why I thought I would, you know, liven it up. Let's get things going with high energy because Brock Lesnar was nothing, if not high energy, particularly on the mic. And that felt like a good place to start.

Guys, when we were originally going to do this, this was going to be Steepin Mietichich, because it was going to be post-295. The assumption was Steepa is going to retire. It would be very timely to give Stepe one, even though I hate Stepe made sense. Then all of that went up, and I was looking for another one.

And Brock jumped out because I don't know if you knew this, but 15 years is a long time, and it doesn't feel like it was that, long ago, I'm feeling quite old as I realized this and looked back on it. And I'm hoping that I'm not alone. Did you all also feel real old when I told you what was about to happen? Not only did I feel incredibly old. Just going through and rewatching this man's catalog, this man's UFC library, which, by the way, is delightful. I highly recommend anybody who hasn't done this in the last decade or two to go do that because it's a great time and you can do it

very quickly. I really, I'm kind of shocked how much I forgot about Brock Lesnar just in terms of like, this dude was good, man. Like, I don't know. I feel like the way he's spoken about now, and the way we look back on him now is maybe not representative of how it should be because like he was legitimately very, very good at this whole fist fighting thing and like terrifying in a way that perhaps no one in MMA history, at least UFC history has been.

just from a pure physicality sense. It was a great time to go back and rewatch all this. It was great. If you haven't, I highly recommend you go back and do it because it'll take you about an hour. One of the wonderful things that we sort of talked about offline is it's odd. Brock had nine total MMA fights. I mean, I guess there is always the possibility that maybe he does one more,

but he's 46 or 47. Now it seems unlikely probably going to end with nine career fights. And that's the fewest we've had. Rhonda did not have many, but Rhonda had more than nine. Rhonda is the other shortest kind of overall fight time, certainly, too. Because with Rhonda, all of our fights finished in the first. It was great. It was super enjoyable.

I got to remember some things. Mike, did you feel the same way going back to this one? Because you were quick to jump on this when Brock was offered as an idea. Yeah, it was super easy to watch all the old fights. The dude had a really interesting story. And obviously, I remember him. I remember when he debuted in WWE. He just showed up and started just running over people.

Like he spine busters Al Snow through a garbage can. And then he F5's Maven. And then he power bombs Spike Dudley like four times in a row. And I just looked at this man and I was just like, come on. Like no one looks like this. This dude is a freak. He's not even fair. He's not even a human being.

And then after just watching him, kind of run rough shot through WWE and then making the MMA run and then getting to the UFC and everything. It was just like, it's pretty fascinating, man. Like, this guy is just one of those guys that could do anything.

Like, if he just took six months and was like, I'm going to try playing professional hockey. Some NHL team would probably lock up Brock Leicester real fast and he would probably contribute to the team. He's just a freak. And just put him in goal. Who's getting a puck around him? He's a freak.

His lats are the size. freaking elephant. Like, I don't know how you get past him. He was a Minnesota Viking for like a half of a second. With no prior football experience. Here's the last guy cut.

He was the last dude cut from the Vikings. That's insane. This dude is insane. He left W&D. He was like, you know what? I'm going to try football. I haven't played football in a long time. So I'm just going to try to walk on

to the Minnesota Vikings, and he was the last guy cut. This dude's a freak of nature. It doesn't even make sense. It is insane. We'll talk more about that. And I'm particularly glad to have you here. I know you're a pro wrestling guy.

And I think, Having that part of the Brock story is, I mean, it's pretty important, but I don't have the context to offer it. Stephen, how are you feeling as we head into the Brock Lesnar Dam? Well, I was just thinking when you guys were talking about how naive, how much more naive I was back then about the business and about the sport in general. like Brock was the first it was the first time like there was this huge crossover star and I remember how much crap he got from the fans

like how how in sense that they were that somebody like Brock would come over and into UFC and just think that they could you know just waltz in and perform it was there was a lot of you know really passionate feeling from the fan base that this shouldn't happen or this was BS.

And obviously he did what he didn't. He proved us all wrong. But that was like the first time in my, you know, history of doing this job that I remember just such a huge impact. There were other stars that were around like Chuck and Randy and Rampage and Tito. This was like the next phase of stars. And he was probably the biggest of them all. And he really, really pushed the UFC to heights that it hadn't seen before.

This is 2009, 2008, 2009, 2010. This is when the UFC's growth goes absolutely, you know, explosive. Like these guys are absolutely killing it. They're on a, you know, a really explosive path, you know, as a business. And he was a big part of that and made a huge impact. So I think that's why we're talking about him with nine fights because they're, man, it's hard to think of people who had more of an impact in such a short period of time. Although I'm sure Alex Beheera will end up talking about him at some point. But even just what you said, though, to me feel so representative of what the Brock Lesnar story was, right?

Because the UFC, like the UFC is very good at a lot of things and they've always been very good at a lot of things throughout the years. but I don't know that spectacle is one of the things that the UFC particularly excels at, right? Like, it's very paint by numbers. Every show sort of feels the same. Even the bigger ones feel like variations on a theme. I would submit easily that Brock Lesnar is the greatest spectacle in UFC history, like even far surpassing Connor McGregor in that sense. Just from a, again, it comes down to like a pure physicality standpoint.

Because, like, sure, Connor's a bigger star, Connor sold more pay-per-views, whatever. Like, Connor had bigger fights. but just from a spectacle nature, like everything about Brock never felt like it was going to last, right? Like it always felt like you were watching something very special, something temporary, something very fleeting that you would never really see again. So even in the moment, it seemed like, well, we kind of got to savor this because this might not last very long, but whatever this is feels special in a way that is really, really unique, right? Like just the wildest physical specimen in, in, we've ever seen like entered the octagon that also, like I say, the best traps probably in UFC history. Just like, I think, like good.

Best Lats, baby. Last chef. Both of them. Both of them, both of them. Good buddy Jonathan Snowden once said, well, that's not. I'm sure we'll get into that. Good buddy Jonathan Snowden once wrote that Brock Lesnar, it was genetically optimized for single combat and I don't know that there's a better way to describe because it it genuinely feels like

he is the modern day Viking right like he is the berserker that you would fear running across the battlefield in the 1400s dude he's not though because they didn't make them like that in the fucking 400s like that dude would have been king of the world in the 1400s so he is unreal mike you were going to jump in with something so brock made his UFC debut and I'm sure we're going to talk about this, Frank Mayor fight. Dave Meltzer reported that UFC 81 did 650,000

pay-per-view buys. And this is in, what, 2008, 2008? This is in 2008. Does anybody know what the main event of that card was? I do because we did this, but... No, Garret, Tim Sylvia. I can assure you that...

Respect to No, Gere and Tim Sylvia, they weren't doing 650,000 buys. Brock Leisner's second MMA fight, his first UFC fight, drew 650,000 pay rebuzz. He was, he was probably the biggest start in the UFC immediately in his first fight. He's not a probably. It's not a problem. Absolutely.

That's nuts. He's a big of star in the UFC immediately. Which brings me to, I've got a few questions I wanted to get into before we got into the categories. Because in part, I think the category section will be a little shorter this week. I mean, we say that all the time. But when there are nine fights, there's, it's a little bit limited. But one of the big things I wanted, Mike, specifically from you, but certainly Stephen Cheyne, to the extent that you are understanding of this, I remember the narratives at the time with Brock. But I have never been a big professional wrestling guy.

My parents didn't allow me to watch when I was a kid. And so I never took to it. I've come to know a lot more about it through the years and working in this sport as you kind of have to. I remember the stories being at the time, but how big of a star was Lesnar in the WWE before making the jump over? Like, was he the guy? Was he Stone Cold Steve Austin or whatever?

Like, where was he when he decided, I'm going to bounce on the WWT tri-pro football, then make a move to fighting? He was top four or five draws at the time. I mean, like some of the Luster had what? Give me a comparison point to somebody today. to somebody today like who I might know yeah

Cody Rhodes I know who that is so okay like he was like but he wasn't awesome like a physicality right like I feel like that was such a big part of it yeah but in terms of like where he is status wise that's probably where Brock was

like he was Cody isn't the biggest star in WWE but he's he's a draw he's the guy like people want to sing his damn theme song rock is just I mean, he came in like a house of fire, immediately made an impact, immediately took to it, immediately got big opportunities, won the WWE title against the Rock, like his first year in the company, like six months in.

He was champion of all time per week of media. Six months in, they threw him in the main event with Rock. It was huge. Like, that just doesn't happen. So when Brock, when Paul Heyman used to call him the next big thing, like he was legit, the next big thing. And then they turned a baby face and then back to heel. and then just got to the point where, like, he was done.

So they had this crap match with him and Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 20 that everyone just, like, boot out of the building because they knew they were both leaving. And Brock just left. And then, you know what? Even though he had bad terms with WWE, because of his star par, when he left UFC, guess what WWED did? They brought him right back.

And he's just as big a star now as he was then. It's insane. He's just, he transcended the business, not a Mount Rushmore draw, but. One of the 10 most recognizable WWW wrestlers probably of all time. In a way, the UFC became like a big part of his story, right? Like, just like you come back to the WW and you have the credentials of like,

oh, I could actually beat up anybody here. Like, I am the actual toughest man in this promotion now. He wore Jimmy Johns on his WWE wrestling trunks. I think he still does. Terrific. Where's the gloves and everything? It's fantastic. That is fantastic.

Which, by the way, fellas, I have some Jack Links beef jerky right here. I got it from the grocery store today to enjoy while we're here because love a brand unity. That's good. That's good because, like, I knew it was big. And obviously, he brought a whole ton of fans to MMA, frankly, in a way that I think might be tough to categorize. But I never really understood at the time how big he was in wrestling other than, you know, he's a champion. but everyone's a champion in professional wrestling as far as I can tell. Here's the big questions I want to get to.

The first one, is this the most athletic man to ever compete in the UFC or MMA in general? Got to be a great, big man, yes. Just most athletic man. No, Kevin Randleman. Ooh, Randolphin would not be my choice. Brock isn't either, but I think I wrote about this, I don't know, like a year ago. he's in my top three. I think for me, I believe the conversation is Kevin Randleman, Brock Lesnar,

and my actual choice is Joel Romero, who I still don't understand and believe he's a total Martian. I don't know. That's a good list, but Kevin Randleman could jump out of the octagon from a standing jump. Like, that man was a different level. We'll talk about Brock Lesnar's ability to jump out of things because he also could do exactly that as well. I can't wait for the fun with stats category. It's my favorite Brad Ips award I've ever given out comes out this third. And then the other big question here.

Top of mind, heavyweight division's top of mind right now with Tom Aspinall winning interim belt over Sergey Pavovich. Fun aside, going back and watching this, Shane Carwin, I was like, oh, that was the original Sergey Pavlovich. I just forgot about Shane Carwin because sometimes you forget things and that's who Sergey was. Brock Lesnar, not currently, he's 46. I think this wouldn't be fair.

If you took a prime Brock Lesnar and you can pick whatever time frame you think is his prime, how does he do in the current UFC heavyweight division? I think we all agree is top ten. He fights for the belt. There's no doubt he fights for the belt. Excluding his star power that would obviously get him a title shot almost immediately. I'm just saying like we all agree that he is a top ten. I would assume.

But who is the highest ranked heavyweight in the UFC that Prime Brock Lesnar you feel would beat? Not could beat. Can Brock beat John Jones? No. I think he can't. I think he could beat any of these people. I think Prime Brock can beat John Jones.

I don't know that I would pick him to beat them, but I think he can do it. Here's the problem with that. Here's the problem with that. Brock would have to be punched several times in the face. and that would, this gets to a later category in this whole thing, but it would have to get kicked in the knees and punched in the face a whole lot. Therefore, I would pick John.

I think I'd pick John too. And I would pick Tom Aspinall, who's the best heavy in the world. Mike, sorry, deal with it. And like, I'd probably pick Curtis Blades because he's the wrestling pedigree. But, I think, based on what we've seen, feel like you got to feel real good about prime brock's chances against zero gone right oh yeah oh yeah uh sergey pavlovich i mean yeah if he gets hit it's tough but if he just shoots a power double maybe we're done you're like it really speaks a little probably to the heavyweight division like

i would pick brock to kill jailton almeda you know and and jailton's everybody's guy right now so it just speaks a lot to this weight class that the dude 15 years ago would still be really really good if not the best in the world that this weight class which is shocking it's not i mean because that's the physical right is he's the second most accomplished u.c heavyweight of all time more or less like if you just count title defenses right like this is it's again the way that he's thought of i don't feel like it's true just in terms of The title defense is absolutely true. He held the record until Steepay took it.

I can't. That's right. I can't believe that. I was going to pull that up for stats. Let's get, let's get to the categories. That was a terrific stat. Jeez.

Wow. I missed that in my head. I was like, oh, everyone's bad at heavyway. I didn't realize he's the second most accomplished. Oh, that's going to send me down a dark bag. Well, he's tied. It's a tie.

It's a tie. It's a tie. You know, yeah. That's, that's a bad way to go. But, asking you shall receive, Stephen. We can hop into the categories. Before we hop into the categories,

I always like to do a very brief rundown in case you, for some reason don't know who Brock Lesnar is. And this one will be super brief because there were nine fights. Professional collegiate wrestler, NCAA champion, Juko champion before that goes to professional wrestling, leaves, makes his U. U.S. He does his MMA debut in 2007 at Dynamite.

First fight gets a win, immediately moves to the U.S. has eight fights in the UFC, wins the heavyweight title in his third, I'm sorry, fourth professional fight ever, third fight in the UFC, defends it twice, as Shaheen pointed out,

which is tied for second most all time, then loses a couple, and then comes back after a five-year layoff at UFC 200, and that is, to our best understanding, the last time we will see him compete in a cage. Not a UFC Hall of Famer,

no other real reference. to hang his hat on in that regard, but we'll get into all the various vagaries of him, because I think there's some of these categories there are a lot of hate to be made and some there aren't. One thing isn't the Mount Rushmore category. It's where we start everything off. It's Mount Rushmore. You got four bouts. What are the four for Brock Lesnar? And a man with nine fights, a Mount Rushmore is fairly limited. So I suspect we will all have in a massive amount of overlap, if not be unified in our choices. I'll lead us off.

