The recent drastic emergence of talent in the heavyweight division of mixed martial arts that has taken place over the last several years with the rapid ascension of fighters such as Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin has served as a testament to the constant growth of the sport. Gone are the days of Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski ruling the division with an iron fist, and sadly, gone are the days of Fedor Emelianenko competing with any type of regularity. In it’s place a “new breed” of big men has been implanted, and with it a question begs to be asked: Who’s next? The guys currently occupying the top ranking in the weight class seem to have come from nowhere over the last couple of years, and only a fool would dare to believe there’s not a strong possibility they may be joined, or even replaced by an even “newer breed” of heavyweights, just like Arlovski and Sylvia before them.
Enter Cole Konrad, aka “The Polar Bear“. Walking around near the 300 pound mark just like his good friend and training partner, UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar; this pair of corn-fed Titans have far more in common than comparable size and a mutual training facility.
Along with being a 2005 Pan-American gold medal winner, Konrad is a two-time NCAA Wrestling Champion at 285 pounds. One of the best in University of Minnesota wrestling history, Cole went undefeated with an unbelievable record of 76-0 during his last two years spent at the “U” competing at the top of the food chain against many of the most imposing wrestlers in the sport.
Guess who else just so happens to be among the best heavyweight Golden Gopher’s in the history of the school’s decorated wrestling program?
“I met Brock pretty much as soon as I got to college,” said Konrad in a recent conversation with FiveOuncesofPain.com. “He had always wrestled at the University of Minnesota and I was wrestling there, so when I was there he would come and work with me. Pretty much since I was a freshman I’ve been working with Brock. He would come in whenever he was in town at the time, because he was still with the WWE, but he would come in whenever he could.
“Training partners once you get into the upper levels of wrestling are kind of few and far between. It’s hard to find good guys to work with. Especially good, big guys. So, I was still training for international wrestling stuff at the time while he was just getting into MMA, and he needed big guys, and I needed big guys, so it just seemed like a natural fit. We have a mutual trainer in Marty Morgan was working with both of us at the same time, so he kind of put us together and it just made sense.”
And with Lesnar already zeroed in on pursuing a career in the strategically brutal world of mixed martial arts, Konrad’s transition into the sport several years later seemed like more of a formality than anything else. And what better measuring stick to weigh yourself against than the best in the weight class?
“I started thinking seriously about getting into mixed martial arts shortly after my wrestling career was over,” said Konrad. “I had been training with Brock, and once I started training with those guys, I just kind of knew that I could do this and make a pretty swift transition. So I just continued to train because I wanted to be fairly well-rounded before I just hopped in there and gave it a whirl, but I knew I could figure it out.
“Training with guys like Brock, Chris [Tuchscherer], Jon [Madsen] and the rest of the guys that have had some experience fighting kind of let me know where I was at, and that I could make it work.”
It’s no coincidence that so many of the fastest rising stars in the MMA today – such as Lesnar, Velasquez, and now Konrad – have been groomed from wrestling mats all round the United States. The ability to take the fight where you want it – whether it be standing or on the ground – can be argued to be the most decisive advantage one could possibly hold over an opponent.
“Wrestling correlates directly with MMA,” said Konrad. “You learn such an awareness from wrestling, as far as where your hips are, where your weight is, how to apply good pressure, and how to keep a hard pace that just wears people down. That’s really the core of becoming a good wrestler. So that carries directly over into MMA. Also, the footwork in wrestling is actually so similar to boxing footwork that it helps a lot of wrestlers pick up the boxing for MMA relatively quick too. There are a lot of different attributes of wrestling that correlate so well with a lot of the different positions in mixed martial arts, and I think that’s one of the reasons that a lot of wrestlers are able to make that smooth transition.”
With the grappling background Konrad possesses there will be few that doubt his skills and potential ability when his fight’s go to the canvas, but there will always be questions hanging over a decorated wrestler’s head when making the crossover to MMA until performances in the cage dictate otherwise. Questions like: How are his hands? Can he take a punch? Is he prepared for kicks? How will he react when tagged directly on the chin?
“I feel like some parts of the striking game came really natural to me, but I’m definitely still working on it, and I’ve had to work on it quite a bit,” answered Cole when pressed for information on his development in the striking department. “I want to put more combos together and things like that. I mean it was natural for me to throw a jab and some of the basics, but learning the combos and stuff like that is taking a bit of work. I mean, you do have to learn it; I don’t know if it comes completely natural for anyone.
