Lesnar told Mauro Ranallo on The Fight Show, “No, it’s not over. It’s not a career-ending surgery by any means, so I’ve just got to weigh out all my options at this time and see if that is the right thing to do or if there’s any other medication that I can be on or any other thing. I don’t know how I can change my diet any more than I have but we’re looking down all avenues right now and I foresee in the near future that I’ll be able to step back in the Octagon.” It was actually about seven months before Lesnar would make a return to the cage. When asked how long it took him to feel like his old self after the surgery, Lesnar jokingly responded, “About six hours.” But when he finally returned to action against enormous Dutch kickboxer Alistair Overeem at UFC 141, he didn’t quite seem himself.
Overeem was a MMA veteran, in another lifetime a promising prospect at light heavyweight who never delivered when it mattered most. Bulking up to heavyweight changed everything. With the extra power, Overeem thrived, not only in mixed martial arts, but in kickboxing as well. He won the K-1 Grand Prix and became one of the heavyweight division’s most fearsome fighters. Lesnar’s equal in size, Overeem believed his experience would give him an advantage.
“Do I have an experience advantage? I believe I do. About ten times as much,” the former Strikeforce champion said. “I’m going to tear this guy apart — piece by piece.”
Overeem was true to his word, decimating Brock’s tender insides with hard kicks to the body. “I predicted it the night before to my fiancée . . . I said, ‘First I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do that. And I’m going to finish it with a liver kick,” Overeem said after the fight. “I don’t know if it’s luck or it’s strategy. But it turned out that way, and I’m happy that it did.”
After the fight, Lesnar stood in the center of the Octagon and announced his retirement from the sport. “I’ve had a really difficult couple of years with my disease, and I’m going to officially say tonight is the last time you’ll see me in the Octagon,” Lesnar said. “I promised my wife and my kids if I won this fight, I would get a title shot, and that would be my last fight. But if I lost tonight . . . you’ve been great.”
For the 34-year-old Lesnar, it had been a tumultuous four-and-a-half years in the sport. He competed almost from the start with the best of the best. In the end, it was his own failing body that did him in. In those four plus years, he accomplished more than most fighters do in a lifetime, winning the UFC title and becoming the sport’s biggest box-office draw. “Brock Lesnar has made a lot of money in his career and has achieved a lot of things. He brought a lot of excitement to the heavyweight division,” said UFC President Dana White. “What he accomplished in a short amount of time is amazing.”
27
THE FUTURE
Outside of Sakuraba and the Pancrase veterans, catch wrestling has rarely been represented at the highest level of mixed martial arts. But there’s one notable exception: “The Babyfaced Assassin” Josh Barnett, a former UFC champion and one of the sport’s most controversial figures. Now a grizzled warrior in his mid-30s, the “Babyface” nickname seems out of place — but in 1999, at the age of 21, he still had the baby fat to go with his babyface. Barnett wasn’t just out of shape or dumpy. He was legitimately fat. But inside that layer of lard lurked a hell of a fighter.
At SuperBrawl XIII he rampaged through an eight-man heavyweight tournament — kind of a major deal because the T. Jay Thompson–promoted show was still seen as a ticket to the bigtime. In the field were six future UFC veterans including Heath Herring and Bobby Hoffman and future UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez. When the dust settled, Barnett was crowned king.
His ticket to the UFC, however, still hadn’t been punched — not quite yet. UFC matchmaker John Perretti didn’t like Barnett’s doughy look: gaining entry to the Octagon wouldn’t be easy. He needed one more big win to secure his spot. Beating Bobby Hoffman was one thing. Dan Severn was another kind of test all together.
The “Beast” had been an early UFC standout and was still wreaking havoc on the independent scene all over the world. He had three losses on his record — to Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Mark Coleman, all cream of the crop athletes. Since his loss to Coleman, he had gone 21–0–3 over the next three years. In short, Dan Severn was still a force to be reckoned with.
“Dan was one of my favorite fighters from the early UFCs,” Barnett remembered. “He was a pro wrestler, of course, and when you rolling German suplex a guy, you tend to leave an impression on people’s minds, especially mine. Besides me, Dan is the only person to pull it off in an MMA match. But he did it first. When I had a chance to fight him, he had already beaten Lance Gibson and Doug Murphy, two guys from my gym. So him being an idol wasn’t on my mind. The only thing on my mind was to kick the living crap out of him. At the time he hadn’t lost in years. And it was my chance to show everybody that I’m one of the best in the world.”