The first one I'm going to go with, I am choosing to input Randy Gatorre UFC 91, November 15th, 2008 is when he wins the heavyweight title. Does everyone have this on their list? Absolutely. It has to be. Yeah. I don't. It seemed like it had to be. You don't?

I chose a different interpretation. Do your thing and I'll get to my life. Oh, I love this. No, this is great. I want different interpretations, particularly in something this narrow. So I've got Randy, Mike and Sheen also have Randy. For me, this fight, I mean, outside of winning the heavyweight belt, which is incredible. Let's talk about what happened there.

Third UFC fight he wins the title. That's, I don't, I didn't actually figure out with 100% certainty. I think that that's tied with Uri Perashka for the fastest to win a belt inside the UFC. so in the modern era and honestly maybe of all time and the Yeri thing was already sort of insane when he pulled it off but Yeri at least had this depth of other fights before he did it this is Brock's fourth fight this fourth fight ever and he becomes the heavyweight champion of the world that's freaking insane guys it's insane but then you watch the fight and then you watch the fight and he has like 60 pounds on Randy Gator

At least. At minimum. He does. Rating Gator is $2.20 in there, and Brock Lesnar is probably pushing $2.85. Like, it is jarring. That in the promo buildup, which is hilarious. Because Brock is so dismissive, like, not in a disrespectful way of Randy in the buildup for this fight, but he's like, dude, I'm very young and he is an old man who is small.

Like, this is, he approached that fight in the same way I would if I was fighting, like a sixth grader. Like, yeah, I am way bigger. and more physical than this man. This will not go well for him. And then it was almost exactly true. Randy in his pre-fight promo was like, I got to use my speed and agility. And I literally laughed out loud, watch.

It's just like, you're not the faster man, my guy. You're not. Brock is a freak. You are not faster. You are not more agile. You are not bigger. You are not anything other than older in this fight. It was nuts.

It's freaking crazy, man. dude's just a freak and I understand the size discrepancy dirt bike rider outside the house but this is this is like the beginning of the UFC just doing things to get their guys over like this is one win and then got a freaking title shot like this is that's all they needed they just needed him to get one win and then they're like we get the we get this light heavyweight as the heavyweight champion we're going to throw them in there this 330 pound muscular dude who's just going to sit on him and pound him out. This worked out great for the UFC.

This is who'd just come off of a contractual fight, who'd just come off of a big contractual fight with the UFC and been tied up in court. 45 years old, 45 years old. 45 years old, small, hadn't fought for a year. It was great. Terrific matchmaking, classic UFC. I did have a question on this particular fight

because I remember something, and I'm not sure if this is a Mandela effect or if this was real. And tell me, y'all remember this too. Do you all remember people thinking this was fake? Like, because I, I remember Brock coming in and bringing, you know, wrestling fans. And then those wrestling fans being like, oh, they just wanted him to be the champion. This is the same as WWE. And they're being like a narrative that Brock's career was actually fake. And I don't know, again, I don't know if that's a

Mandela thing or if that was real, but I wanted to see if you all have the same shared memory as I do. I don't know if the fake, I think the fake narrative just follows any sort of circus act in general, right? Like there's a lot of things that we could point to that are like people have spoken about as, oh, that's a fake. That's a fake thing. Jake Paul is the most recent one. To me, there's a lot of discrediting of this win, but it all came back to size where like everyone respected René Couture, but they also could see what was in front of their eyes of just like,

well, this is not a fair fight, guys. Like, come on. And so that was like where a lot of the dismissing of Brock's talent and skill came from at least from like my purview of what i was here okay uh my next uh my next submission to the mount rushmore it's frank meir two it's ufc 100 um i suspect that this is actually on everybody's it's it's ufc 100 big event he gets he avenges his first loss in m m a he just absolutely kicks the tar out of frank meir um great you know the the post fight was all was chaotic and sort of really big.

Flipping off the crowd and doing all this stuff. The taunting, it was, it's kind of a big moment. So this was on me. Do you all have this as well? Yes. Absolutely. Mike Sheen, Stephen, are you also being still sitting out? I'll let you know.

I love this. This is the best. Stephen, I'm very excited to see what you've got coming. And this is like a good, that fight was like a great test to see how the UFC handles their stars. Because Brock Lesnar just dumped on. one of their biggest sponsors in his post-fight interview. Bud Light sucks. I'm going to drink a Coorslight. I might get on top of my wife to Joe Rogan.

And just classic, yeah, it's just Brock being Brock guys. We get 700 dudes on the roster. Some of them are going to say some things you don't agree with. It's just Brock being Brock. I love that that. The Coorslight thing is totally edited out of the Fight Pass version. You cannot find it on the Fight Pass version. I have a note here for that.

It's, it's, it's, Incredible that they took out there. Because, yeah, all the rest of it's there. I'm going to go home, sit down with my friends and family, my crawl on top of my wife. All that's there. But no, Bud Light sucks. Drink of Coors.

And the way he says Coors, too, is just great. So my next one, Shane Carwin, COSC 116, July 3rd, 2010. His last official win, overcomes really tough first round. you know to something you said earlier stephen he did have to get hit in the face and he got hit in the face and brock is not the toughest dude in that but he's also not not a wilting lily you know like he he he stood up to Shane carwin survived the round i think that a lot of referees could have stopped that fight didn't he made it through and then he had he had a gas tank that lasted

longer than five minutes which is why he won this fight so uh this one is also on mine did this make any of the rest of yours? Yes. Yes. Mike and Shaheen and I are locked in. Quick question about this fight. Do you think it should have been stopped? Did you go back and rewatch this one?

Oh, I think, I don't think it should have been stopped because I think, obviously, we saw the reality play out. So it happened. I think 19 out of 20 referees do stop this fight. Absolutely. And Josh Rosenthal, who one of the sort of lost figures of MMA history, incredible fortitude to stick in there

and let this man just get walloped on and be like, yeah, this looks like he's doing okay actually and he made the right call, man. He made the right call. He did make the right call. Like Steve Mazzagati is in there for sure. Herb Dean probably jumps in and then jumps out and then jumps back in as Mike likes to make fun of him for.

Yeah, it was a, I were rewatching it. It was worse than I remembered, not so much damage, just like the absolute string of unanswered punches that were coming from Carwin's like, I am really shocked this made it through. Also, this fight stands out to me as it, it reminded me of the time when, maybe not incorrectly, but a big narrative became, you have to be enormous to be a heavyweight because you've got guys like Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin cutting. and it's like, no, the day of the 235 pound heavyweight, that's over.

You can't do it anymore. You can't fight these behemists like that. And then just a few years later, Daniel Cormier would come and be the heavyweight champion of the world because MMA is a silly sport. And my last one, here's where I threw a curveball. This is where I mixed it up because I think there's an obvious choice, and I said, screw the obvious choice. Let's have a little fun here.

I'm going WrestleMania 30 The Undertaker And defeating the streak Because as a person who doesn't follow wrestling I fucking knew this happened This bounced through the everything And became this like larger cultural thing

If you are talking about Brock Lesner The athlete or the entertainer or the sportsman I think this is probably like the first or second thing That comes up for him Because the meme of that dude who looks like he just saw aliens land and then shoot his dog. Like that's still out there on Twitter today. So I went WrestleMania 30 for a wildcard choice here.

Does anyone else have this one? No. But this is a great pick from you, Jed. A tremendous pick. Because honestly, had the Montreal screw job not happened, this might be the most controversial booking in WWB history. Is it that controversial? Is it still controversial today?

Yes, it is. People still bring this up. Why would you have Brock Lesnar break the streak? Why would you do it then? Why would you do it then? Especially if Taker's going to come back and continue to wrestle at what, 52 or 53 years old and no working limbs or anything like that. It was just, I don't know, people just second guessed it because Brock didn't need it

because Brock was already a huge star anyway. So like putting him to overtaker doesn't make it. It was just a hat on a hat. There's a hat on a hat. Yeah, there's a hat on a hat. So, yeah, super controversial. The shock and the good old Superdome was that, I mean, there's memes of the dude's face sitting front row with the wide eye, like, stunned. Those memes are still out there whenever anything happens that is shocking or it's, and that's why I was like, I was trying to figure one.

And there's like, you could pick a pretty obvious choice here. And I was like, I don't want to do that. I've got the three MMA fights to matter in this one. if I know about a thing that happened in wrestling, it had to be big because it's like, it's like we talk about Mike, the mom test or whatever. I'm that for pro wrestling. I don't follow it day to day, but if it's like, ooh, Undertaker lost at the streak, my friends who do follow wrestling, they let me know.

And so here it is. So that's my four. Well, also, real quick, because I'm not a wrestling guy either, but that also entered my world. And I ended up knowing about that the day it happened. Mike, correct me if I'm wrong, but like- biggest thing in sports the day it happened but like might correct my

are wrong but like it was also kind of like a squash match right like it was just not competitive at all like he kind of just did it quickly no I think you're maybe confusing with the the John Sina match where he just suplexed John Sina 500,000 times

and then just pinned him without like any real offense from Sina is that not how every Brock Lezzer match goes because it should be that's how I would book him because that's how a real fight would happen with Brock Lesnar as far as I'm concerned. I mean, Taker, like, did stuff. Like, he had Brock in some tough spots, but this wasn't like a complete runover.

Like, it looked like Taker was going to win, and then Brock would kick out. And then Brock, like, F-5ed him 18 times and pinned him. And we're like, what the hell? This is how it ends. After all this build for two decades, this is how it ends. It was just, it was shocking. We didn't see it coming. Still talking about it today.

So something, I guess, was right there. Okay, then Mike, we'll go back to you. What is your fourth then? Because you're locked in on Randy, Frank, and Shane. I almost went Brock winning the WWE title for the first time against the Rock, because it did in six months, which is freaking out. He beat the Rock to win the title? Sure did.

That's relevant. Yes. So, you know, potentially pride fighting Rock. You know, who knows? That's right. That's right. This morning we found out that the Rock, quote, unquote, almost quit pro wrestling to go fight and pride. Oh my God. I went with

Frank Mir won. I went the debut. He lost, but Steve Mazagadi takes the point. Remember the days? Like, referees would just take points? Whether they're called for or not. That point was so terrible too. Like, that was pure

Mazagati. That was Mazagati going Mazagati in the wildest moment where like, this guy has like the most anticipated debut. It's like, 30 seconds into the fight. Shit just got exciting. And he's just stopping it for no reason. He dropped Mier with the first punch he threw ever.

And then he just started unloading those hammer fists, those little quick hammer fist that he won a million fights with. And then gets a point taken away. And Brock's like, what the hell's going on here? And then Mier just taps him with the heel hook. So but Brock like in that fight, when they booked him against Frank Mier, most people are like, dude, you want to make this guy into a start? Like, don't throw him in there with Frank Mier.

That's a terrible idea. because Frank's just going to take him down and strangle him. But then Brock dropped him immediately and we're like, oh my God, I cannot believe this is happening right now. And then Meir gets the sneaky tap after the bad refereeing. But yeah, that was the fight that put him. I mean, people were like, all right, this isn't just a circus act. This isn't just a side show. Like this guy just needs a little bit of seasoning.

But he's going to be a huge problem in the UFC in the heavyweight division. I forgot how much he was kicking the shit out of Frank Meir in that fight. before the knee bar happens. Like, I remember, like, loosely in my head, like, oh, he was doing better than we expected, but it's like, no, he was running over Frank Meir. And then Frank throws up sort of a Hail Mary knee bar that also Brock sort of just gave him kind of for free. It was a rookie mistake is what happened.

But I forgot until he went and rewatched it, how dominant Brock was in that fight. So totally understand the choice. Shaheen. Was that also your fourth? I had, I gave it heavy consideration. duration because again there's just such there's not a wealth of picks here if you want to go just MMA not a lot it didn't end up making my list but I did enjoy the rewatch and one thing that really stuck out to me in the rewatch Frank Mere really just an underrated orator right like an

underrated interview sneaky great interview like throughout his entire life more or less and like used to be a phenomenal announcer I loved him in the WEC yeah he was great yeah he was a great color commentator WAC. But his pre-fight quote before this first fight in the little package they show, the little UFC package, Frank Meir, quote, I want to rip the skin off his face. I want him to feel abused. I want his lungs to cave in. I want him to taste his own blood going down his throat.

I want him to feel pain for stepping anywhere near me. That is, I want to rip the skin off his face is incredible imagery. I applaud that. Was that before or after Octagon related death? remind me I think Octagon Related Death was the rematch right

Yeah I think that's right Okay yeah okay Also so this was a warm up to that That's great from Frank But like I have a warm up What What in Frank's entire

MMA history up to that point And frankly even after Is like any of the imagery He gave there Realistic towards the way he fights I want his lungs to collapse To rip his fate off And like no you just want to break

his arm, man. That's who you are. You're not, you're not this guy. You're not Justin Gachey. You break people's arms. It's so odd to me how the Fring Muir-Brock Blaser rivalry has almost just been lost to history. Like, it's so memorable. It's so iconic. And there's so many, like, good little moments. Like, moments that I had even forgotten. And I watched all this at the time. But it's just like, we gloss past it. But like, even in the rematch and the UFC 100 rematch, there's a moment like early in this fight I think it's in the first minute where Brock is kind of a top of Frank

he's kind of just sitting on top of him and he's holding him down with just like one hand on his throat like you would see in the movies how like an untrained person would just hold someone down just one hand on the throat and you would see Frank actually like

kind of look to himself in the camera and just be like huh this is actually working on me I can't believe this is working on me it's just it's just incredible man Jitsu's fake

when you're that level of a mutant. This is what Frank. Frank Mir was learning at that moment in time. When you're colossus, the rules don't apply to you. For me, though, I mean, my fourth Mount Rushmore came, I mean, I just kind of defaulted to Heath Herring, because as Mike was saying, the UFC was just looking for anything. The UFC was looking for one good win, one any win, won anything to be able to get this guy into a title opportunity.

