Brock Lesnar Is the New UFC Heavyweight Champion

It seems like only yesterday when Brock Lesnar was tapping out to a Frank Mir kneebar.

9 1/2 months later, Brock Lesnar is your UFC heavyweight champion.

Lesnar knocked out Randy "The Natural" Couture in the second round to claim the title. Most people had Lesnar winning the first round of the fight - it seemed as though Couture was definitely going to give Lesnar a battle though, especially if the fight went into the later rounds. Couture entered the fight at 220 pounds, clearly hoping that the fight would enter the third, fourth and fifth rounds and that Lesnar would start to gas.

Unfortunately for Couture, the fight didn't last that long. Lesnar unleashed a barrage of punches and knees in the second round that flattened Couture. Lesnar pounced on the prone Couture, and the ref was forced to call the fight seconds later.

Many people are grumbling about the fact that Lesnar now has the heavyweight title around his waist. They say that he didn't deserve the title shot and that he doesn't deserve the title.

If either of these things were true, then Randy Couture would have crushed Lesnar and put him in his place. Lesnar knocked out the heavyweight champion of the world and took his title. Why doesn't he deserve it?

This fight surely left a bitter taste in the mouths of many people. The overall card was a disappointment - of the five fights on the "main" card, only one lasted past the first round. I've never seen a PPV that has included so many preliminary bouts. There is obviously nothing wrong with watching preliminary fights, but I was expecting a whole lot more out of the Lesnar/Couture, Florian/Stevenson and Maia/Quarry fights. Those were the fights that I paid to see, and only the Lesnar/Couture fight lasted past the first round.

So what now?

Well, Lesnar is now your heavyweight champion. His next fight will be against the winner of the Mir / Nogueira fight at UFC 92. This will be a heavyweight title unification fight, as Nogueira currently holds the interim UFC heavyweight title. Lesnar vs Mir/Nogueira will likely take place in the spring of 2009. Many fans are now begging for a Fedor / Lesnar confrontation - this would certainly be a great match-up, however the UFC and Fedor haven't been able to come to terms on a contract in the past.

I'm not sure where Randy Couture fits in right now. He is going to be in the same kind of limbo that Chuck Liddell finds himself him. Couture still has a couple of fights left in his UFC contract, but I'm not sure who he is going to fight next. Maybe the loser of the Mir/Nogueira fight? I have a hard time figuring out what Couture's next move might be.

In other news, Kenny Florian earned himself a shot at B.J. Penn's light heavyweight title by dispatching of Joe Stevenson. This fight will likely take place in the spring or summer of 2009. Dana White said that the winner of the Penn / Stevenson battle would be guaranteed a shot at Penn's title.

Also, Demian Maia took a big step up in the middleweight division by dispatching of Nate Quarry. You'd have to think that one more impressive victory will secure Maia a shot at Anderson "The Spider" Silva's middleweight title.

For all of its hype, this card proved to be a disappointment. Fans can look forward to a stacked UFC 92 card in late December though.

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