7 best MMA moves of Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar (left) is widely regarded as one of the most charismatic MMA and WWE Superstars of all time
Brock Lesnar (left) is widely regarded as one of the most charismatic MMA and WWE Superstars of all time

Brock Lesnar is perhaps one of the most peculiar cases of the “what if?” discussion in the world of combat sports.

Lesnar—a highly-accomplished amateur wrestler—gained global notoriety in the world of sports-entertainment, courtesy his time in WWE.

Nevertheless, “The Beast Incarnate” subsequently tried his hand at the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, making his MMA debut in 2007. While, Lesnar did achieve tremendous success in the sport of MMA—winning, then successfully defending the UFC Heavyweight Championship twice—his critics often claim Lesnar to be a one-dimensional fighter.

Combat sports pundits, fans as well as several of his peers note that while he is an excellent grappler and phenomenal athletic specimen, his lack of training and experience in the striking arts is what led to him losing to fighters such as Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem.

While his supporters always note that Lesnar was in the midst of a deadly battle with the potentially fatal disease, diverticulitis, the fact remains that The Beast’s skills are indeed rudimentary as far as the striking department is concerned.

Regardless, to his credit, despite his lack of striking and sparring experience in disciplines such as boxing, Muay Thai, etc, he does possess heavy hands.

Besides, his grappling skills are truly elite. Today, we take a look at the 7 best Brock Lesnar MMA moves—


#7 Straight Right Hand

youtube-cover

Say what you want about Brock Lesnar’s striking being rudimentary, but should The Beast land those lunchbox fists on his foe, they surely do feel it.

While Lesnar’s left hook may be nothing to write home about, his straight right hand is excellent. Lesnar, like most wrestlers who transition to MMA, uses his overhand right to set up the takedown—and that subsequently serves to polish his right hand and turn it into a deadly weapon.

Regardless, while Lesnar sets up his takedowns in the traditional freestyle wrestling manner, he does often use the overhand right to get to the clinch, and grapple from there. However, when speaking purely in terms of striking, Lesnar has a great, albeit criminally underutilized straight right hand.

Bear in mind that his straight right hand, although thrown with relatively same foot-weight distribution dynamics to the overhand right—is much better than the latter. Lesnar maintains better form while throwing the straight right than he does during the overhand right.

The Beast successfully used the straight right hand to stun Frank Mir in their first fight, knock down Heath Herring in his decision win over the latter, as well as in his knockout win over MMA legend Randy Couture.

#6 The Power Double

youtube-cover

Brock Lesnar is an out-and-out wrestler.

It’s in The Beast’s blood to dominate his foe by instinctively using his otherworldly grappling skills to take the fight to the ground. Once there, it’s Lesnar’s world!

While Lesnar has many ways of getting the fight to the mat—including throws, trips and other Greco-Roman wrestling techniques—his favorite maneuvers are generally freestyle wrestling ones.

Lesnar has an incredible power double—one which sees him charge his opponents and often secure the double-leg takedown without even clasping both his hands behind his foe’s legs. He chooses to simply power his way and take his rival to the mat; generating torque from his legs and hips rather than exerting his upper body too much.

#5 Throws and tackles

youtube-cover

A rather intriguing facet of Brock Lesnar’s combat repertoire is the fact that he often pushes and tackles his opponents—something which, although legal, is seldom used with success at the highest levels of MMA competition.

Lesnar, being less polished in the striking department than most of his opponents, often resorts to measures that may generally be ridiculed or looked down upon at an elite MMA gym. Regardless, his tactics are effective nonetheless—case in point being his excellent usage of throws and tackles in his 3-round decision win over Heath Herring.

Lesnar dropped Herring with a beautiful straight right hand and proceeded to tackle the latter—crushing him against the fence. The usage of Lesnar’s tackles was also highlighted in his rather one-sided stoppage loss at the hands of Cain Velasquez.

Lesnar took Velasquez down in the traditional manner, so to speak, however, he chose to tackle the latter to keep him there. The only drawback in the Velasquez matchup is that the latter made excellent usage of butterfly hooks to get the fight back on the feet.

Nevertheless, Lesnar’s utilization of throws and tackles are indeed praiseworthy.

#4 Old school wrestling dynamics

youtube-cover

Ever walked into a wrestling academy?

The general approach of most wrestling coaches is that pure wrestling is enough to help you incapacitate your opponent in a fight. Most people in the wrestling community would have you believe that even though you may not be trained in any striking art, wrestling alone can help you neutralize an attacker.