And Heath Herring ended up being that guy. and obviously the main highlight from that fight is him knocking him down and just like Brock basically breaking He's orbital bone with a punch that looked like it barely had anything behind it is again just so emblematic of who this guy is but that was kind of the okay you might be pretty legit moment it felt like so that was where I would my fourth I'll uh that was that was my first alternate if I wasn't going to do Undertaker it would have been I'll also just step on a future award for me saying uh my Randolplex is Brock dropping he and then the bowl charge after is still one of like the funniest most terrifying things I've

ever seen in the sport he's so low to the ground and like actually just looks like a charging bowl it's unbelievable and it or like the the rodeo highlight at the end is also uh really really nice so that step in on that but yeah that's my randolplex as well so is that's my rinalplex as well yeah look at us all go that wasn't mine so there we go I don't I love this. I'm now really excited to see where Stephen comes in because this is, Stephen, your Mount Rushmore appears to be quite different and I'm,

I seed the floor to you. Let's go through it. Yeah, I didn't mean it to be this big dramatic thing, but the question and the issue I was encountering when agreeing to do this was, was how do you come up with a Mount Rushmore four slots with a fight career that essentially is four wins? I mean,

he beat Mark Hunt, he beat Munsuk, Kim, but that wasn't really as heyday. That was sort of like the start start. So I chose to put him on the Mount Rushmore of four different categories in the sport. One, free agents. He is in the Mount Rushmore of free agents. They couldn't get Fador. Stephen Paul's free all too. No, that was the most dramatic pause ever. He's back. Okay. Oh, I'm back. Okay. You're back. You said number Go from number one because then we lost you. You said number one and then it was just silence and it was the most dramatic thing.

Number one is he's on the Mount Rushmore of free agents. Okay. He couldn't get Fador. They got Brock, right? He's on the Mount Rushmore of sport crossovers. What he was able to do in the time that he did it, considering Tony, punk, Hager, Shob, all. these other guys who were crossover guys.

He's on the Mount Rushmore of bankable stars. He was McGregor before McGregor. And then he's also on the Mount Rushmore of heavyweight champions by virtue of the fact that he defended twice and only Stipe Amiatich. As we said before, it's a tie. But he still deserves to be on that Mount Rushmore just given the history of the division. So that's four different Mount Rushmore's he can be on as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I hate that the heavyweight thing is probably right, right?

Like, Stipe is definitely there. Kane probably there. I guess Randy for the first time. Man, the heavyweight weight classes historically not very good fellas. Yeah, it's very easy to get beaten. And Tim Sylvia, Cain Velasquez, Couture, you know, those are the two timers, and only Mietich was better. So he, to me, he deserves to be on that.

And I, that was the last category I thought of, but I'm like, I looked at his record. I looked at the title defenses and the division, and it made sense to me. I can't argue. And I absolutely agree in the other ones. On a couple of those, I have something sort of tangential to them in some upcoming categories. So I definitely agree with all of that. And see, look, this is why we have multiple people. You can have different perspectives, particularly on a more limited fighter like Brock Lesnar's career has offered to us.

Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won. One.

Boarding will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665331-260 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.

Next category. The I'm not impressed by your performance award. I'm not impressed by your performance. My George St. Pierre could use a little work, but I thought that was nice. I thought that was really well done. We did okay. We're getting there. We're working on it.

We've got the sound drop, so it'll save it. This is for the low point in the fighter's career. And I think this one could have a whole lot of opportunity here, depending on how creative you wanted to get with it, ladies and gentlemen. So, Stephen, let's go right back to you. What's your, I'm not impressed by your performance award? Yeah, I would say Alistair Overeem, because he got the breaks beaten off of him. And this was, yeah, not a competitive fight, really where his main deficit as a fighter was exposed in very clear detail. Guy doesn't like to get hit. Guy doesn't like to get hit hard.

Alistorvream hit him really hard several times. So all those criticisms that he was, people were sort of waiting for like, you know, he's a great wrestler. He's a physical specimen. He can athlete his way into wins. And yes, he did have the comeback in the Carwin fight.

And I will get to that in later categories. But this was a fight where he just wilted essentially. And he looked like the criticisms that were, levied against him or early in his career, like when people were thinking about his downfall, basically. Yeah, I thought that this would be a very popular choice if everyone was looking real strict here. Sean, it's not a popular choice, but Sean, is shaking his head. So, Sean, go ahead. That's right. Shaheen, defend our King Brock Lesner and his upset tummy.

I've just never, because this is a prevailing narrative that, I mean, we've been hearing this for since this fight happened. I've just never subscribed to it because the man lost 12 inches of his intestines or his colon. Like right before this fight and then got kicked in the guts right where all that would be. Like I can't, I can't fault the man for like going through two extreme bouts with diverticulitis and almost dying and again losing 12 inches of his colon.

And then like you kick him in the colon and he goes down. To me that was never representative of like the Brock doesn't like to get hit. Did he get kicked in the colon? I mean, he's really going to kick in the guts. If you think of the colon as the broader stomach area, then yes. He definitely got meat in there real hard. Real hard. I'm totally on Shaheen's side here.

I think he got kicked in the liver. He got kicked in the liver. I'm from him on Shaheen side here. If you take a bunch of my guts out of my body and then Uberim knees me in the liver, full horse meat Uber. And this is like a horsemate Uberim. This is a tough scene. Juice to the gills. Absolutely juice to the gills.

You know, definite ascric. In that, so it's fine. Yeah, I mean, yeah, obviously. It all evens out. This man had been getting through so much just with his midsection. Like, his midsection is, God, had ruined his life. And like, you kick him. Multiple surgeries.

Yeah. You kick him in the midsection. He's probably going to go down. I don't know. I, like, I understood the Brock doesn't like to get punched thing. But to me, the Shane Carwin fight beat that out of existence. and that it's just like, yeah, you got kicked in the guts by Alstrelvary. Like, yeah, I can't fault you for that, man.

I don't know. Like, I've never crapped on him for that fight because I could see very well where he was coming from in that fight. For those who are unaware, Brock Lesnar, I don't know how you would be unaware, but maybe. Brock Lesnarcelsner, like a big portion of his career was diverticulitis, which is a gastrointestinal disease. but here's the quote I pulled from Wikipedia on this because it's horrifying. Lesnar underwent surgery to close a perforation in his intestine that had been leaking fecal matter into his abdomen, causing pain, abscesses, and overtaxing his immune system to the point that he contracted mono.

From the level of damage to Lesnar's system, the surgeon estimated the intestinal condition had been ongoing for about a year. That was the first surgery before he got 12 inches of colon removed. a year and a half later or whatever that time frame is. I am not a medical doctor. If I have a hole in my gut that's leaking poo into my stomach, I think that sounds real bad and pretty un... It seems real hard to be a high-level athlete

with that particular problem going on. So shouts to you, Brock Lesnar, for working through that as best you can. Shaheen, then what is your... I'm not impressed by your performance award. I mean, for me, I went UFC 200. I think there's a lot of options here. This man had a lot of faults. There's so many options in this one.

You can be creative. I think the UFC 200 debacle is sort of the one that stood out to me the most. It was an obvious cash grab. It was a terrible fight. It kind of ruined Mark Hunt's career both professionally and financially. I don't know how much money Mark Hunt ended up paying because of the court cases that he filed against the UFC, but he lost all of them. Those hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So it kind of ruined Mark Hunt's life in a way. and just so many steroids. Man was on all the steroids. I get it. That's who he is. You sign Brock Leasner, you assume he's on the steroids. But like that,

everything about that. And also, like, you even throw in the aerial stuff and just everything about the Brock Lezzer UFC 200 experience was just bad. Yes.

It was all bad. It was just so funny to me because it was so obvious. And then, like, that's why the Marc-Hunt lawsuit, like I, you got to do what you got to do man but almost immediately when this happened like

because this was my first year with m a fighting was 2016 and we were we were talking about it at something and i was like i don't know did you not know like i feel like we all knew what was up mark like they sure they might have told you but like people tell you lots of things my parents told me about santa claus when i was eight and then you figure it out like you could just understand what was about to happen mark on and then it obviously went into a a long and sustained ordeal. But yeah, this was the most obvious thing ever.

And then the fact that it ended up being what it was, was what it was. So there you have it. And the fight sucked. Like, the fight was terrible. The fight was important. Yeah. It was objectively very bad.

Yeah. He just took him down a bunch. The fight was what you would expect from a guy coming from a five-year layoff with one skill set against a, you know, world-class striker. I mean, it's, yeah. Wasn't destined for greatness. He wasn't a particularly good defensive wrestler either. Yeah.

She's going to sit on him. It was great. It's highly effective. He got the bag and he left and helped Amanda Nunes headline a 100 million pay-per-view card, which is impressive. Mike, what's your? I'm not impressed by his performance. So I went a little off the board here, much like you did in the first round.

I almost went to the Overeem one, but then I remember just funny memories from that night watching that fight because I had people over to watch it. And every one of us has a friend who watches like one fight. three years but thinks they know everything. So I had one, this one friend shows up and he was a little bit in the bag. And he was a huge Uber-Reem fan. I loved the fact that Overeem was on all the sauce and it wasn't hiding it and just loved it. And he came in just storming around.

He's singing and dancing. I'm like, what are you so happy about? He goes, he goes, Overeem is going to kick knee and punch Brock Lezzer in the Diverticus over and over again. The Diverticus. He's going to get him in the Diverticus. I'm like, I'm like, what the hell is Diverticus? he goes, he's sick. He's got DeVerdicus.

So he's got a neem and the DeVerdicus. I'm like, you mean diverticulitis? He did this for like 15 straight minutes and I had to correct him. And it was like I took his soul from him. But I'm going to the world of please. Very brief on that fight. Just because I didn't have this note down. I love the poster for this event.

It is just Brock and Overeem standing shoulder to shoulder looking like two big, beefy men with giant bold letters underneath them. 6 foot 3, 265, 6 foot 5, 256, it doesn't get any bigger than this. Just classic UFC marketing machine, baby. I love that. They should have nicknamed that card, like, beefy. UFC. It's such a missed opportunity.

Because they couldn't have been that far away from doing the, still doing the stupid names. They were still, I think that was like right around the era where they were starting to stop. And they were going back to the names. But that's actually, like, not to step on categories, that was one of my two picks for the merch, the memorabilia category. I just love that poster so much. It's such a dumb poster. Like you were saying.

I went with WrestleMania 20, him and Bill Goldberg. Like the match everybody wanted as soon as like Goldberg showed up to WWE, they built it all up and then they did it at MSG and like one of the biggest events of all time. And it was clear neither guy wanted to be there. and the match sucked and they got booed out of the building and both guys left. That was their last match, at least for that.

Who won? That time. I don't even remember. I think Goldberg won. I just remember Stone Cold stunned both of them and looked like a hero and drank a bunch of beer in the middle of the ring. But yeah.

What a great gimmick that is. To just drink, drinking beer being a gimmick is a great gimmick. It was really bad. It was really bad. And then both guys just left and we didn't see him again for years. I'm excited because I pointedly let everyone else

go because I went way off the board on this one. You know, you could do, you could do Overeem, you could do Cain, you could do any of these things. I'm going with one that's maybe not directly Brock's bad performance, but it's indirectly his fault, and I'm blaming this all on him. And that's the MMA career of CM Punk. CM Punk does not get to come to the UFC and do that travesty that he did. if Brock doesn't come over and be the champion. And even though it's different,

even though Brock had a background and like it wasn't totally unreasonable, that was part of the sale. Seampunk never is in the UFC if Brock isn't. I believe that to my bones. And that was a really bad part of this sport. And I'm pretty happy that it didn't happen. Or I would be happier if it didn't happen. And I'm pretty happy we're past it.

So that's my not impressed. I don't know that that's true. That's a great bank shot there. I don't know if that's true either. Yeah, I think that happens. Oh, boy. You think that happens. Yeah, I do.

I do think that happens. I do too. I just, I firmly don't think, Jed, I mean, look, I mean, clearly, I mean, there's certain parts of the professional wrestling world that have hit your radar. But CM Punk leaving WWE in the way that he did it in him telling the story of how he did it was one of the biggest stories in the history of professional wrestling. Like, Punk was already a big star in WWB, but when he loved, left that company and then decided to try this UFC thing. Punk was a name. Everybody was talking about this guy.

He was in terms of like pop culture, punk was like one of the most trending people in all of pop culture at the time. And to have a guy with that stature say, you know what? I'm not going to another professional wrestling promotion. I'm going to do this real fighting thing. There's no doubt in my mind the UFC would have locked him up. Now, I don't know. I don't.

The Brock thing obviously helped. It's obviously helped. But does he even want to come to MMA if Brock doesn't come to MMA and do that, though? I think so. I think so. First of all, he knew a lot of those. I've always blamed Brock for him. Well, he knew a lot of those guys already up in that area, up in the Rufus sport area.

He was in. I think the, Mike, again, correct me if I'm wrong. But like, I don't even know much about wrestling in the pipe bomb promo. infiltrated my world. That's like one of the only promos I ever have like watched in full and no in full and could tell you about. I've seen that and the the Randy Savage one with the creamer. I've seen that one because that one's really fucking funny. And it felt like to me. That was a transcendent moment. It felt like to me throughout CM Punk's sort of career in pro wrestling up to that point that he was always trying to prove to everybody that he was a real tough guy. And it felt

like it's like this was the natural conclusion to that of like, okay, I'm going to try to prove that in a real way. But he's not. You know that now. Yeah. I think we knew. He's the actual worst fighter that's ever step foot in the octagonas. But by my calculations, he's the worst fighter in MMA history.

Maybe not MMA history. Certainly UFC history. Next category. The, who the fuck is that guy award? Who the fuck is that guy? For the weirdest, strangest opponent of the fighter's career, I went a little off the board with this one as well, so I'll lead us off here because it's not a traditional,

who the fuck is that guy. Look, you can pick Minceukem, it's fine if you want to do that. Nine fights, there's not a lot of them. This is where I chose to put my man, Kane Velasquez. Now, you're saying, we all know who the fuck that guy is. UC Heavyweight Champion. It's great. I remember distinctly at the time,

Brock having brought all his fans over and then being like, who the fuck is that guy that's about to fight Brock Lesnar? Brock's the baddest dude in the planet. He's going to beat the hell out of him. And this is the single greatest bet I've ever made in my entire gambling life because I had watched them fight and I knew that Kane Velazquez was going to absolutely just rub his shoes all over Brock. This fight wouldn't be competitive.

