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#4. Lesnar makes his UFC debut – UFC 81
To say Brock Lesnar was thrown into the deep end to start his MMA career is an understatement.
Lesnar, whose MMA record was 1-0, was matched up with former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in his first fight. Usually, it's common for promotions to match up their new signings against fighters with similar records. Clearly, that wasn't the case for Lesnar, who needed to learn quickly if he wanted to be prepared for Mir.
The big question in the leadup to that fight was whether Lesnar was for real and if he could truly fight. Not only did Lesnar prove the doubters wrong, but he showed why he should be taken seriously. He took Mir down less than 10 seconds into the bout. He then dropped Mir with a right-hand and swarmed him on the ground.
Lesnar looked like he was closing in on a TKO win. However, he left himself vulnerable for a submission and Mir took advantage. Mir defeated Lesnar with a kneebar at 1:30 in the first round.
#3. Lesnar becomes UFC heavyweight champion – UFC 91
After defeating Heath Herring in his second UFC bout, Lesnar earned a title shot against then-UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture. At the time, it seemed odd that Lesnar received the title shot with a 2-1 record. However, the UFC knew what they had and capitalized on his popularity.
Lesnar took advantage of the opportunity and defeated Couture by second-round TKO. With only four pro fights, Lesnar was already UFC heavyweight champion, which was unheard of, especially after defeating a legend like Couture. UFC 91 did very well on pay-per-view and generated 1,010,000 buys.
'The Beast' was now the man to beat at heavyweight and found himself with a few interesting possibilities. One of those was a potential fight against Fedor Emelianenko, but the clash unfortunately could not be set up.
