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Mark Coleman vs Brock Lesnar at UFC 87

Submitted by Dr J on March 3, 2008 – 9:49 am11 Comments
markcoleman.jpg

UFC 82 was a special night for former heavyweight champion Mark Coleman. The 43-year-old Coleman became the fifth member of the UFC Hall of Fame and its first heavyweight representative. Most would assume that being inducted into the HOF is a sign of recognition for a good career that has come to the end.

However, that is not the case for Coleman. The new HOF member will fight again in August, becoming the second UFC opponent for Brock Lesnar. UFC 87 is currently scheduled for August 9 in Lesnar’s home state of Minnesota.

Coleman began his MMA career at UFC 10 in 1996 and fought with the promotion up through UFC 18 in 1999. “The Hammer” then moved onto PrideFC where he spent the rest of his career with mixed results ending in 2006 with a loss to Fedor Emelianenko at Pride 32.

It appears the UFC has rethought their Brock Lesnar strategy and is now moving into a slow and steady build up patter. Matching Lesnar with Coleman presents Lesnar with an opponent with the same skillset – wrestling. Coleman does not have much of a standup game or much of a submission game and is well past his prime. Lesnar should be able to easily outmuscle Coleman and practice his striking against an opponent he won’t need to fear while standing. When the fight does hit the ground, Lesnar should hold the edge in wrestling and be able to work on his ground-and-pound game as well.

It looks like Coleman is “taking one for the team” here much like Ken Shamrock and allowing an up-and-coming fighter to “get over” on a legend of the sport.

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