“I don’t feel uncomfortable during sparring at all. I feel completely comfortable, and I’m sure a lot of that comes from me not caring whether I get hit or not. I kind of wrestled that way, where I always led with my head, and I did a lot of head butting and dirty shit. So that kind of carried over where I didn’t really care.
“I mean, punch me in the forehead if you want.”
It’s always refreshing and insuring to hear a developing fighter address his perceived shortcomings openly and candidly. The worst mistake an up and coming fighter could make would be to fail to recognize his faults and not strive to improve upon them.
“You’re never content, and you’re always trying to get better, but the place I feel like I have the most work to do is on my feet,” said Konrad. “And it’s not that I don’t feel comfortable there, it’s that I feel like I have a lot of room for improvement in the stand up to where I could be really dangerous on my feet. That’s kind of exciting. I’m looking forward to progressing as a mixed martial artist. That’s why I try to focus on my striking and sparring as much as possible right now, and I enjoy being on my feet.”
With Cole apparently passing the “decorated wrestler transitioning to MMA verbal gut check” with flying colors, the next concern for someone that has spent most of their life controlling men on the mat is undoubtedly how they will perform with the potential of being kicked or punched directly in the face.
“The weirdest thing is – and I told Marty and Brock this – that it was the most content I’ve felt in the last decade while entering a competition,” said Konrad when talk turned to his professional MMA debut. “There were no butterflies and I was totally at peace. I knew what was going to go down, and how it was going to go down. I just felt totally comfortable out there, even though it was totally foreign to me outside of the practice room. I felt more calm and relaxed out there than I ever did for a wrestling match, which was surprising, but it’s relieving to know that.
“I feel super confident in my abilities, and I have a pretty realistic idea of where I’m currently at. So, just knowing that in my mind is just such a big factor. Confidence is such a big role in any sport.”
For any of those that missed it, Konrad came out victorious in the opening round of his MMA debut during “Max Fights 8″ against Gary Herman via one of the grizzliest submissions in the history of the game, sending a direct message to every man collecting a paycheck in mixed martial arts’ heavyweight division: I’m coming.
“Honestly, that’s a move that I hit a lot,” said Konrad. “They just call it the “polar bear choke” because Brock calls me “The Polar Bear”, but it’s kind of my choke. I go for it a lot. It’s similar to wrestling when I have that bottom leg torqued – or in half guard for MMA – but it’s just a comfortable position for me. I’m able to control my weight and put a lot of pressure down while I trap that shoulder to the mat where you can’t really move, and I get to just crank away.
“It’s one of those moves where, until you feel it, you just don’t understand how it could really work. I have your hips into the mat and I have good pressure going into you across your torso up through your shoulder onto the mat, and really, there’s nowhere to go. From there I basically wait for them to try to shrimp and get underneath me, and as soon as they do that I come from over the shoulder and around the chin and I can lock it up somewhat similar to a d’arce choke. But from the pressure that gets put on there, you’re really screwed. I mean, once I have it locked, you have about a second…. or less than that to wiggle before things get too tight to move.”
And what happens to the human body if one was to choose to snap over tap in a submission such as the “polar bear choke”? Well, lets just say that before they knew it, the “body” would be converted to more of a pretzel shaped “carcass” of sorts, as Cole would explain, “I’m sure if someone didn’t tap that their back would get messed up, the neck would get messed up mainly, and the cartilage on the ribs would pop. But they would get choked before that, and they would stop, I’m sure.”
Having recently just dipped his feet into the water as far as his mixed martial arts career is concerned, Konrad is admittedly in no hurry to ultimately be recognized as the very best in the heavyweight division. Developing as a fighter is all about building blocks of knowledge on top of blocks of knowledge; something Cole knows all too well.
“I’m just looking to test myself at this point in my career,” said Konrad, who improved his professional record to 2-0 with a “Matrix Fights” TKO over Joel Wyatt in February. “My game plan going into that last fight was to stand up the whole time, because when I get against top competition, they’re going to have good takedown defense,they’re going to be good on the mat, and they’re also going to be really good on their feet, so I need to get into real life situations right now. You can only do so much live sparring with partners; it’s just not the same as when you actually hop in the cage. There are a lot of questions surrounding me right now. There are even questions that I have for myself. I’m a wrestler, so how comfortable am I going to be on my feet when I’m actually in a fight?”
