Brocktober Continues: The Wrestling Career of Brock Lesnar
While Brock Lesnar is certainly a mammoth of a man, he's not invulnerable. Frank Mir showed us that in his very first UFC bout and Shane Carwin highlighted Brock's weaknesses in their UFC 116 classic. But even on the wrestling mat, where Lesnar first created his fearsome reputation, he could be beaten.
Lesnar was a slow starter athletically. The future star grappler never won a high school championship and settled for Bismarck College in North Dakota instead of a traditional wrestling powerhouse. It was in junior college that Lesnar blossomed. At the local Bison Open, a tournament that featured JuCo and NCAA Division I athletes, Lesnar shined against big name competition. When Bismarck shut down their wrestling program in 1998, Lesnar was on his way to the major leagues of college wrestling - The University of Minnesota and the Big Ten. But even in college, Lesnar faced his share of adversity. As I wrote in a monster Lesnar profile at UGO.com, the sculpted and powerful young Golden Gopher met his match in the NCAA finals:
When Brock Lesnar walked into a NCAA wrestling meet, heads turned. The man is just a physical freak; even in the world of pro wrestling where juiced up physiques are de rigeuer. In college wrestling, where bodies are more functional than sculpted, he was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Brock was more than just big and strong. He was damn good. People knew he could be successful, but no one expected a Big 10 title and a trip to the NCAA Finals. Lesnar lost to Cal-State Bakersfield's Stephen Neal, the best wrestler in the country, 3-2. "He was just this big, strong, powerful man the wrestling world hadn't seen," Neal said. "He was so big and strong, you didn't want to make a mistake against him." Neal not only won the NCAA Championship that year, but also took home the World Championship. He left behind wrestling, and a likely Olympic Medal, to join the NFL. He's now an All-Pro guard with the New England Patriots.
Lesnar is an athlete who is driven by adversity. We saw it with Mir, how the loss to the former UFC champion seemed to eat away at his insides. In college, things were even worse. Unlike MMA, college wrestling is a team sport. And Lesnar felt he let his friends and teammates down:
The loss didn't just cost Brock a national championship, it cost his team as well. Minnesota was a Lesnar win away from winning the NCAA Wrestling Championship. The loss burned in Lesnar, and he was committed to win at all costs in 2000. With Neal gone, his new top rival was Iowa's Wes Hand. Hand was the only man to beat Brock in his senior year. The two met again in the finals of the NCAA Championship, a tournament Lesnar ran through like Godzilla running amuck in Tokyo. This time he dispatched with Hand in a closely contested and cautious match. Lesnar made an escape in overtime. The one point was the difference. Lesnar won by the score of 3-2 and achieved his dream: he was the NCAA Champion. He finished his college career with an absurd record of 106-5. The only question? What would he do next?
What was next, of course, was a career in Vince McMahon's WWE. Lesnar became a world champion there, combining raw athleticism with rare physical charisma. It was a package McMahon, and the fans, couldn't resist. Lesnar was a professional wrestling star, but the constant travel and lifestyle wore on him. He was searching for something new when MMA found him. Wrestling's loss has certainly been the UFC's gain.