And Kane Velasquez was the betting underdog. and God tell you, it was the most fun I've ever had taking money from all of the Brock fans who did know who the fuck Kane Velasquez was. So that's why I put him here. Totally understand if you don't agree with this choice, but he's here from me. Shahim, who do you have for the who the fuck is that guy?

I just have to say the Kane Velasquez fight is one of my, like, strongest memories of watching the UFC pre-working in the MMA industry because I like you was some mildly aware of Kane Velasquez and what he was good at it, but also like the fact that like basically if you were into the forums and everything, like you kind of understood like this dude's probably going to just be the most dominant heavyweight we had ever seen at that point in time. Also you're muted.

I know you're talking right now. And I remember. If you're on the forums, everyone knew. We were all aware. And he was the underdog. And I went to watch this fight at a hooters with one of my best friends at the time who, who was a gigantic Brock Lesnar Mark,

gigantic, to this day, this man is a gigantic Brock Lesnar Mark. He will talk about F-5s all day, even without bringing it up. And he was so convinced that Kane Velazquez was about to get washed

by this giant man, and everyone in that Hooters was so convinced that Brock Lesnar was going to make this look easy, and I was just sitting there kind of leaning back, I don't think this is going to go, how everybody thinks this is going to go. And then the stunned disbelief

that unfolded over those few minutes will always be a sensation of feeling in the air that I will remember as just something quite delightful. It was just people's worlds being shattered. It was like straight up, this is probably the single fight that made me be like, I should gamble on MMA.

Like that's a thing that I should do because obviously these people are idiots. Everyone knew. All of the people on the forums like, he's going to kill Brock. This isn't going to be competitive. And then he was an underdog. I was like, okay.

And it was great. I love it. So, I love, this is one of my favorite fights of all time for that reason alone, sentimentally. Just the worldview shattering for some people. To see this small. A million people watch this on pay-per-view, and 98% of them did not know what was common.

To see this small, much smaller, like kind of out-of-shape-looking dude who was very much not out-of-shape, do this to him. Just tremendous. No, I mean, I just, my answer for the actual category that we're doing, was pretty boring. I just did Kim Min-Soo because what else is there really? Although you look at Kim Min-su's record, it's pretty wild. Pretty wild.

Dude, it seems like being a, like, decorated judoka in the Asian market was an Olympic silver medalist. Was a death sentence around that time because they would just take you. And they did this to other guys, too, in pride and whatever. they would just take you and throw you up against the biggest, baddest, strongest dudes they had, and you were just going to get like five MMA losses, all of which were very quick. Like, that was just a thing that, a trend that happened constantly in that part of the world over this time period. And Kim Min-su-man, some of the killers that this dude fought, it's tough.

It's a tough, tough resume. Everyone has a wiki, and they're all, like most of them are very good and he loses to most of them. he should have been better at fighting. He also had some K-1 experience as kickboxing in a silver medalist judoka and just, I mean, you fought hard people, but just wasn't very good of fighting. So I think that that would be the chalk answer here.

Steven, what do you have for the who the fuck is that guy? Kind of a random one. I was just kind of looking around and thinking about a bunch of different possibilities, but mine is Len Bentley. who is Brock's first round pick on tough 13. Okay. And keep talking to me.

Okay. And it's the who the fuck is that guy comes up for me because apparently like they, this all comes out over this moment comes out over a matchup. Brock wins. Brock's team wins one of the early matchups. I think it's Chris Cope versus Javier Torres. So they're up and Brock, I guess, gives this motivational speech in the locker room, how the fighters went, you guys went from chicken shit to chicken salad.

And then that motivational speech does not have the intended effect. It pisses them all off. It pisses them all off because they're like, wait a minute, we're chicken. shit? We're not chicken shit. Like, this is how fighters think, you know, like, we're not chicken shit, man. We're chicken salad. We were always chicken salad. And so Len Bentley comes to practice and Len Bentley is sulking. He's like very much sulking. Brock is told that the reason why they're sulking is because of this chicken shit comment. So Brock sits everyone down and goes, hey, I just want to clear the air on this chicken salad conversation. It's the funniest fucking line in the history of that show, because I have that as one of the many things I have in the quote section.

I just want to clarify this chicken shit chicken salads issue. And it's just, he says it so earnestly. Because like to this group of people who are very upset with him. It's very Seinfeld, Larry David, like you could play the music. I mean, it's perfect comedy. like and then and then and then and then and then the cut two of brock is chicken salad yeah and that's that's the the the cap up to that whole his explanation great too it's like yeah look all of you were chicken shit before you joined this show you were just one of two million fighters

now you're chicken salad he's so earnest with it it's so funny I'm glad someone else caught this Len Bentley. Len Bentley is feeling hurt. Len Bentley. Mike, who do you have for the I'm not impressed, or I'm sorry, who the fuck is that guy award?

I went the same with Shaheen, but for like a different reason, one, just the resume, Brock Lezzer, Don Fry, Bob Sapp, Ray Cepo.

But he does have a win over another former WWE wrestler, Sean O'Hare. So he has actually been in the, his competitive repeated in mixed martial arts boats against not one, but two former WWE wrestlers, Brock Lesnar and Sean O'Hare.

He defeated Sean O'Hare in 2005 via Gilly first round for K1 Heroes. So I thought that was kind of interesting. That is. I really thought somebody would do this, so I didn't. My first alternate here was Stephen Neal. so Stephen Neal is the guy who beat him for the NCAA National Championships in I don't remember the year 1999 just looked it up and then

Stephen Neal ironically went and did what Brock did where he went and played football he's like all right I'm done he didn't do the pro wrestling thing he was just like I'm just gonna go play football and played for me Super Bowl champ for the Patriots. Yeah, Super Bowl champ for the Patriots played for them for like 10 years. Like, I just sort of assume that that's how Brock was like, I can do this.

I wrestled Stephen Neal and he did this. I can definitely do the same thing. And fuck, almost pulled it off. So Stephen Neal is my runner up there. Anyone have anyone else who want to talk about here or should we move on? I have a late entry that I just uncovered while we were talking. Let's go. I'd like to submit to the panel for.

Who the F would that is that guy? Brock Lezor himself, because he was seemingly apparently in Madden NFL 06. That's how ridiculous all this was. He was a defensive tackle free. Was he really? He was a defensive tackle free agent and Madden NFL 06,

so you could sign Brock Lesnar to be part of your team. Guess his overall rating? There was literally the question I was about to ask. 91? No, no chance, 91. As a free agent? I play a lot of Madden. as a free agent, 73.

69. That's about right, yeah. I mean, I thought they might give him a little boost because he's, you know, Brock Lesnar, but yeah, that sounds right. I wish someone who, if someone out there right now is listening to this and you have Madden NFL 06, look this up, please, please hook up whatever system you need and look this up and then send it to us because I really want to know. What was his potential? What was the potential rating for him?

Because I'm sure he's a 69, but I want to know if his potential. is like a 96 and he's capable of just becoming like an NFL all pro in that game. I mean, just start grinding with him. Just get him 100 sacks a season. See what happens. That's what I'm saying. That's a great poll, Shaheen.

I didn't even think to do that. Next category with the Randolplex Award. This is for the best single highlight of the fighter's career. I already tip mine. It is dropping Heath Haring and then charging at him like an actual bull with a special shout out to at the end of that fight. him doing the rodeo lasso over top of Heath Haring

as he is about to be announced the winner. Sheen, I believe you also said that this was yours. Is that right? Who said that this was theirs? I think. Oh, Stephen and might both have this. Okay. I think I'm the only one without it.

That's right. Shaheen is the one who this isn't his. Shaheen, what's your Randolplex award? I don't know that this works, but for me, it's like whatever, all the various 32nd montages of the carwin fight because that can just be put together into just a tremendous both guy but big guys walking in first round happens and then second round happens and then you see the

result like that 30 second tic-tok video that i'm sure exists is got to be spectacular that's what our ticot should be it should just be us doing that just this fight you don't need to watch the full five-minute first round it's oh Shane hurts him punches him in the arms for the next four minutes and then the fight resets and then that's how it goes. Next category. This one has a lot of opportunity in it. It's the

right leg hospital, left leg cemetery ward for the best quote by or about Brock Lesnar. So I'll say I had the turn chicken shit in this chicken salad. That whole scenario is under here for me, Stephen. Also,

I of course led the show with the iconic, can you see me now? Can you see me now? But I have a whole bunch of other ones here. So I don't, I don't want to monopolize the conversation. Who would like to proffer their quotes by or about Mr. Brock Lesnar? I can go first. This is pretty freaking easy. There's a lot to choose from, but this one is the one that I thought was, I actually laughed hysterically and was actually questioned whether or not this was actually said. And then good old rewind on the deep. VR and you realize this is exactly what he said.

WrestleMania 31. Brock Lezder is wrestling Roman Reigns, and he starts suplexing him around. And at the time, they, WWD did a great job marketing, Brock Lezder taking you to Suplex City. And they had all these t-shirts with suplex city,

and then they would put like whatever town you're in. So Brock, like, suplex is Roman a bunch times. And then Roman, like, gets up and Brock just looks at him and just goes, suplex city bitch and it was like what and that's what it was and then that became this like whole thing suplex city bitch for like the rest of his w w uvd dude that is again i assume that professional wrestling is quite difficult right like it seems like a very physically exhausting thing have you ever suplex somebody it's fucking awful like it's so tiring to physically lift a human and throw them over

older and to just be like doing that to people as you're like move seems like a really hard move to have to follow through on as opposed just like kicking them in the face or whatever not even not even doing that to people but doing that to actual giants like over and over and the f5 is setting them on a rotation right isn't that the whole thing with the f5 like set them on a yeah so it's a fireman carries and then spin them throw them like all All of that seems exhausting to do to like over and over and over again. So suplex city. Uh, Shaheen, what do you have for right leg hospital, left leg cemetery?

So I had a couple, um, a couple that were said about him. One, one that just made me chuckle. It's probably- Oh, I don't have any set about him, so that's, that's fun. Two that were said about him, one that just really made me chuckle and it's not even that good, but it's just like it was, it was very, again, emblematic of what was very, going on. It was ready to get to her right after he lost and Joe Rogan's asking him about it. And he's just, he's just kind of like speechless. He doesn't really know what to say. He's like, that's just a big sumna bitch. That's all there is to it.

It's just like put that on his fucking put that on his tombstone on his headstone. That's just a big sum of the bitch. That's all there is to it. It's, it's so fitting too. Because like, think about the way he beat Randy. Just like, you talked about it with dropping Heath Haring without like a punch that really looks all that forceful. He'd never had good punching mechanics in his whole life, realistically. And the punch he drops Randy and like, Randy is just jacked up after that fight. If you watch it, he, like after probably takes too many shots, but I can see not like not, like letting the fight play out.

And then for like a few minutes after that, Randy's still like wobbly and not getting up just because, and he just gets clipped like seemingly lightly behind the ear. And he's just done. he's just gone because he's a big sum bitch. This is a 45-year-old man. Some poor 45-year-old guy. I just take it all these like weird the Brock, like you said Mike,

the Brock Lesden like rabbit, furious rabbit punch is ground and pound. It's like, chip and ice. So supremely effective. It's such a weird way. Chip and ice. Thank God.

Thank God this is an audio podcast. We can't see the motions we're all making. Then one of the one of the other. violation. The other one said about Brock that stood out to me. I mentioned John Snowden

before, he's a buddy of mine. He's super, super, super big Brock Lezor fan. He had spoken to Frank Meere in 2010 for something. I don't know what it was. And this was Frank Mear in 2010 to John Snowden about Brock Lezor.

I had always been taught that being a big strong guy wasn't enough to win fights. You learn martial arts because you believe technique and intellect can defeat size. But he taught me strength and size do matter.

he showed me the air of my ways. This is, that's tremendous honesty. I love it. But I mean, that is a cold quote. Like that's a hard realization. I spent my whole life,

I have a big, strong man myself, spend my whole life learning technique to realize this bullshit. It's like your, dude, it's like your quote about Daniel Cormier from who,

who was it that said the quote about Daniel Cormier? The like, oh, you work real, hard. You spend your whole life. You work real hard and like you're going to be the best. And then that's bullshit. Who said that? I wish I could tell you. I think it was Pat Cummins. Pat Cummins had, it was definitely Pat Cummins. It was definitely Pat Cummins. It's like, yeah, you work real hard.

Ah, it's bullshit. Like some people just have it. That's Frank Meir doing the same thing. But I mean, ultimately the one that won for me. Obviously, I'm going to go home. I'm going to drink Korslight. That's a Korslight because Budlight won't pay me nothing that I'm going to sit down. I might even got top of my wife tonight. That's, that's probably the winner. but for me I had what he said right before it, which is Frank Meir had a horseshoe up his ass. I told him that a year ago. I pulled that son to bitch out,

and I beat him over the head with it. Ooh. I have the exact quote, and the woo is so critical to selling it. He's so happy. The woo is all caff. He's so happy about it. It's like, yeah, I see why this guy got popular.

I totally understand why he was the biggest star in the company. for a couple of years there. For someone who hated talking and who hated promos and who hated trash talking, guys preternaturally good at it. Like, there are too many good lines. Well, yeah, I also remember this was a in-Octagon thing. Remember his media days?

How just riveting those were? I mean, he gets to the, like, God does not like to talk, hates the media, you know, generally doesn't open up, but you put him in the octagon after when, is adrenaline flowing, and all of a sudden, there's the guy that we kind of see and the ring and the WWE ring

and a different side of him comes out. And so, I mean, for me, I'll jump to mine. Like, mine is the same thing. It's like, it wasn't even the horse shoe up the ass. I didn't think that was that great. But when he said, and hell, I might even get on top of my wife, that was just the right amount of whimsy and humor that I needed to take me over the line.

Like, I hate pro wrestling. I despise pro wrestling. I've always despised it, except for wrestlers on Netflix. I really like, that show. But I was like, okay, you won me over. That was legit funny. I think this would be the obvious winner.