And what better way to answer those questions than to throw yourself directly into the fire? Konrad realizes that the only way to prove his worth as a fighter to both himself and the fans is to simply put him in the game. Something he’s more than eager to do, and absolutely something that played a pivotal role in his recent signing with Bellator Fighting Championships.
“Staying busy is definitely important to me right now at this early point of my career, and it is by design,” said the twenty-five year old Minnesota Martial Arts Academy trained fighter. “It wasn’t like all of a sudden I just decided that I wanted to fight twenty times in a year or something. I’ve been training in mixed martial arts for about three years now, full time. I got to a point where I felt like I was well-rounded and wanted to get out there and get some experience, and I think the only way to do that is to get in the cage and figure it out, to work on different areas, and just to continue to develop. I want to be able to carry over everything I’ve learned in the cage into all of my upcoming fights and just continue developing as a fighter. I may be rapping off some fights here relatively quick, but these are just building blocks on the way to where I’m trying to get to.
“Being able to stay active is one of the big reasons that led me to sign with Bellator Fighting Championships. They said that I would have “X” number of fights in a certain amount of time, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. Bellator is a well-known and well-respected company, and the big thing is that the fights are going to be on Fox Sports, Telemundo and late nights on NBC- that’s a lot of viewers. I talked to some other companies that wanted to give me four fights and over two years, and that there’s nothing wrong with that, but at this point in my career, I need to have more fights than that just to get the experience. So, Bellator just seemed like a perfect fit, all around.”
Already three years invested in his MMA training and currently primed to put his abilities on display in front of literally millions, 2010 promises to be breakthrough year for Mr. Konrad that will likely have his name on the lips of MMA and sport fans alike for many years to come, but it’s the next decade the rest of the heavyweight division needs to concern themselves with. Consider yourself warned. “The Polar Bear” is coming.
“Look at how many guys that are just great in individual areas and they’re getting beat,” said Konrad in closing. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I have no problem learning the situations, and learning the real situations, and not just in the training room.”
Cole would like to thank Brock Lesnar, Marty Morgan, Bellator Fighting Championships, Death Clutch, Everlast and Full Tilt Poker for supporting the development of his fight career.
This weekend was a great one for the UFC, their first trip into the 300+ movie theaters across the country seemed to be a boon for business and in the main event we got to see just how amazing Georges St. Pierre really is as he completely stifled Dan Hardy from the beginning of round one all the way to the final bell. But the question that haunts a fan like me, what is next for GSP? Looking at the top welterweight fighters in the world, GSP has beaten all of them, except Paul Daley, who is a clone of Dan Hardy (and no that is not a English joke) and would most likely be stuffed into the corner of the cage and also be unable to return fire on GSP much like the fight this weekend.
On Saturday night Jon Fitch was on the grind with a win over “Killa B” Ben Saunders that, while was not that exciting, was certainly a technical display of what Jon is extremely good at. The problem is that another fight between Fitch and GSP would be also as “technical” and not very fan friendly which is exactly why Dana wasn’t quick to grant that at the post-fight press conference. In fact, Dana was more interested in goading Jon into fighting Koscheck in a # 1 contender’s match, to which Jon responded “that fight would take place at our gym behind closed doors.”
The other scenario that has been floated around since this weekend was that The Ultimate Fighter 12 would be coached by Koscheck and “Semtex” Paul Daley for a shot at GSP. The problem is that while the fights between Fitch and Koscheck or Daley and Koscheck would be fun for MMA fans because either two teammates fighting each other and what that opens up for matches does it for you, or seeing if Paul’s hands can defeat Josh’s takedowns does, but the end game would be GSP beating all three men.
So what is next for GSP? Does he move up a weight class after this next defense for the Anderson Silva superfight? Is there a third match with Bj Penn? If so why? There is no doubt that George is one of the best if not the best in mixed martial arts when you look at his list of victims and his 20-2 record and as impressive as his performance on was Saturday, as a fan I look forward to seeing more competitive match-ups for George. I mean when you see a fight like the Carwin vs. Mir fight and then Brock steps in the cage to face off against Shane, I get goose bumps. That is because seeing Doomsday and the Incredible Hulk square off in a cage in July is great for business and has zero chance at being boring.