In typical Severn fashion, it wasn’t pretty. The two men spent most of the first three rounds clinching against the ropes or charging each other like two bull elephants. Severn managed a takedown in each round and was likely ahead on the cards as they entered the fourth and final round. But when the tide turned, it turned quickly.
“He thought he was going to ride it out. But come that fourth round, [trainer] Matt [Hume] slapped the shit out of me and it really woke me up,” Barnett said. “I just went out there berserk, swinging on him. He tried to lateral drop me and I blocked him. That was the end of the fight.”
Barnett’s dismantling of Severn, finishing the legend with a mounted arm bar, launched a career that would take a kid from Seattle, Washington, all over the world. He announced his presence early, losing a fight to perennial contender Pedro Rizzo, but doing it in style, standing and trading with the powerful kickboxer.
“I try never to be in a boring fight. In an exciting fight, win or lose, if people like what they see you’re going to have a fanbase,” Barnett said. “People are going to want to watch you fight. I think some of these promoters get that all mixed up and get too caught up on who’s won what. That certainly does matter. But does this guy bring what I want to see? Or is he just somebody who happens to win?”
As his overall game improved under the guidance of former Pancrase fighter Matt Hume, Barnett lived a dream, winning the UFC title from the great Randy Couture in 2002.
Hume outlined Barnett’s training: “When he started training with me he was just out of high school and still a kid; he spent many years training under me and became a world champion before going on his own. I trained Josh the same as I train everyone else. I attempt to develop all areas. Technically: striking, takedowns, and ground equally. Conditioning and strength to [fight] at a pace that the opponent can’t handle. Strategy: to understand the fight game and your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. Mental preparation: To have no fear and keep your mind focused on what you are going to do to your opponent, concentrating on your strength and ability and not on your opponent’s.”
“I trained Josh as I would train anyone in any weight class,” he continues. “At heavyweight, the fighters tend to focus less on the things that I mentioned and more on power, which I feel is a mistake and contributes to incomplete skills in the heavyweights. I believe that Josh had an advantage over heavyweights because of the understanding that I gave him in those areas.”
When Barnett was at his absolute peak, with a dominant win over Couture in the record books and the UFC belt around his waist, things went horribly awry. He was busted for steroids, and then made matters worse by suggesting the test was doctored and that UFC President Dana White was using the publicity as a negotiating tactic as the two discussed a new contract.
His UFC career ended with that positive test for performance enhancing drugs, but Barnett landed on his feet. He moved on to Japan, joining his idols in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and main-evening in the mammoth Tokyo Dome. Barn
ett was even able to claim the title belt that meant the most to him — the King of Pancrase.
“It was probably the highest point of my career, the thing that is most memorable to me. Winning that title meant so much,” Barnett said. “It means more than anything else I’ve done in MMA. My coach Matt Hume competed for the original King of Pancrase. He didn’t win it, but I got the chance 10 years later to go back and do it. It really made me proud to come home with that belt. And it really but the belt, in the eyes of people, at the level it should be treated.”
Later Barnett joined the Pride promotion and he beat some of the best, including becoming one of the few men to defeat Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. Along the way Barnett’s path diverged from most mixed martial artists — his preferred style on the mat was catch wrestling, an art he learned from Billy Robinson in Japan and Hume in Seattle.
Barnett told Jake Shannon at ScientificWrestling.com, “One of the reasons I got into MMA was because of pro wrestling. I always knew that pro wrestling was a sport of real tough men and that most people only knew the surface of pro wrestling. I get upset to see that something like catch, that used to be known and popular all throughout the world, is being ignored. Catch was here before BJJ and BJJ is not the end all, be all of submissions. I will bring catch wrestling back to the forefront and in the limelight again and I’ll do it by beating my opponents.”
Now 33, Barnett is writing the final chapters of his story. It’s unclear what the future holds — several drug test failures have made it hard for him to get licensed to fight in many states and the market for MMA in Japan has withered. In the United States, only the UFC’s parent company Zuffa remains as a major player, and bad blood with Dana White may prevent him from ever returning to the Octagon. But Barnett, ever an optimist, believes he may get another chance in the UFC.
“You don’t burn bridges with Dana,” Barnett told MMA journalist Sam Caplan.