I thought coming in that that, like most of us would have it. Because it is, dude, it's hilarious. And you're right. You're right, Stephen. He's super boring outside of it. But you get him with a little adrenaline, feeling himself ready to go. He's going to drop some heaters on you. But this, I did.

didn't choose that. I chose one that is not as iconic or as memorable, but really to me kind of drives at who Brock Lesnar wasn't in a way that I don't think he gets enough appreciation for or enough respect for. And it's just him understanding the game in a way that very few other people did at the time. If anyone did at the time, and only a handful have sense. I know what this is going to be. I think this was an interview with ESPN ahead of 200 being interview about like coming back and it's I'm a prize fighter titles don't pay bills I fight for money I'm making money they're making money everybody's making money that's what this is all about that's it nobody has ever said the the quiet part of this sport out loud more succinctly or effectively I'm a

prize fighter I fight for prizes I don't fight for some stupid ass belt at UFC 200 I fight for this enormous paycheck they're going to give me and more fighters since then have kind of adopted that. And it's the truth of the matter. So there's a bit of sage work from him. And I felt that I wanted to recognize that. Next category, the nitpick award. This is, if you could change one thing about the fighter,

you know, their walkout, their music, something like that. What would it be? I chose very simply the tattoo. I think it's time we have the conversation about the tattoo. you fellas. I know that he has many tattoos, but I believe we all understand the tattoo that is being spoken about here.

It's the chest piece that is nominally a sword, but also has a very rounded tip and was likened to, you know, I'll let you Google a picture if you've never seen Brock Lesnar, and you can probably figure out what I'm talking about.

So if I could change anything about, Brock's career, I would just get rid of that. Just get rid of the sword and move on with our lives. What about y'all? I'll open floor for discussion here. What do we think he was thinking when it comes to that tattoo? Because there's no way that nobody told him what that looks like. There's no way he doesn't know what that looks like. He has eyeballs. He is capable of vision. So I don't, I could never tell if it was like intentional and and I just don't know. I truly do not know. Do you think Sable like stifled a laugh when she first saw it when it, you know, first took a shirt out of honey, I got this new tattoo. Do you mean like do you think that it's like she, you know, told him what's what? I almost like

I mean, it's probably a part of Brock too that probably got it and knew it and it was like, who's going to say it? Who's going to say some of my face about it? I feel like that, it's almost like, I've always wondered if it's almost like the weirdest version of a power move where like he knows exactly what it is. But it's just like, I dare you to say something. I'm going to get this really dumb thing and I dare anybody to tell me about it. Which I respect. Like if that's the move, I guess that's true. No one's going to say it to you.

Something tells me Brock doesn't have that level of forethought. It's super weird. And you hear like his quotes about it. he i've never heard i couldn't find anywhere where he addressed it being what it looks like he just treats it as if it's a tattoo of a sword that looks like a tattoo of a sword nothing else and so if it's a bit it's a terrific bit but i'm not sure that that he adds that in him you know what about uh mike stephen uh sheen what do you guys have here so like i wouldn't honestly I really wouldn't change anything about his career.

So like the only thing I could come up with. Not even the sword. But again, I think it's probably a bit. So I think there's something to that. Honestly, like the one thing I could come up with, I was like, I wish for one fight one day, just if this is actually possible, that Brock Lesnar could shrink into a bantam weight

and just fight at bantam weight. I don't know why I thought that, but I was like just a mini Brock Lesnar. for one fight. I just want to see what that looks like. Like, Mini Brock against Marab would just be the best. And I can't,

like, I can't nickpick any, anything about his UFC career at this point. Like, obviously there's things you can nitpick about, you know, the positive drug tests and some of the bad performances. But, like,

that's all, like, part of his story. His story isn't as interesting without those things. And to some degree. So, yeah, I don't know why that's what I,

I put in Mini Brock as my nitpick. but it's not even really a nitpick because there's not much I would change about his UFC run and his MMA run. It's so weird to... How about his WWU run? It's not much I would change about that either. It's just Brock.

Like, he's the same dude and it obviously worked for him. He works like the least amount of dates of anybody on the roster and probably makes more money than anybody on the roster. So whatever he's doing, it works. Yeah, he's got it made. It's so weird too because it's like, I haven't ever thought of a bantamweight Brock Lesnar, but it like, is that just Sean Shirk?

Like, is Brock Lesnar work as a bantam weight when you have a specific sort of like limit of like how big you can actually be? But Sean Shirk was not as athletic as Brock. Also, he had very athletic. Yeah. That's fair. He had a little T-Rex arms too. But Brock would have to have like the same size fists. Like Montel Jackson's a bandwain.

He has the same, he wears the same size gloves Brock did as a bantam weight. So that's possible. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my nitpick. It's an interesting thought. Yeah, it's one I haven't really thought of before. I like it.

But also, yeah. I don't know. Brock Lesnar is the most gorilla human I've ever, like the closest I've ever seen a human being look like a gorilla is Brock Lesnar. I don't know how that works at Bantamweight. I give you shrink that down. But that's so interesting about it.

Like, give me Demetri's Johnson versus this version of Brock Lesnar. I'm in a minute. Oh, my God. Can you imagine Bantamweight Brock? I mean seven Dimitius Johnson's versus Brock Lesner, just in general. Let's see what happens there. How many DJs does it take to beat a Brock Lesner? The seven best fly weights in the world right now versus Brock Lesnar.

I mean, to me. Bull charging through the wall? In terms of nitpicks, there's a lot, right? You can do the steroids. You could do the speed running to the title shot. The guy, the fact that he kind of beat a light heavyweight for the belt, a geriatric light heavyweight. But like Mike said, that's the story, man.

Like, I don't know. I don't, I wouldn't change it. If anything, my nitpick would be, I want more. I wish we got more. I wish the diverticulitis didn't hit him in the way that it did and really ruin this. Because it didn't feel like at that moment in time, even though I said at the top, like in the moment it felt like we were watching a fleeting thing and you almost had to treasure it because you knew this wasn't going to last.

It did feel like he was all in. Like he was actually fully committed, his whole life committed to doing this. this. And it was only until after his body was just ravaged that he went back the other way. And I just wish we could have gotten more. Because I mean, he seemed like he had more to give, certainly. So he's got, he has a quote out out there about that saying, basically that, that he feels that diverticulitis robbed him of his sort of best fighting years and that, you know, he was still in there. Moving back to professional wrestling was to some extent a part of that, partly caused by that.

And so that was originally my choice for this, was just, let's, if I could remove the diverticulitis from him, aside from doing that because that would be a great medical marvel to pull off myself. You know, we get four or five more Brock fights. I don't think we get a ton,

but if we get a few more, like they were always big business. They were always super fun. So yeah, I'm totally with you on that. Steven, what do you have here? If he had hands,

like if he was a good striker, you know? He was... He had a lot of hands, like physically had very much hands. That's what I'm saying. We're talking about the Couture Knockout a second ago. The reason why is because Randy didn't, he didn't, he wasn't used to cutting angles on a guy with four XL gloves. He literally didn't get out of the way far enough.

He thought he was, but he wasn't in the clear. And that's why he got clipped. So it's like, imagine if he would have developed his striking skill set. Imagine if he didn't, you know, if he did like to mix it up, if he didn't, again, I'm hammering on this, but didn't imagine if he liked to get punched, get in the, get in the zone and actually mix it up with those hands and have some, some actual skills as opposed to this sort of flinging sort of thing that he used to do.

Just horrible mechanics. Yeah, just horrible punching mechanics. I mean, he would have been that Kane Velasquez fight would have been a lot more competitive. because to me that was kind of the big the big set. I mean, Kane was one of the best heavyweights ever for that reason because he was so well-rounded because he was not just a great wrestler, but he also was a great MMA striker and an MMA boxer kickboxer. And if Brock had had something like that, that might have been more competitive, you know,

and if also Brock, you know, had the stomach, well, had the stomach for, you know, getting in the pocket and mixing it up, that fight might have been different. And then that's kind of a sliding doors moment. I mean, yeah, a whole bunch of stuff could happen. We'll get into sliding doors in a minute, though. But you mentioned something important there. You mentioned the 4xel gloves,

which brings us to our next category, the Fedor Sweater of Absolute Victory Award for a piece of memorabilia you would want. The obvious choice for me here was those 4xel gloves because, guys, they had to make. make him new gloves. That was the whole Mike Goldberg got very excited. They've never had a man with hands this big in the sport guys. Got to get 4xl. Give me the 4xel gloves. I don't usually want gloves, but in this instance, I'll take them for my piece of memorabilia. Me too. I'm, I'm on

the same page with you. And I actually talk to John Owano about this because I've been doing some research on gloves. I've done a lot of research on gloves for a story. And he was talking about how the UFC called them up and said, hey, we need gloves for rock. We just don't have anything. Because I think at the time they were a century, and Century was a pretty widely hated glove that the UFC made at the time. It was a glove that followed Iwano, which everybody seemed to like a lot better. And he was talking about how it was kind of a funny thing where you look in the cage,

everyone's wearing different, you know, these one kind of gloves. And then Brock's wearing his own gloves, which are the Owanos, the old school ones. It happened again. So it was an interesting little tidbit. So yeah, that would be my, that would be my piece of memorabilia as well. Steven, for the sake of it, we lost you there for a stretch. So you could run it back from if you look in the, just do the whole resection so I can re-ed it around it. It stopped when you said, if you look in the cage.

Yep. Okay, so I did some research on MMA gloves and the UFC clubs in particular for a story. And it turns out that the Awano gloves, those were the custom gloves that Brock was wearing it at UFC 100. They were specifically made for him there because the centuries, which what they had previous didn't fit. Centuries were also roundly hated by a lot of fighters because of the way that they were constructed. So UFC calls up Awano, John Awano, and says, hey, we need some special gloves for this guy. We don't have anything that'll fit him. So it's just kind of an interesting piece of little, little interesting piece of history.

And I think those gloves, those first gloves that they had to make and would be a great piece of memorabilia. Boom. It's perfect when we create our independent MMA Hall of Fame like Aeryl is always going on about. Brock Lesnar's quad XL gloves, they're going right in the corner of the room. Mike, what do you have for the fader sweater of absolute victory award? It's the Mitz. It's the Mitz. Easy answer.

It's the Mitz. Boom. Shaheen, are we making this? Those were actually eclipsed, by the way, by Shane Carwin. Shane Carwin was 5XL. Yeah, that's very true. Great point. I don't think I remembered that.

Yeah, Joe Rogan was described as... Joe Rogan orgasmically explained it a couple times during that paper view. I'm pretty sure. He was very excited about it. I didn't have the gloves. That's actually an obvious pull. I should have had the gloves. For me, I was struggling.

You have the poster. what's the, because you said that one, what else did you have? Yeah, I had the over-im poster because it's so dumb. I love how dumb it is. Also, as I was watching the Carwin fight back, this other one popped up to me of the mouthpiece that Brock Lesnar shoves into Joe Rogan's front pocket during, he's going to sell on eBay? During the in cage interview, and then Rogan's like, I'm going to sell that on eBay.

That would be a funny thing to have. That's a good one. I almost put that one there. So I'm right here with you because I had to go back and rewatch that a couple of times. to make sure that's what happened. Because you hear Rojo be like, I'm going to sell it on eBay. And like, what is he talking about? And it's like, oh, he put something in his pocket.

Was that his mouthpiece? Oh, yeah, it was definitely his mouthpiece. That's for a weird thing for Brock to do. Ew. Yeah. It's just one of those things you do when you know that you're the largest human being in an area where like 20,000 human beings are and that no one could say anything to and you kind of just do whatever you want.

And like the only dude who theoretically could have, you just choked out. So, oh, you're good. You're cooking at that point. Next category, the Vib Tony Award for fight that never happened that you wanted to see. Opportunity here. So I think there's one very obvious one. I think there are a couple of fights that were booked or almost booked that didn't happen that we can shout out. But given how short his career was, you could have taken this a number of ways.

The obvious one, the low-hanging fruit and the one I ultimately chose begrudgingly. is Fadoor Emilianenko. I didn't really care to see that fight, frankly. I kind of thought Brock would just run over Fador because he's just simply a very, very large man, and Fador was at the end of his athletic prime. But Fador also hits real hard. Brock doesn't like to get hit.

Maybe something cool happens. That was certainly the one, you know, Dana White claimed that they offered Fador buttloads of money or something to that effect, and he didn't take it. I think that's the obvious one. That's where I went. Sheen, I saw you nodding your head.

Is this what you chose as well? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the easy pick, right? Because that was the biggest topic of discussion at that time. First, it was Randy versus Fedor for like a long time. And then once Brock sort of took that mantle, it was Brock versus Fedor. And that is one of those fights, too, that you could have seen that in Saitama. Like, that was at such a pride fight. That would make so much more sense.

inside Toma. If they did it at like UFC 112 or whatever, that would have been a bit of a letdown, right? Yeah. They're going to be in, they're going to do it in Dallas. They were going to do it in Dallas. In like Jerry World. I remember that. I actually went to that event. Yeah, in Jerry World. Yeah. I went to that event and I went and visited family and we had got

tickets and we didn't know what the main event was going to be. And then there was all these rumors and rumblings about Fador versus Brock. I'm like, holy crap. Like, no way. Is this the fight I'm going to get? And it turns out it wasn't. It wasn't. That was not the fight. It wasn't. It was not the funny. Mike,

does that mean you also chose Fador Brock? Well, real quick. So I defaulted. So I defaulted that. But I did have two. I had Fader Prime Fador versus, or I'm sorry, not Fader.

Brock versus D.C. Just because that almost happened. And that would have been funny. Holy shit. I totally forgot about that. Yeah. There was a lot of momentum for that. Yeah.

There was a lot, a lot of momentum for that. No, I'm in the cage. I totally forgot that that was a thing I don't know what that would have looked like but it would have been weird

and the lead up would have been really fun It would look like a little tubby DC beating the shit out of Brock but it would have been great Maybe maybe Yep who knows And also the one That like never would have happened

But like in an alternate universe Brock came around during Pride and this would have been the first fight Pride would have booked instantly Brock versus Bob said Yeah As soon as you start I started talking that.