Fans have made MMA what it is today, their debates, videos, blogs, and most importantly their hard earned dollars and I appreciate George’s apology on Saturday night because he knows that the key to being a fan favorite is finishing the fight. And while finishing has different meanings to different people I think it is a universal truth that we enjoy his wins over Serra and Hughes verses his wins over Fitch and Koscheck. 2010 is going to be a brilliant year for MMA and the UFC and it would be great to see George back in the cage taking on guys that could test him. The only problem, George gets better every time he steps in the cage and there aren’t many humans that are in the same neighborhood, let alone share the same address as GSP.
With former champions such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir recently being blown out of the water by opponents many consider to be the new breed of heavyweights in the UFC, current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar views the current state of big men in the promotion as a passing of the guard of sorts.
“Shane’s a tough guy and I just know that Frank’s time is done,” said Lesnar in a recent article on Yahoo! Sports. “This is the new evolution of the heavyweight division. Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, we’re the guys in this division.”
As far as Shane Carwin’s newly earned interim heavyweight title is concerned, Lesnar had no problem in giving the newly crowned champ his due…. well, sort of.
“This belt thing, well, hopefully he enjoys the moment,” said Brock. “He should enjoy the win over Frank, but he has to realize that I’m the heavyweight champion. Everybody knows that. Good for him winning that fake belt.”
And while Carwin may currently lay claim to what Lesnar deems to be a “make believe belt”, the formidable former WWE superstar will be the first to admit that Carwin will be no walk in the park come UFC 116 when the two hulking titans are set to clobber one another for the right to be called the true undisputed heavyweight king of the UFC.
“I had to pull out against him last fall and I didn’t feel good about that,” said Lesnar. “But I couldn’t fight a guy like that if I wasn’t in the best shape of my life. I had to do what I had to do.”
Keeping his record of first round finishes intact, Shane Carwin sent a direct message to UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar this evening at UFC 111 with a savage knockout over Frank Mir.
Four brutal uppercuts in the clinch following a brief feeling out process had Frank Mir on wobbly legs and on his way out the door. Carwin capitalized on his stunned prey and closed in for the kill, swarming Mir with a volley of punches that left the former UFC heavyweight champion in an unconscious heap midway through the opening round.
The victory this evening for the undefeated Carwin has set up a showdown with Brock Lesnar to crown a true, undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.
Carwin’s impressive win tonight was for an interim title set up in the wake of Lesnar’s recent illness that kept the champion from competing. A title Brock deems “make-believe”.
“It was a good fight, but he’s still wearing a belt that’s a make-believe belt,” said Lesnar following Carwin’s knockout of Mir.
Carwin wasn’t going to argue with Lesnar either, stating,” I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m coming after it.”
The event is headlined by two title bouts featuring a welterweight title match between current champ Georges St. Pierre vs. British strike Dan Hardy, with the co-main event featuring a UFC interim heavyweight title bout featuring former champ Frank Mir and undefeated Shane Carwin.
Main Event Georges St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy
I think GSP comes out with a purpose and takes down Hardy early and punishes him with some wicked ground n’ pound in the middle of round 1 and sends Hardy back to Britain with a loss. GSP does his backflip and talks some good franglish. GSP by TKO Round 1
Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin
Frank Mir is so focused on Brock Lesnar he might be overlooking Carwin a bit, but I don’t think Carwin is used to the stage he is fighting on and Mir’s experience will come through and he get a submission early. Mir will then talk about how awesome he is and how much Brock sucks. Mir by RNC Round 1
Fabricio Camoes vs Kurt Pellegrino
Camoes comes in undefeated in his last 8 bouts including a draw vs Caol Uno at UFC 106, while Pellegrino comes in on a 3 fight win streak in the UFC but what color will has hair be at fight time. I look for Batman to come out and use his wrestling to control Camoes for most of the fight and grind out a Unanimous Decision win. Batman by UD Round 3
Jon Fitch vs Ben Saunders
Fitch was originally scheduled to meet Alves but he didn’t clear medical and Saunders asked the UFC for this fight and the agreed. I still think Fitch wins this fight with his wrestling and ground control and rides it to another decision win in what could be a boring fight. Fitch by UD Round 3
Mark Bocek vs Jim Miller
I think Miller is a great fight and Mocek has been steadily improving but his standup is nowhere near as good as Millers but what the heck I’ll take Bocek by sub in the 2nd round. Bocek by Arm Bar Round 2
Premilinary Card on Spike TV Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham
My love of the Diaz brothers and their fights shines through on this one again. I think Rory has heavier hands and the better striking but Nate will somehow get this fight to ground and Submit Markham. Diaz by Armbar Round 1
Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Brown
The Big Dog drops to 170 pounds for the 1st time and faces Matt Brown. Matt Brown and his hairy chest have looked pretty good lately and I think he keeps it going tonight. Matt Brown by TKO Round 2
Prelims Not Televised Jared Hamman vs Rodney Wallace
Wesley Snipes told me to always bet on black so I will and Wallace has a rad nickname “Sho Nuff Tha Master”. How can you go wrong! Wallace by UD Round 3
Tomas Drwal vs Rousimar Palhares
The Gorilla vs Toquinho. Toquinho sounds was better! Palhares by Triangle Round 2
Matthew Riddle vs Greg Soto
Chipper has awesome hair! Riddle by TKO Round 1
When comparing UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin (11-0) and champion Brock Lesnar (4-1) against one another, former UFC champion Frank Mir (13-4) feels that in the octagon, Carwin poses the more dangerous of the two.