Now, while most of us are well aware of the fact that grappling without basic knowledge of the striking arts usually is a recipe for disaster in an MMA fight, traditional wrestling practices such as “not shying away from placing your knee on the ground while executing the takedown”, are indeed useful in a fight.

In technical terms, a takedown can be broken down into a chain of movements—the end result of which is you attaining top position on your opponent, while the latter ends up on the bottom position on the ground.

Most MMA fighters prefer eliminating the “drop step” or in layman’s terms placing your knee on the ground during a takedown attempt—and rather choose to close the distance with strikes and then perform a snatch single or get to the clinch.

Regardless, Brock Lesnar is one who doesn’t shy away from sticking to his old school wrestling methodology—getting on his knees time and again to grab his opponent’s legs.

In fact, with his most recent MMA fight against legendary kickboxer Mark Hunt, Lesnar would end up on his knees time and again, only for Hunt to backpedal away from him due to the takedown threat.

Lesnar would eventually go on to catch Hunt’s legs/hips and then execute the takedown.

#3 Chest-to-chest pressure, top control, submissions

youtube-cover

While securing a successful takedown on your opponent is an amazing feeling, it’s only a part of the puzzle in MMA.

Keeping the fight on the ground—particularly if your foe happens to be better than you on the feet, or if your game-plan is more grappling-based—is paramount.

Brock Lesnar is an example of someone who is excellent at keeping the fight on the mat. His top-control is legendary and only fell short during the Cain Velasquez fight when The Beast was in less-than-desirable physical condition owing to diverticulitis.

Lesnar notably utilized great top-control, with the chest-to-chest pressure strategy, in his second fight against Frank Mir. He kept his chest glued to that of Mir’s from top position and established a ton of pressure on the latter’s chest—so much so that it didn’t matter as to whether he was in Mir’s half-guard, full-guard or in side-control.

Lesnar then proceeded to brutalize Mir with short punches and hammerfists—something we’re going to discuss in detail up next. Besides, who can ever forget the top pressure which lead to Lesnar's come-from-behind arm-triangle submission win over Shane Carwin.

#2 The Bruce Lee one-inch strike

youtube-cover

Yes, Brock Lesnar isn’t exactly Bruce Lee when it comes to the striking aspect of combat.

However, Lesnar is a highly-talented athlete and exceptional at using his limited striking toolset to win fights. Lesnar was initially mocked by arch rival Frank Mir for the former’s utilization of short hammerfists in his TKO win over Randy Couture.

Regardless, when Lesnar fought Mir in their rematch at UFC 100, The Beast used the same technique—short hammerfists and short but precise punches—to knock Mir out cold.

This is where Bruce Lee’s theory of the one-inch punch comes into play—given the fact that the right amount of power applied by Lesnar in Lee’s style of short and precise incisions, caused maximum damage to Mir.

#1 The George Foreman “Frankenstein” hands

youtube-cover

George Forman is perhaps one of the greatest professional boxers and fighters of all time.

One of the most peculiar moves that “Big” George popularized both during his first as well as second stint in the sport of boxing, is the outstretched hands which he used to both measure his opponent as well as to parry incoming strikes.

Foreman’s style often made him appear as though he were Frankenstein’s monster, stalking his foe around the ring with one or most of the time both hands outstretched.

Brock Lesnar utilized the outstretched arm approach masterfully in his 2016 fight against Mark Hunt—a matchup where Lesnar seemed to have learned from his previous losses where his striking defense was to simply move back in a straight line.

While Foreman used the aforementioned approach the best—both defensively and offensively—Lesnar primarily utilized it to defend against Hunt’s strikes.

Regardless, Lesnar’s lack of a jab or any form of striking (punches, elbows, knees, kicks) apart from his big right hand, was to a great extent covered up by his outstretched hands stiff-arming Hunt and pushing the latter off-balance.

Nevertheless, he’ll likely go down as one of the biggest “what if?” cases in combat sports history.

“What if Brock Lesnar would’ve started training for MMA at a younger age?”

“What if his peers in the MMA community weren’t prejudiced against the WWE Superstar?”

“What if they welcomed him into their elite MMA camps and allowed him to gradually evolve his striking skills?”

Love him or hate him, it remains an undisputed fact that current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is a great fighter.

Quick Links

Edited by Raunak J