I was like, I know where he's going. Don't let me down. You stuck the landing. Like Bob Sap, Nogara, Bob Sap era. No, like,

I'm so in on that. That would have been the biggest spectacle fight in history. I would be real clear. I'm still in on that tomorrow. Like, if you book that, I'm down. Do it.

Who cares? Fight circus. Let's go. Make that happen. If we're going to do Bob Sap, how about Hongman Choi? How about if he fought Hongman Choi? Just,

yeah, give me all the weirdos, dude. Give me all the giants. Brock could have had such a great Pride, weird freak show run in him Like that could have just been the most fun You could have had with this dude

Just fighting all the oddities In the weirdest shit that ever happened All the oddities and then you know He would have ended up fighting Vanderlai Silver or some shit too Like in an open weight tournament or something Like it would have been great We missed out I miss pride every day

I miss pride every day Uh Stephen what do you have here I have the low hanging for not a whole lot to add on this one. I mean, I think it was, I mean, one of the addendums to this entry is the fact that the UFC couldn't get the number one free agent. And that's kind of why, you know,

I said, you know, Brock's on the Mount Rushmore of free agents because he, they got Brock. They couldn't get Fedor and they couldn't make that fight happen. Everyone wanted to, everyone wanted to see that fight. And they couldn't make it happen. And that was new. That was new for me, you know, working at the time, you know, thought the UFC could do whatever they wanted.

But they could not make this fight happen. So an interesting time in the sports history. Mike, what do you have here? I mean, jokingly, I was, I mean, Bob Sapp was like the first thing that popped in my mind. And then Undertaker in a UFC fight after that moment with Ariel. So I found like a middle ground. It's Kurt Angle in a UFC fight. fight. There is this like untold story of a wrestling match in a WWE ring before an event

between Brock and Kurt. And not a lot of people are sharing the actual details of that story, but those who have say that Kurt kind of ran Brock in a wrestling match. Which makes total sense as Kurt Angles and Olympic gold medalist. Yeah. So I believe that. I mean, I understand these two guys had a relationship. and became friends, but I honestly think that they would put all that aside and fight for lots and lots of money because that fight would have done gangbusters. And I know the only chance Kurt had to get into the UFC was going on the ultimate fighter and he didn't want to do that.

But they could have done it. They could have definitely made that fight. And it's not like today. Today, people have been like, what the hell is this? But back in like 2009, 2010, people have been like, holy shit. Like Brock Lezor versus Kurt Engel in a UFC fight, I don't. And Kurt would have been so undersized, but it still would have been super interesting, and it would have been gigantic if they had put that fight together.

So, yeah, that's the one. I can't believe they would have made Kurt Enger going tough. That's just outrageous. A couple of shoutouts just to mention fights that Brock had that fell through. One obvious one is the JDS fight. They coached to each other tough. Ended up not happening. The other big one, though, for me, is,

just because this feels honestly criminal in retrospect, he was supposed to fight Mark Coleman for his UFC debut, not debut because Frank Muir was still the debut, but he was supposed to go from losing to Frank Muir to fighting Mark Coleman instead of Heath Haring. And that just seems cruel, given what we saw him do to another old man, the fight after he beat the brakes off Heath Haring.

I forgot that that was supposed to happen until somebody mentioned it on broadcast. And then I confirmed, yep, that was a fight that was booked. Dude, that would have been weird. They were so determined, like Mike said, to get him a win. Get him any win over. Over somebody that everybody will know. And Mark Coleman was very old. And yes, that would have looked bad.

It was definitely better to get him the win over Heath Haring. So it kind of worked out. As I always say, one injury away from doing the right thing. Next category, the T.J. Grant Alternate Universe Award for Sliding Doors Moment, you know, biggest what if that went on. Steven, what do you have here? I had, you know, what if he, what if Shane Carwin stops him in the first round? That's a good one.

What do you think happens if that happens? I think, well, Shane fights came. and maybe he doesn't ever go back to his day job. Maybe he wins that fight, becomes a heavyweight champion of the world, doesn't go back to his office job, becomes the star that we all thought he might be. And Brock has to fight his way back against, you know, a heavyweight opponent that he may or may not beat.

I don't think he gets to the point. I think it might have been, you know, it might have been just the wrench in his career that would have caused his downfall a little bit earlier. Because he got his butt beat so bad in that. If he'd really gotten pounded out, if he'd really been stopped, I think it might have been just that sort of career defining loss that might have taken his career in a different direction, at least in MMA.

I like that one. That's a good one. Mike, what do you have on the T.J. Grand Alternate Universe Award? again like I don't really want to change anything about his career. The first thing I thought of is like what if he didn't get the diverticus or the diverticulitis? Deverticus is what I'll exclusively be calling it now. So what I ended up with was what if Steve Mazagotti didn't take a point from Brock Lesnar in the first Frank Mear fight?

What if that fight continued on? No pauses on the action. What would have happened? Would Brock have finished Frank Mear then? And then if he did, then what? What happens then? Immediate title shot. If he beats Frank Greys, he's immediately fighting.

But is it against Randy Coutor or do they strip Randy and throw him in there with somebody else? Is it him and Heath Eric for the vacant heavyweight title? So they definitely wouldn't have stripped Randy at the time. Let's play this out, right? They definitely wouldn't have stripped Randy because Randy was in the contract dispute and they didn't. If they strip Randy, then there's no longer a contract dispute. And I don't think they're going to do that. So what was the timeline on the Nog?

February. That was February 2008. Well, no, I get, yeah, the Nog fight was the main event for the Frank fight. So Nog beats Tim Sylvia to become the interim heavyweight champion while Randy's straight. So then his next fight is just fighting Nogera at a UFC 87 or maybe that time. I mean, I guess still because it's Minneapolis, they want to do him there, but he fights Nogera there. How are we... That's a crazy fight.

How are we thinking him versus Nog goes for the interim heavyweight belt? Not well for Nog? Yeah, that's sort of where I land too. I mean, he's just a better Bob Sapp, right? He's just a better Bob Sapp size-wise and, like, strength-wise. I don't know. Like, it's hard for me to... Like, part of me wants to say that, but Bob Sapp also, like, was a better striker than...

than, I mean, frankly, than Brock ever was. Like, I could absolutely see Nog doing the Nog thing. You could take down, eat a bunch of lunchboxes and find an arm. Noted K-1 contender, Bob Sapp, who beat Ernesto, who's like three times? Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the dumbest, it's one of the dumbest things that exist in combat sports, the fact that he owns that many wins over Nesto.

Honestly, when you think about it, Frank Mears an idiot for not realize. that simply being big and strong is like the strongest mixed martial art style of all because you have dudes like Bob Sat being K-1 almost champions strictly by just being enormous. So I love this what if. If he beats Nag becomes interim champion and then fights Randy,

we still kind of get to the same timeline, but the road's very different. Very different. Also, just his career was probably remembered better without the Frankliner loss. So that's a really, really good one. Gene, what do you have here for all T.J. Grant and the alternate universe as we could live in? Honestly, I just went chalk because for me, it's the always the big one.

It's the same thing. We've mentioned a couple of times just the diverticulitis. Like, if he does not suffer that, what are we talking about? Are we talking about someone who has four heavyweight title defenses? Are we talking about someone who went on for a decade-long career? Like, what does this look like? Does he never go back to WWE? we, does the, does the Undertaker thing never happen? Like, where does this end? Is Brock

Leser just the greatest heavyweight of all time? Like, I don't, I, he obviously still, I don't know how the cane fight goes, because that was after already one diverticula out his spout. Like, the whole, that changes fundamentally everything we know about this man as a martial artist. So that would be for me. So that was originally my answer, but I do ultimately think Kane beats to death anyway, so it doesn't, that part of it doesn't. And then I thought of one that I was really, really happy with. And it's a very different one. But it's,

what if TKO happened back in 2008 instead of in 2023? And by TKO, I mean the merger between WWE and UFC under the Endeavor banner. Because one of the big parts of kind of the end section of Brock's career is, I would, I have to choose one or the other. They are not going to let me do it. 200, UFC 200 being a big exception.

but if he leaves the WW comes to the UFC and then UFC and WWW fall under the TKO endeavor, you know, banner, do they let him do both sports? Is that like a thing that happens for that stretch of time where he is the UFC heavyweight champion who is also going on Monday Night Raw and fighting for the,

uh, uh, WWE heavyweight title? Like could we have a concurrent WW and UFC champion. I think there's a world where that, like, if Brock came today, I think there's really a world where that happens now. Am I crazy?

Not at all crazy. I don't think you're crazy at all. Maybe they follow the dollar signs and you see dollar signs galore with that guy. Publicly traded company. Profits guaranteed. Like, Mike, as the wrestling guy on here, if there's a dude who comes, like, who's, oh shit, I can't think of the Olympic wrestler's name right now. Give me a second.

Gable. Gabe was. Gable Steven. Gable Stevenson. Gable Stevenson could walk into the UFC tomorrow and probably be like a top 15 heavyweight. And he's a WWB guy. If Gable Stevenson in the next like five years, it's like, I've been doing some MMA training. I'd like to try my hand at it. You don't think you don't think that TKO as a group will be like, hell yeah.

It's like he's not tied into a WAAWB belt. We'll let him fight in the UFC to up his profile. You think they would do that or no? I don't know. I honestly, I think this is. be, it'd be great business for WWE to send Brock to UFC, for sure, but

it's a huge risk for the UFC to send their heavyweight champion to WWE because of the risks that are involved with injuries and being able to get hurt. It's the same reason why we don't see the rock wrestle as much anymore, because he's got shit to do, he's

contractually obligated to other things, and if he gets injured, it screws up everything. So that would be like the one, I get where you're coming from, and they're if they could work it out they would maybe they put brock on just like a very limited schedule where he wrestles like twice a year or something reviews or whatever and cut some promos but he could get hurt could tear at ACL and be always can forever so i mean that that's very very real that's a very strong possibility so i would say doubtful but you know if the dollar

signs are right that sotty money comes in or something maybe maybe they entertain it i'm now going to put this out into the world. And when it happens, I want everyone to know that I said it first on this here program. I want Gable Steven. And, you know, you're right, Mike. Maybe the U.S. he doesn't want to champion doing that. But if we have like a heavyweight BMF title, a title that he can have and defend, but not be as quote unquote meaningful as the heavyweight belt, we can just get Gable that and then have him doing MMA and wrestling. Because I don't care about the wrestling. I wanted him to do MMA, but if he's going to do the wrestling, let's have our cake and eat it, two boys. Gabriel Stevenson, two promotion champion, 20, 28 or 29.

I feel like we can make this happen. I don't feel like he's doing... Next category. I was just because I don't feel like he's doing well in WWE, right? I don't have any clue. I feel like I've barely showed up. Yeah, I feel like I've randomly read some stuff about they're not that high on him anymore, but maybe I'm just completely misled, so continue.

I have truly no idea because I had always assumed he was going to make another Olympic run because he's 22 in the Olympics because of how COVID rolled or three-year rotation instead of four so he could just try and get another gold medal, which is sick. But I digress. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point.

Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Our next category, the Dan Henderson H-Bomb Award for if you take one piece of the fighter's game, add it to your own or use it to create a fighter in UFCE, EA5 or whatever, what would it be? are not two answers. My first answer is going to shock absolutely no one. Give me his athleticism when you're one of the three most athletic dudes who have ever competed in the sport. And athleticism is a cheat code. Give me that blend of physicality and movement any day of the week.

That's a strong starting point for any fighter. And then the other one I have here, business savvy. Because to your point previously, Stephen, one of the top Mount Rushmore Free agents, this man knew how the business worked and knew how to maximize his dollars at every point in time, going from the WWE to the UFC, leveraging the WWE for his contract,

and then leveraging the UFC multiple times for WWE contracts. I always know when Brock's contract is about to be up with the WWE, because that's when the rumor mills start. Church churning that, oh, Brock's talking about maybe fighting one more time. And it's like, oh, he's in contract negotiations with Vince McMahon right now. We know how that's going. So for the in-cage, give me the athleticism for the out-cage. This man's business savvy. Those are the tools I want from his particular tool belt. Stephen, what do you want to take from Brock Lesnar? I have to add a slight asterisk tier out-of-cage savvy because he did have a really

good team behind him, notably his manager, Brian Steigman, who I dealt with a little bit during his heyday. And Brian is a killer, an absolute killer businessman. The important part of business is surrounding yourself with the good people, you know. And just a just a real hard nose guy, uh, knew exactly what he wanted to do business wise, knew exactly how to work the system to his advantage, um, from all of my dealings with him. Just a very, very savvy guy who helped Brock a lot and and a lot of these big deals. Terrible with the media as well. But just just a just a shark, you know, who got shit done.

In the, I mean, I don't have any, again, size and athleticism, but size in particular, like the guy, the guy's dimensions were a cheat code. The size of his hands, the size of his torso, just his explosiveness. I mean, the size of his back. I don't think there's anything. His back is like the size of Africa. It's ridiculous how large that man's back is. It truly doesn't make sense to be that broad of a person. Yeah.

Like just a real specimen. Like how difficult does it just go buy a shirt if you're Brock Lesnar? All tailor made. It's got to be. We all have to be custom. Right? What's fitting? don't know how you get a back that wide. Like, I just don't know what can do that for you.

Like, it's, lap pulldowns can only do so much, you know. It's just how do you, how do you pull that off? A lot of, a lot of pull-ups, a lot of pull-ups, like thousands and thousands a day. Just pullovers and I don't, I don't, it doesn't make any goddamn sense to me. I'll tell you, have for Dan Hendo. Who'd you say? Heen. Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what I do want to see, though. Because last night I was just at the Phoenix Suns game when we murdered the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It was a great time. And I really just want to see Brock Lesnar. Those are Brock's people. Hey, I want to see Brock Lesnar standing next to Bull Bull. Just to see the full scope of human dimensions. I want to see this incredibly nonsensical human being, Bull, Bowl, who I just saw in person and lives up to the hype in person of just what the F this dude looks like.

I want to see him just stand side by side with Brock Lezger. That's it. That's all. I just need to understand. Very different dimensions of people. If you don't know who heen's talking about, just Google Bowl Bowl, BOL, BOL, and his slender man is like the best comparison. More or less. Like 7-2 and probably weighs less than me.

