Rejuvenated And Happy Lesnar Ready For War With Carwin

Photo by James Law for Heavy.com

LAS VEGAS — Brock Lesnar, fun-loving guy. It’s not a phrase you hear often.

Lesnar, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, is typically known more for his surly disposition and general dislike for the entirety of the human race. It’s the attitude that instantly made him not just a target for mixed martial arts fans looking for a villain — it also made him the single biggest drawing card in the sport today.

But the Lesnar we met today at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas wasn’t angry. He wasn’t surly. He was jovial. After a brief workout period that revealed absolutely nothing about Lesnar’s technical improvements, the massive champion strolled over to the media area. On his way, he stopped in front of a poster of opponent Shane Carwin. Placing his hands on top of the poster as if to lean on it, Lesnar quickly toppled the image of his foe to the floor, then cracked a grin.

“Sorry about that, guys. I just leaned on it,” he says with a mischievous grin. “I’m sorry about that. I just leaned on that thing and it fell over. I don’t know what happened there.”

This is a very different version of Brock Lesnar. He has a renewed lease on life. He’s smiling and joking with us, and it’s uncomfortable. We’re not used to happy Brock Lesnar. We’re not entirely sure what to expect, but Lesnar puts us (partially) at ease.

“I’m just glad to be here. It feels good. It feels like an eternity since I was here. I’ve been through a lot this year, you know? I just feel fortunate,” Lesnar says. “It was a lot of hard work, to come from November 6th and being in the hospital to being here and being healthy and ready to defend the title? It’s pretty remarkable.”

Lesnar’s words aren’t just lip service designed to sell a fight. It’s evident in his mannerisms that he feels fortunate to be competing again, to have the chance to do the one thing he loves. His bout with diverticulitus nearly ended his career and forced him to wear a colostomy bag, and the heavyweight champion is ever aware that everything he’d ever worked for was very nearly lost.

“It hit me like a tornado, you know? It was one of those things where I didn’t know what to think,” he says. “In fact, I don’t really even like thinking about it any more. It was one of those things where I didn’t really understand what was happening to me. Is my life over? It was a very serious deal, but I’m just thankful to be here today. It’s like the old saying about cats having nine lives. I think I’m down to five or six now.”

RETURNING TO THE GYM

With the initial crisis averted, Lesnar’s body began to heal itself, and he returned to the gym to resume light training. It wasn’t easy.

“I didn’t feel good right away. It was all about baby steps. That’s why I got the right people in my camp,” Lesnar says. “Every day, every week I would have mini-goals to try and accomplish. I just took it one day at a time.”

“When I got the green light, when they told me I was going to get to keep on doing this, it was like a little steam locomotive,” he says. “We threw a little coal on the fire to get things going. The next week, we’d throw a little more coal on the fire, to pick up some steam. And now we’re here.”

The dietary changes Lesnar’s camp made following the illness have resulted in a leaner, more compact version of the champion than we’ve seen in the past. Lesnar will not be cutting any weight to reach the 265 pound heavyweight upper limit, a drastic change for a man used to cutting twenty or more pounds prior to weighing in. But Lesnar says the changes have been for the better.

“I definitely feel lighter on my feet. I brought (famed boxing coach) Peter Welch in, and he made some changes to my stance, from traditional to southpaw,” Lesnar says. “Being lighter has helped my wrestling and my shooting. We changed a lot of things, and I guess we’ll see if they work.”

Lesnar faces Carwin, the UFC interim heavyweight champion, on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 116. By any measure, Carwin is a mountain of a man, a fighter with impossibly large hands and the power to put an opponent to sleep with one solid shot. Carwin has wrecked nearly everyone in his path during his rise to the top, and no opponent has been lucky to survive the first round. His shellacking of former champion and Lesnar nemesis Frank Mir in March earned him the interim championship and secured a long-delayed bout with Lesnar.

It’s difficult to see the two fighters and not draw a comparison. Both have stellar wrestling credentials. Both fighters have raw power unlike any other heavyweight competitor, and both have brutalized past opponents. And both guys are hulking beasts who make other large heavyweights seem tiny by comparison. But Lesnar shakes off the comparisons.

“When I look at that guy, I just don’t see it. That’s you guys making the comparisons. I just don’t see it,” he says. “He hasn’t done the things I’ve done. He’s trying to do it, but I just don’t see it. Mir shouldn’t have even been fighting Carwin. You can’t unscramble scrambled eggs. I scrambled Mir’s eggs six months before that fight.”

WORKING WITH A LEGEND

One of the things that makes Lesnar unique among young fighters is his desire to turn his weaknesses into strengths. To prepare for Carwin, Lesnar took the unusual step of inviting a previous foe to his camp: former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, the man Lesnar defeated in November 2008 to capture the title in the first place. Lesnar saw holes in his game that Couture exploited during their fight, and he wanted Couture’s wisdom to help him fix those flaws.

“Just having Randy in the training facility was good. All the guys I train with were excited to have him. He just brings a different thing in,” Lesnar says. “He brings a lot to the table. He’s great with game plans and great with workouts. I mean, the guy just turned 47 years old. Come on. I was in my tenth week of camp and he comes in there the first week, and he’s just remarkable.”

“That’s why I brought him in and why we timed it the way we did. I needed something to take me over the edge in the confidence area, you know? He and I will never cross paths again and we’ll never fight again,” Lesnar says. “So for him to come in and tell me ‘this is what you do well and this is what you can do better, and here are the key things you’re going to need in order to beat Shane,” that’s a great thing for me.”

Carwin’s most likely path to victory over Lesnar will be his devastating knockout power and the kind of punches that felled Gabriel Gonzaga and Mir. We don’t know if Lesnar has a strong chin because we’ve never seen him get drilled with a solid shot, and Lesnar says he’s worked specifically to avoid that kind of scenario.

“He’s only going to test my chin if he gets me with a solid shot, and we’ve worked to avoid those kinds of things,” Lesnar says with a laugh. “I mean, come on.”

Lesnar has overcome plenty in the past year since his last fight. Few would have faulted him for hanging up the gloves, for choosing an easy life filled with deer hunting and the family moments he so cherishes. But the drive to compete that fuels all top-level athletes wouldn’t let him take the easy route, and Lesnar says there really was no other option.

“It’s one of those things where you just do it. I could have hung it up and said it was going to be too hard, but I’m not that guy,” Lesnar says. “It was a challenge for me. I overcame it and I’ve got a title defense. These things are exciting to me. I’m not the kind of guy that just gives up. If this thing is going to stop, I want it to be on my terms. I just don’t see Shane Carwin being the guy that is going to stop this freight train.”

“I’m just looking forward to going in there and having fun.”