“I try to never underestimate any of my opponents but there’s really nothing that worries me too much with Brock Lesnar. I know it could be a tough fight, but, you know, I train hard and I will be ready for this one too.”
There’s something very zen-like about Kongo’s “don’t worry about what you can’t change” attitude. On the other hand, in terms of fight preparation, he may want to start worrying about the fact that he’s going to be on his back for fifteen minutes against Lesnar. The wrestling thing would be an issue, I would think. Kongo might even want to worry about Brock’s striking, and how one of his punches threw Heath Herring into a reverse somersault and closed his eye for the remainder of the fight. But hey, I’m on the outside looking in, so whatever.
I thought this quote was particularly worth sharing because it’s eerily similar to Herring’s cavalier statements that because he’d faced wrestlers before, he wasn’t expecting Lesnar to present anything he hadn’t seen before — which in itself is similar to how Patrick Cote has been echoing James Irvin‘s failed strategy of taking ten of Anderson Silva‘s punches to land one of his own. Dismissing Brock Lesnar’s takedowns and ground control is just about as foolish as thinking you’ll survive ten straight from Silva. People, please: If we don’t learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it, directly in the face, for about 30 seconds until Steve Mazzagatti mercifully stops the fight.
Also, Kongo honestly believes he deserves a title shot — he wasn’t just letting adrenaline hijack his mouth after his win over Dan Evensen at UFC 87:
“His was my seventh UFC fight. I have never been completely dominated by an opponent in a UFC fight, even in my 2 losses which were by split decision. I won five fights among which three were by KO/TKO. So, I’m asking: How many fights do I have to win to definitely give me the credibility to get a title shot?”
With the way the UFC’s heavyweight ladder seems to be arranged right now, he’d probably have to beat Lesnar and then Fabricio Werdum. So, good luck with that.
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At least somebody actually watched the fight.
I half wonder if maybe Herring was just waiting for Brock to put his hooks in so he could roll, thinking that eventually he would. And I wonder if at the same time, Brock was waiting for Herring to realize he wasn’t going to so he’d stop turtling – also thinking that eventually he would.
Well regardless, I think we’re going to get to see Lesnar “open up” against Kongo for sure. At this point it’s still foolish to predict a Lesnar fight, but I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a pretty explosive, one-sided fight. The only question is who is going to be the one exploding, and who’s going to be the one eating leather.