Yeah. It's tremendous stuff. Yeah. Just fantastic. What do you have for the Denner's an H-Bom Award? No, I mean, the size and the physicality and the athleticism is obviously the answer. But I also, like, I don't know how to articulate this properly, but like the overwhelming sense of presence of just, I have been in the room when Brock Lesnar walks in the room,

and the room changes when Brock Lesnar walks into the room. And that is such a rare feat to be that. I don't know what it is like that powerful of a being within the within the world within just the space that we all sort of function within to be able to sort of like shape shift the energy around you to where again if you just walk in the room everyone stops talking and it's just complete silence and it's it's it happens every single time I've been in the room multiple times and it happens every single time it's just you cannot describe it until you are in the room and brogg lezer walks through the door and it's just like an audible. gasp from everybody just because it is very apparent. It's the 1400s thing. This dude would just be king of all of us if he wanted to, and it was the proper time.

So that, whatever that overwhelming sense of presence, I would love to have that. I mean, I would have chosen that one, but I mean, he and you know, I already have that. You know, if I go into the room, everyone just so I don't need to take that from Brock. I have it myself. Mike, Dan Henderson, are you on the athleticism and the physicality? have you gone off the board here? I went a little off the board because I knew, I knew, you know, the chalk was sort of the easy way to go and a lot of people would have done that.

I went with him being on the board of directors of the it, the it tracks club because Brock Lezder could do no wrong. He is like Manny Ramirez of M.MA. Mani Ramirez could slog his ass out in left field, drop a, drop a routine fly ball, overthrow the second baseman, clears the bases on an error and all the runs score yet nobody's mad at him. Oh, that's just manny being manny. It tracks. Brock Lesnar could take all the steroids in the world, cheat his ass off. And while every other fighter in the history of the sport would be buried for that, it's like, eh, it's Brock.

Are you surprised by this? And like, no one's even mad at him except for Mark Hunt, the opponent who should be mad at him. Brock is able to just let, he can do no wrong. The man could be doing wrong. I could report that John Jones is fighting Tom Ascent. been all tomorrow and my career would be over brock lesnar reported that they'd be like oh brock you stupid you scally wag you scally wag oh that's just brock being brock like just he could do the most he can do the worst things ever and just it's okay it's okay it tracks it's brock that's a great pull that's a great great poll back in the day bill simmons coined the tyson zone of just like mike tyson could do any headline, there could be any headline related to Mike Tyson and you would believe it.

That's a great pull. That's Brock Lesnar is the Tyson zone. That's fantastic. I'm so excited, guys, because now we get to the category I've been waiting this whole time to do. It's the Brad Ims Fun with Stats Award named after Brad Ims, the hillbilly heartthrob. Famously, a enormous heavyweight who recorded back-to-back-go-platas, which is the first and last time that's ever going to happen. and it's for it's have fun with stats you know um find some interesting stats and and make

them your own i think you go a lot of ways with this but i'm going to lead off because this is my favorite one i've ever done um and it's it's interactive fellas because i'm going to read you two separate stat lines from the nfl combine and i'm going to have you choose who is brock lesner's NFL combine stats and who is Aaron Donald who in 2014 basically broke the NFL combine and everyone was like holy shit this dude's going to be amazing like I can't like what's going on and set multiple records in some of these things so player a six foot two 285 4 6 840 35 35 reps of 225 on bench press 32 inch vertical

9 and a half foot broad jump player B 6 foot 3 280 pounds 4.7 40 yard dash 30 reps of 225 on the bench press 35 inch vertical

and a 10 foot broad jump is Brock player A or is Brock player B B I go B as well I'll go A the answer is player B. Brock Lesnar was 0.02 seconds behind Aaron Donald's 40 time as a D-tackle. Aaron Donald had the record for fastest 40 time for like over a decade.

Five less reps on bench, three inches higher on vertical jump, and six inches wider on broad jump. This man's testing numbers were that of Aaron Donald, who, if you know anything about the NFL, is one of the freakiest freaking athletes that has played detackle in the history of the sport. And that's Brock. And that's why Brock got a chance with the Minnesota Vikings. It's why Brock was the last dude cut, despite not knowing how to play football. It blew my mind because I was like, I knew I wanted to get into the NFL stuff. And when I looked, I was like, I can't believe these numbers.

Like, these are unreal numbers. Can you say the 40 time again? Brocks was 4-47. It's 4-740. Aaron Donald's was 4-6-8. What was his age at this point? Like late 20s? Something like that.

I didn't actually look up the age. Yeah. That massive of a man running at you. 280 pounds. 63-280 runs at 4-740. That's absurd. 20 reps of 225, a 35-inch vertical, and a 10-foot broad jump. And again, the broad jump at the combine is not a running broad jump.

It is stationary broad jump. He leaped 10 motherfucking feet with his feet starting. stationary. He is an alien. Jesus, man. It's unreal. So, that's my Brad Ims fun with stats. Who else would like to offer something up here? Brock Lesnar was part of two cheesy nickname UFC cards. UFC 81

breaking point and UFC 87, Seek and Destroy. Seek and destroy I knew because that was really, really dumb. I forgot breaking point. Oh, God. The other two stats I thought were interesting, Brock Glissner, 72% striking accuracy throughout his UFC career. 72%. Three out of every four strikersies. That had to be good, too.

It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. It had to be high. He probably held the striking deficit comeback record before Lewis. Oh, that's got to be almost certainly. Definitely. Because I think he was like, I know in the stat book it has him at negative 32 and Lewis

Volkov is way above that but that was several years later so he's definitely up there on that and that stat that'll ask total sense and the last one I thought was like I had a look at it a bunch of times

before I was like all right I guess this is true which opponent gentlemen did Brock Lesder land the most significant strike against in a fight. Frank Mirr. I would assume Frank Mear.

Heath Harry. No, no, no. Hunt, round three. Oh. So we look at the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Mark Hunt, 51 significant strikes landed in that fight against Mark Hunt. The most he has landed in any UFC fight, which I thought was super weird.

That is for that fight? Yeah. That is. I wouldn't have pulled that at all. I love it. Stephen, what do you have here? A lot of the same stuff. it's like I pulled from the UFC stats thing

and significant strike accuracy he was number two and number three with Mir and Lesnar total ground strikes he was tied with Heath Haring and versus Brad Ims at number six for landing ground strikes in his fight with Mark Hunt he landed

128 and Heath Herring versus Brad Ims was also 128 they're both tied at six for total ground strikes. I'm loving the Brad Ims calls for the Brad Ims category. Yeah. It's great. It's fantastic.

I also thought it was hilarious. A significant strike accuracy. He's number two in that in the division. When we talk about accuracy, it's not too hard to be accurate when you're punching from two inches away. It's juke in the stacks. That's a great way to juke the stats. Had we ever seen anything like that, though?

And again, this is just, it just speaks to his exceptionalism because, you know, Bruce Lee, the one inch punch, you know, we're all sort of brought up on that. But here's, here's a guy who's in extremely close quarters and is generating a tremendous amount of force in that small space. Frank Meir had no idea what hit him. Frank Mears thinking, I'm going to jujitsu this guy. You know, his hubris leads him to the ground on his back and thinks he thinks he's okay. But him pulling guard in that rematch is wild. Well, he, he'd also threw a knee. The double flying knee.

Oh, the double knee. He did a very high risk technique. Yeah, yeah. The double flying knee instantly, the moment he threw it goes down in the chailson and spinning back fist hall of shame for just the worst in cage decisions you have ever seen in your. entire life. Like, why are you throwing that? It was a bad choice. I think he's because he saw it in the W.C. God, who did it in the W. Was it? Was it? Jarre Fero Fabor did it. Fabor was a big fan. He was commentated. I'll bet you that had an influence on it. That's actually a good poll. I hadn't thought that. That's a good pull. That is a good poll. Wouldn't shock me at all if that

were the case, because yeah, he was definitely commentating Fabor doing that. Hine, what are your fun stats? So a lot of the ones I had have already been mentioned. Only fighter outside of Jim Miller to fight at UFC 100 and 200. That's an obvious one. Then the only other one I have... 300 is still around the corner. You never know.

You never know. You never know. The only other one I have, which is something that, like, we were talking about Alex Pereira so much the past couple weeks of like 11 MMA fights, two-division UFC champion. Brock Leser winning the UFC heavyweight title in just his fourth MMA fight period in the modern era I don't that's never like no one's ever going to do that's never going to this never going to be reached ever again actually never like it is actually an insurmountable thing so that's a great one I will also throw out for

the sake of it 7 million 854000 that is the number of pay-per-view sales that Brock had over his UFC run which, by my estimation, makes him fifth all-time behind Connor, Anderson, George, and John. Can't be absolutely certain on that, but he, other than Connor, nobody made more money on fewer fights than Brock did. Just an all-time great pay-per-view draw for the company. Winding down, just a couple of categories left. Hardest category for me by far we're coming up on. It is the Sean Ferris Award for actor who should play Brock Lesnar in a movie, of course, named after Sean Ferris, who plays Jake Tyler in the cinematic masterpiece that is never backed down. I, this was so hard because I didn't want to just say Brock can play himself because like Brock could, I guess, but you know, Brock doesn't want to do that.

Brock would not choose to do that. But who can match his physicality on screen? Like that's not a thing that's really doable. So I don't have an answer I feel great with. Does anyone, did anyone come strong here? Does anyone want to be like, I got you, Jed.

I got this right here. I got nothing. I got nothing. You guys were going to have to Google my selection, but this is the first thing that came into my mind. And it took me a long time to figure out actually who it was because I didn't know his name. He's a very, very random character actor.

and the reason why I chose him is because he has kind of like a big O-F-E-quality to him. He's also got that very square jaw, and he's 6-2, so he's not that shorter, and he's more of a big heavyweight frame, sort of that Midwestern face, you know, that I think you could sell as Brock. And his name is Eric Brouscotter. How do you spell that? Now, who is B-R-U-S-K-O-T-E-R-R. Here is what I remembered him from this is how my brain works. He's the guy in Starship Troopers. Oh, he's in Major League.

Yeah. And Starship Troopers, that's what I remembered him from Starship Troopers. He's a big demo from Starship Troopers. Yeah. The guy gets his head blown off in the training exercise. I guess I'm just a big idiot. Yeah. That is a pretty good one.

Yeah, it's not bad. You'd have to give him some sort of prosthetics for the body. But like the face, you, you, you, It's hard to get anyone wide. No, that's a good one. Just a big dumb Midwest guy. Put him on some rights. Give him six months.

You know, we could sell it. Oh, I like that so much better than any of the people I have. Sheen has no one. Mike, did you pull anything here? Yes. This man would, uh, spam would make a good Brock, uh,

especially in the younger years. Uh, oddly enough, fellow professional wrestler was in the WWB system for while I believe he's with AEW right now. You may have to Google this one. Parker, B-O-D-R-E-A-U-X.

I definitely just thought you were setting us up to Google Parker Porter. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. I honestly thought he said, I was hoping. I was like, I know what you're doing here. Yeah, this dude looks like, he looks like if you're going to find anybody who looks kind of like Brock,

this dude kind of looks like Brock. When I Google him, there's a photo comparison. of him and Brock Lesnar is one of the top things that's there. Yeah. I remember when he got released, everyone was like the Brock Lesnar look alike released from WWE. I was like, oh, yeah, he does kind of look like him. So when this category came up, I'm like, oh, this is an easy one.

We could teach him out of Brock doesn't say anything. So he could just act and just not say anything. It's great. Oh, man. That's both of these are better. The first thought I had was Nathan Jones, who, if you know who Nathan Jones is, was he's been like a character actor of being a giant person in things he's boagrius and Troy um he's rictus erectus in fury road he's also six nine or something so it doesn't really

work but i was like that's a dude who's enormous and so that kind of works also was in wwee i did see that when i was looking to like make sure i had it all right i was like uh but then it's six nine is too much uh Dave batista honestly like can match the physicality doesn't look anything like Brock and that would also be weird but he's a really good actor because he has tried to be a good actor um so you're there the thing i i settled on was a guy named mitchell hooper um who didn't feel great Mitchell hooper is the current world's strongest man he's like 23 or something Canadian um and is broad like brock and you know maybe we could pull it off but I like both of your answers substantially better than that.

So, well done. This is why its teamwork makes a dream work, everybody. A great category for Brock Lesnar. The Cole Conrad Career Change Award, named after Cole Conrad, who was the Belter Heavyweight Champion, stopped to go sell milk, which ironically ties in with Brock Lesnar who grew up on a dairy farm and the... Longtime training partner. Longtime training partner.

I'm saying also a long-time training partner of that. Team Death Clutch, baby. They had the Delator. heavyweight champ in the UFC heavyweight champ at the same exact time. There's a period of time where Minnesota a period of time where Minnesota ran the mixed martial arts world, which is odd. And I mean, I put the NFL here as a throw by,

but then I decided to move most of that stuff to stats. Again, I don't think we can understate how insane it is to go to the NFL without playing in college and getting on to a practice team and probably would have made the league if he had stuck around it and tried it. It's one of the more crazy things I've ever heard of. But I think the real answer,

if you're going to take out professional wrestling in MMA, is he just would have worked on a dairy farm. Just would have been a giant dude who worked on a farm and went hunting and enjoyed his time. Like, he spends much of his time currently. So that's my answer for Cole Conrad. Hean, what do you have here? I just went athlete.

Like, if he wasn't going to wrestle and he wasn't going to fight, he was going to do something, man. You can't. Like, that is not, it's a once-in-a-in-a-two-generation type of, like, person. You just can't throw that away. How good do you think he'd be at, like, tennis, right? Like, let's put him in some sports where it's, like,

different kinds of athleticism. He'd be as good as he wanted to be. How do we think he'd be a scene in Starship Troopers with the guy gets shot in the head. The tennis ball would go through the opponent's forehead and. You know, a great ball. I'm confident I have a terrific fore. And just just trying to think of all the athletic activities we could put Brock in that maybe don't aren't like specifically his skill set. But we'd still see how we would work.

Paul, I hate it. Him on a horse. Again, that's that's too close. That's Viking shit right there. Like you just put him on a horse. Also, he feels too wide to exist on horses. What kind of horse is like supporting this? You can break this poor horse's legs.

