Brock Lesnar

By Joshua Molina

There’s a lot of talk right now about Brock Lesnar and whether he belongs in the UFC Hall of Fame.

Lesnar will no doubt end up in the UFC Hall of Fame one day, as long as he stays on decent-to-good terms with Dana White, for as long as Dana White is in power at the UFC.

It’s sort of pointless to debate whether Lesnar legitimately deserves to be there, considering the UFC’s relatively short history, at least how White defines it. White defines the UFC as beginning when he and Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta purchased the company in 2001. The UFC actually began in 1993.

If it were a true Hall of Fame, featuring the best athletes in UFC history, long before Lesnar, a guy named Frank Shamrock deserves to be in the UFC Hall of Fame. Problem with that is that White hates Shamrock, which hurts Shamrock’s chances of getting into the mythical list of the sport’s best.

Even through Shamrock was the UFC’s first Light Heavyweight champion, and he forced Tito Ortiz to tap out at UFC 22, Shamrock doesn’t technically exist in UFC history, because he and White don’t get along, for some mysterious reason.

White, however, has said publicly that Shamrock “hasn’t done anything for the new UFC.”

It’s fine to debate whether Lesnar belongs in the Hall of Fame, as long as logic isn’t involved.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker might be learning a little bit too much from UFC president Dana White. Strikeforce was turned on its head (and not for the better) after Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased the company in 2011.

Coker, typically a reserved guy who prefers that his fighters, not himself, be in the spotlight, seems to be mastering the art of fight promotion, regardless of the truth.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Coker said this as to why Lorenz Larkin is getting the next title shot against Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.

“I feel really good about this fight because Lorenz, to me honestly, is probably the most dangerous striker in MMA right now. He reminds me of a K-1 fighter back in the day with just tremendous kicking ability, good movement, great boxing skills.”

Larkin is a good rising star, but he’s not the best striker in the business. He was obliterated by “King Mo” Lawal, but the fight was declared a no contest after Mo failed a post-fight drug test.

Larkin then manhandled Robbie Lawler, but the one-dimensional Lawler hasn’t looked good against a good fighter in years. He’s lost five out of his last eight fights.

Nonetheless, Larkin, is a nice guy and he should give Rockhold a challenge. It would probably be a more exciting fight than to see Rockhold rematch with Jacare Souza. Rockhold defeated Souza by unanimous decision to win the middleweight championship, but because both men have a healthy respect for each others’ abilities, the fight would likely turn into another boring defensive battle.