Brock Lesnar has taken MMA by storm. Everyone knows he is a massive man with great wrestling ability, but there is one really big thing about Lesnar that sticks out. He has been very successful with his striking. In a recent UFC media conference call, Mir was asked what he thought about Lesnar’s striking ability. Here’s what he had to say:
“I can point out why I think Brock has been successful at striking because we’ve actually had to address that in my training camp. Brock’s reach for his height is actually long. A lot of people don’t realize that. They talk about his size, his power. Brock is almost 6-foot-4 … his reach is actually really long. I remember even watching when he beat Randy, and he slipped that punch from Brock. He thought that he was out of the way, and that punch kept on coming, it kept on coming, and it kept on coming. And finally it just caught him and he went down.”
Apparently Frank Mir has been taking Lesnar’s enormous reach into consideration with his training:
“I have two sparring partners that are 6-foot-7 and one who is even 6-foot-8 that we spar with. I had to find training partners that are three or four inches taller than Brock to even how long his arm reach is. Which, you know, if you watch boxing, that’s the reason everyone sits there and goes, ‘Well, what’s his reach?’ That’s a very helpful tool in a fight — how big the reach advantage is. Especially if you’re throwing punches. The longer your arms are, the better it is.”
Can Mir put together the right game plan to deal with Lesnar’s long arms? Can he possibly stand with this giant man who has proven his ability to drop bombs on some of MMA’s greatest fighters? Whether he can or not, it sounds like Mir has been doing his best to replicate Lesnar’s striking ability with his training parthers and is working hard to be able to defuse those bombs before they are dropped on his head.