You have to put them on a bowl. How about a moose? There you go. Now we're cooking. Now we're cooking with gas. I love that. What do you have for Cole Conrad? I literally said anything he wants and you would be successful at it.

I mean, I can't pinpoint anything because everything's awesome. Every single scenario you put him in would be the best. And he would be great at it. So anything he wants and who's going to stop him? If he walked right into like any corporate headquarters is like, I'm the new president. What's the, what's the dude going to do? Say no. Brock would just throw him out the freaking window.

So I mean, yeah, Brock literally could do anything he wanted. So I couldn't pinpoint like maybe except for like a radio disc jockey because I don't like he has a lot of intelligent things to say. But even then, he'll be like listen to this song and like it. Interesting. Interesting. The thing he can't do is the thing that you previously did, Mike. You're saying you're better than Brock?

Is that what you're saying right now? Yeah, because I mean... You think you better than me? Mike, I can embrace it. Lean into the Boston of them. Look at me, Brock. I can produce a commercial way better than you ever could. You want to try to be an afternoon local radio disc jockey in Berkshire County, Massachusetts?

I dare you, Brock. I dare you to step up to the plate and try. And I bet you can't do as good of a job as I can. Heck out. suplex nothing. Clip that. I love it. That's fantastic.

We're putting that up on social media. Stephen Brocklessner can do anything he wants in the world. If he's not fighting, what is it? Okay. Because of his flat top haircut, I said he looks like a gym teacher. Like somebody who exists. Somebody who exists to make teenagers lives miserable. Oh my God.

Think of him as you're like high school. school gym teacher. Doesn't he just like, doesn't that, I mean, he has the look, right? Right there. Oh, it'd be awful. And then the second one I had was the Home Depot employee who moves everything for his coworkers.

That's a great thing. God, that's, those are great picks. Like Brock, we have like a palette of drywall that needs to get moved from Bay 2 to Bay 1. Sorry. Sorry. Forklifts down. Think you can get it.

Brock's already carrying it with one arm. On a boss. Yeah. Yep. Last category. Look at me now. Leon Edwards Award for the best moment of Brock Lesnar's career. The best, the apex of Brock Lesnar.

For me, the answer is very simple. It was Frank Muir, too. The post-fight, all of that went on to beat Chaincar and have these other things. But I'm not sure there was ever a high or high than dominating the guy who handed you your one loss, doing it at UFC 100, and then dunking all over Bud Light. And then I guess getting paid money because by the time he made it to the post-fight presser, he was much more genial about Bud Light after, I'm sure, getting a firm talking to and some extra dollar bills to not shit. on them again in that post-fight press conference. So I'm taking Frank Mier, too. What do you fellas have here?

I'm still on a play from your playbook, Jed. This is where I saved the big moment. Oh, is it? This is where I saved the big moment because, look, Brock Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight title, and he defended and had some great moments. But you know, there are others who have done that. But there's only one man, just one,

who broke the undertaker streak at WrestleMania. And there will only ever be one. And it's Brock Lesnar. It is Brock Lesnar. Apparently he's worth ending the streak that should have never been broken. Brock was the dude. And just the ripple effect that that moment had on the wrestling industry, the sports world. I mean, CNN, all the major news networks were doing stories about Brock Lesnar pinning the undertaker in a scripted match at WrestleMania.

This was like, this is it. Like he was, you never thought like Brock could be made anymore after his first run. And then he does this. And he's like, all right, this dude is made forever. And as great as the UFC accomplishments were, when Brock Lesnar perishes at the ripe old age of 237, because he's a freak of nature, the first thing people are going to remember, the first thing people are going to remember. The Brock Leszor, the man who ended Undertaker's WrestleMania streak, perishes at the oldest age in the history of the universe. It's that. I couldn't find anything that was a bigger moment than that for him.

That's a great answer. Question on that. Does Brock do WrestleMania? Is he like, did he take the Undertaker streak and now he is undefeated for the last 10 WrestleMania's or whatever? Is that a thing? No. Brock. It's just Brock.

It just led to great stuff from Paul Heyman. and it was like, Brock Leisner's the one and 21 and one. And it's just great, great stuff all around. That's a really good promo. Tremendous. Seeing the one in 20, that's some solid stuff. Man, okay. Heen, what do you have here?

I mean, I think Mike is probably objectively, right? Like, if we're just... I think so too. I want to re-chuse. Yeah, if we're just doing like an actual apex of this man's career overall, Mike is definitely right. If we're just limiting it strictly to MMA, I understand going with the mere rematch. I went with the Carwin fight, though, because that to me was the one that legitimized him.

I think in a lot of people's eyes of like, hey, he finally fought a dude who was also a huge, gigantic Cuban being. And he weathered the storm. He kind of survived the doesn't like to get punched thing. And also one thing that like we haven't really mentioned over the past like three hours or seven hours or however long this has been is. It's actually only two, which is wrong. short for this show. It's like two and a half, but yeah,

is like Brock Lezre was kind of hated by the MMA community and the MMA fan base for like... By the hardcore fan for sure. But most of this. Like you watch most of these fights. He's getting booed out of the building and like he's very good at that.

He's very good at handling that. Like he's very much playing the heel and being like, yeah, boom me. I love it. I love it. But after the first bout with diverticulitis, he comes back to this carwin fight. And he's like noticeably more...

centered, like just more humble, more like thankful and grateful to be there. And like the way that fight played out, the crowd was not with him at the beginning, but by the end, he was kind of the baby face turn for him. Like, MMA fans finally, it seemed like at last embrace this guy as one of their own. It was like, wow, that was, we just watched some wild shit and I can't take anything away from that. We got to applaud this minute. And it was weird. It was weird to see the shift there. So to me, that's the apex for him. the difference between the two post fights at 100 where he's getting booed out of the building he is shooting birds at all the fans and saying the stuff versus the Shane car when his first

words are like this isn't even about me you know this is coming back from the diverticus and all that it is it is a stark shift there so I understand it's not a bad choice and Stephen you were nodding along it would appear that you agree with the wise words words miss shehino shoddy Yeah, plus one. I mean, how many heavyweight fights in the UFC undergo that kind of momentum shift? Usually a lot of heavyweight fights, a lot of fights in general or one-way traffic. Once the trend starts, it's very hard to break that trend line. And this was a situation in which he was getting the crap beaten out of him, could have been stopped, and it became adversity. and that's something that he hadn't really done.

You know, we could attribute the Frank Mere thing to a rookie mistake, you know, just underdevelopment as a fighter. But, you know, in my mind, in that point, he hadn't really been tested in any significant way. And this was a fight where he really got tested and he he overcame. He was in essence a fighter, like instead of just like this stunt casting choice from the pro wrestling words, like, okay, this guy's really a fighter. that's that's why it was the peak for me but this is competitive peak i mean i think mike's choice is correct for like a career peak like we're thinking of broader context i think that's probably

correct but for me like from a competitive standpoint that was probably it yeah uh mike definitely wins but i i you've made you've both made a strong case for the mma peak being uh the shame car would match up i might even agree with you at this point and that's it that's it ladies gentlemen, we are on to the final thoughts. We're just going to wrap it all up. So we've been through all the categories.

All the awards have been handed out. And now anything you have to say about Brock Lesnar, speak now, forever, hold your peace because we're not doing another one on him. So Mike Heck, let's start with you. What are your lasting thoughts about Brock Lesnar?

Just transcendent. The man changed everything that he was a part of, like literally everything. Change WWE, not once, not twice, three times did it in the UFC. Like legitimately,

the man could do anything. He's one of the freak special athletes that we talk about. Like, people talk about this with LeBron James a lot. Like, LeBron could do anything. People think, like, LeBron, if he trained MMA for a year, could be a UFC champion. Brock just did it.

Brock just did it. And we talked about, like, the NFL numbers and literally everything else he done. Like, there's just not ever going to be another Brock Lesnar. There just isn't. A guy that big, that physical, who moves like a freaking welterweight, yeah, Tommy Aspinall moves like that, but Tommy Aspinall ain't running a 4-740.

I could tell you that right now. And he ain't doing no 10-foot broad jump. He might be the second best heavyweight in the world right now, but he ain't doing a 10-foot broad jump. Oh, my. I was waiting for that. I was ready to get your action. No, but what he did is unheard of and will probably never happen again. And despite the shortcomings that some of us may have about him, the vast majority of people

don't give a shit because that's who Brock Lezder is. It's just Brock being Brock. The man could do no wrong. He accomplished incredible things. At the end of the day, his MMA record is five and three. But nobody cares about that. Nobody cares that he was just five and three. They care about everything else he does.

He's a physical presence. He's a presence in everything that he does. And he's the man that made chicken salad famous again. He is Brock Lesder, a one and only. Chicken salad didn't need any help from Brock Lester. Let's be clear on that. He made it cool, though. chicken salad was

classic. You know that his chicken salad sucks. He's definitely putting like grapes in that shit and just doing the worst things. What? Grapes are great at chicks?

No. That's actually trash. Can we agree that? Can we agree that chicken salad just unanimously sucks? No. No. No.

It sounds good. It sounds delightful. You don't put grapes on. I'm on the right side of history. You're not. Chicken salad made by people like Brock is bad. You got to get other people to make your chicken salad. People who understand things that do and don't go in chicken salad like grapes. Stephen, on that note, since you're apparently a grape lover, which I'm so disappointed to find out, what are your final thoughts on Brock Lesnar? I'm really, it's not really, it's a thought experiment. What if Brock fights at UFC 300 and Ariel breaks the scoop? Can you imagine the meltdown at UFC headquarters?

happen. Can you imagine? Time is a flat circle. Time is just a flat circle. Like Jose will probably get beaten up at the event, beaten up and kicked out of the venue. If that happens. Oh my God. I hope.

Wouldn't that be so bad if it happens? Wouldn't that be astoundingly hilarious? What? Because your timelines are getting there. Like the UFC's about to take over instead of USADA on the thing. And they're like independent drug thing. But like they could just make it happen. Like yeah.

Brock's fine. He's good. It's okay. Don't even worry about it. Oh, please let it happen. Please let it happen. Be the best. I'm putting it out there. Speak that into existence. That's how you do things. I love that. Well, I don't want to see Jose assaulted at the arena and picked out or, you know, I don't want to see any of that. Don't speak that into existence. But I just think it's hilarious. I think it would be the funniest thing ever. It would in fact rule. What are your final thoughts on Brockless to those? No, that's it. That's all I got. Those are your final thoughts?

That's a really good final thoughts. It's in on a high note. Your final thoughts on Brock Lesnar? I mean, for me, ultimately, you look at the whole sum of it, like the whole scope of what this man did coming in and out and then coming back in and then coming back out again. Broglezer to me is one of the biggest question marks in MMA history, like one of the biggest what-ifs.

because he is someone, he has somehow embodies this space where he simultaneously underperformed and overperformed over the course of this career. And it's a career that actually doesn't make sense. And it's like, I don't know, do we get the best version of this? Did we get the worst version in this? You could convince me of either, because either are completely true. And it's the what-f nature of it. Like, what if we had gotten more time with it?

What if we had a longer sample size to actually understand who this is? Because he's an anomaly, man. He is a one of what we call on Alex Pereira, a one of one. Like Brock Lezner is a one of one. There is never going to be another person who does what he did in the manner that he did. And I just wish we had gotten more. But again, I think you could make the case. He's both overrated, underrated, underperformed, overperformed, all of it.

And I can't think of many careers where you could throw that many descriptors on it that would feel fitting. And so that to me is who Brock Lezner is. He's just the biggest question mark. Yeah. So I mentioned this at the top. When I originally conceived of this, this was going to be steep. And then we audibled into Brock because the timeline fit. And as I got into it, it was really happy we did.

One, it is very different to do a fighter on, to do one of these on someone who has so few fights. And that makes it interesting and challenging in some ways. And it's just, it's a different kind of fun for me. But also, like, as we got into this, I kind of realized that Brock is sort of the antithesis of what every other day has been because the show is about remembering dudes. And a lot of the fan base, the hardcore fans remember all the dudes we talk about on this show. They were there for Shogun.

They loved Carlos Condon like I loved Carlos Condit. Brock is not that. They were there for him. But as we kind of mentioned, they didn't, the hardcore fan base was not big supporters of Brock Lesnar for most of his run. And so something that you've kind of touched on some here, Shaheen. has been that Brock's kind of overlooked and his legacy is weird. Like, I didn't even remember that he is one of the most accomplished heavyweights in

UFC history, which is an insanely odd thing to think about. And so this felt like, as I got into it, like, oh, this is actually a really good thing to do to remember that, yes, Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest stars in the history of the sport. And that's really important. Like, he was very important, arguably as important as just about anybody else other than a handful of people to pushing the UFC to broader mainstream popularity and introducing and creating a fan base where previously there weren't as much.

But at the same period of time, like, he was more than that. He was legitimately the baddest dude on the planet. Like that, you can't take that away from him. He was the UFC heavyweight champion. He earned it, even if maybe he didn't get there in the same traditional means, like we've talked about with guys like Alex Pereira. He took advantage of the opportunities he won, and there was a strict period of time he's the baddest dude on the planet and that's something not a whole lot of people can say man

like that's just not it's a very small list of people and he's among it and so i think as we look back on his career it would behoove all of us to maybe put a little bit more respect on what he accomplished in the cage um instead of just all of the ancillary things that came with his career and so brock lezner you weren't the greatest fighter of all time or or anything like that but you were damn good and that that bears us appreciating. So thank you. And God, I hope we see you at UFC 300.

That would just, we'll do an addendum episode to this. It'll be great. Everyone will have fun. But that's for later because for now we are done. That is another damn in the books. Our next one. Funnily enough is coming about

the man who Brock Lesnar defeated and then had it overturned afterwards. Mark Hunt is next on the docket for our damn they were good. I'm sure we'll talk about Brock Lesnar and that one. We'll talk about a whole bunch of other things because Mark Hunt's career was very, very weird and super fun. But until then, I want to thank Sheen L Shottie. I want to thank Steve Mock. I want to thank Mike Hector for joining me on this lovely journey down memory lane about Brock Lesnar.

And until this, until then, love you.