If you can make him money, he puts you in there. If he thinks he’s going to get rich, he uses you or in some instances he has his guys that he calls his “boys,” or whatever. He knows where his bread is buttered and if he sees green — it’s a go. Randy got an instant title shot coming out of retirement. You know why? Because he saw green.
I’m not the only person to ever have issues with Dana and I’m sure — in fact I know for a fact — that there are fighters that are in the Ultimate Fighting Championship right now that have a problem with Dana White. But this is a completely different scenario. If he wants to have personal issues with fighters then there’s nothing I can do to help that guy.
In terms of business, I make promoters money and promoters make me money and that’s what it comes down to and when it comes to calling somebody unbeatable you better make sure next time that the guy that beat him for the heavyweight title before isn’t in the same room.
New Generation
While Barnett’s best days may be behind him, a new generation of catch-based fighters is on the horizon. The lead grappling trainer at Randy Couture’s Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas is a catch aficionado named Neil Melanson — a former student of Gene LeBell disciple Gokor Chivichyan. Melanson became Couture’s grappling instructor prior to the UFC legend’s fight with Nogueira and the techniques and strategies he’s showing Couture — and other fighters around the country who flock to Randy’s gym — is resonating with wrestling-based fighters.
“I’m moving away from a jiu-jitsu mentality,” Couture said before his fight with Mark Coleman at UFC 109. Working with Melanson had opened his eyes about what was possible on the ground. “With Neil, I’m looking more with a wrestler’s eyes. Instead of jiu-jitsu positions, Neil is showing me catch wrestling and submissions as they come from wrestling positions. It’s really a lot of fun for me.”
But Melanson, the man reviving catch wrestling, insists it’s still a rare skill set. “Its original form is almost dead — there’s a few guys out there that can really do it. I consider myself a catch wrestler but when it comes down to true catch wrestling, I’m really not. That particular form, it’s so hard to find guys that know that style well. It had a lot to do with the application of what I call ‘mat wrestling.’ People associate takedowns with wrestling and don’t realize there’s a lot of mat work in wrestling.”
Besides Couture and other MMA stalwarts like Chael Sonnen, Melanson has also trained extensively with Bryan Danielson, the independent wrestling star now making a name in the WWE as Daniel Bryan.
“He’s getting good,” says Menalson of Danielson. “The problem is, now that he’s doing pro wrestling, he’s hardly getting a chance to train. He’s a tough bastard, he’s a legit grappler. He’s rolled with Randy, he’s rolled with those guys. . . . He’s a strong, strong guy. You know when you meet people and they’re like, ‘This guy’s a good guy?’ He is by far one of the best quality human beings I’ve met in my entire life. I hope he continues to be successful in what he does.”
Danielson, who once considered making a career out of fighting, is starting to catch on in wrestling’s last remaining major league — but he hasn’t left his catch roots behind entirely. He’s using the LeBell Lock as a submission finisher, keeping another wrestling legend alive on national television.
“It’s actually an omoplata with a cross face, but I’ve mostly just called it the LeBell Lock,” Danielson wrote. “Neil Melanson, my friend and one of the best grappling coaches in the country, taught me the move and he learned it from the legendary ‘Judo’ Gene LeBell. I’ve never met Mr. LeBell, but he is one of the grappling greats.”
The future looks bright for catch wrestling. In addition to Melanson, Billy Robinson is still active training young wrestlers with the help of Scientific Wrestling’s Jake Shannon. There are teams of young fighters competing in grappling tournaments worldwide, flying the flag for catch wrestling. Professional fighters like Matt Hughes are implementing catch techniques into their bouts.
For decades tough men spent their lives on the mat, refining the sport until it was nearly perfect — equal parts art and science. Its secrets were passed on from one generation to the next in wrestling rooms, dojos, carnival tents, and even in the Octagon. Its appeal is universal — the catch wrestling web was spun all over the world, from dingy gyms in Wigan, England, to Tokyo, and even to the jiu-jitsu artists in Brazil.
The art is still being passed on today, and in MMA has a proving ground to show its efficacy. Submission wrestling, once thought to be dead, may be approaching a new renaissance. As long as men struggle for physical supremacy, there will always be a place for wrestling and its ultimate expression — catch-as-catch-can.
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2. The Uncivilized Import: Catch-as-Catch-Can
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Bismarck ND Daily Tribune, September 16, 1891
Shooters Page 40