“I think he’s very similar to Brock Lesnar,” Mir told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “He’s somebody that’s strong, and he’s a good wrestler. But I think that Carwin, in a lot of ways, is actually more dangerous for me.”
Mir is set to meet Carwin in just a few short weeks in the co-headliner for UFC 111 on March 27th at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ for the UFC interim-heavyweight title.
If Mir ever meets Lesnar again, he’ll try to keep the fight standing but realizes that a fight against Carwin will be much different.
“Brock and Carwin are both better wrestlers than I am,” Mir said. “Most likely, they’ll both be able to take me down. Most likely, they’ll both be able to win the fight if I get stuck against the cage on my back with my head jammed up. But with that being said, with Lesnar, on my feet, I have no real anxiety about standing there and boxing. He’s knocked people over because he clubs people with his hands, but he’s not really a knockout artist. Carwin has actually knocked people out.
“In a fight with Lesnar, the goal is to keep it on the feet, and I’ll win the fight. With Carwin, if I say just keep it on my feet and I fall asleep on him while looking for the shot, I can easily go to sleep if I get caught. He’s shown the ability to knock people out. To me, he’s a dual threat.”
Check out the rest of the interview and the former heavyweight champs comments on a possible match-up between Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, if the newly crowned interim champ was unable to make the fight date.
Shane Carwin has decided to clarify his earlier remarks regarding Frank Mir’s remarks regarding wanting to “kill Brock Lesnar in the ring.”(sounds like something we’d make up but it’s true) Here’s what Carwin said, via his blog:
“I have never said Frank Mir was mentally unfit or a terrible human being. What I did say is that if ANY fighter really wishes to kill someone in the Octagon they IN FACT ARE a terrible person. I also stated that I had not heard any of Mir’s comments so I was not directing the comment to him. I had been buried in getting my wife through labor and the baby here safely (29 hours of labor). There are a lot of fighters that say were fighting to the death or I want to kill that guy when we fight. Fighting is an emotional sport and we all say some stupid stuff, fighters just have a tendency to say it when the mic is on, when our emotions are at our highest. Do I think Frank is unfit or a bad guy? I do not, every experience I have had with him has been good and I really do not have much negative to say about him. I expect he will be in amazing shape and seems to be as hungry as we all are to get a crack at Brock’s title.”
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, along with former UFC champion Frank Mir, have recently released a statement in an attempt to clean up a mess created by the often outspoken heavyweight during a recent radio appearance.
“A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct,” Mir said in an interview on WXDX radio. “I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC, ‘Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him’. If I don’t mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth? I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.”
The aftershock felt from those recent comments were more than enough to force a recent reaction fromm the UFC brass.
“I was disappointed by Frank Mir’s comments,” said UFC President Dana White in the recent statement released from the UFC. “Frank’s been with the UFC a long time, he’s a two-time heavyweight champion and a commentator for the WEC. I think his emotions are running high right now, he has a big fight coming up next month and he’s still upset about his loss to Lesnar. He’s been talked to, he regrets what he said, and he won’t be saying anything like that again.”
Mir apologized to every one imaginable for the recent comments in the release from the UFC.
“I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks,” said Mir. “I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts. I’m sorry that I stepped out of line.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir spoke recently to Mark Madden on WXDX radio, saying “I want to fight (Brock) Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person, I want to break his neck in the ring, I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries.” That interview can be found in the video below.
The UFC and it’s president Dana White, have responded quickly by talking to Mir about his comments and issuing an apology on UFC.com from Mir.
“I was disappointed by Frank Mir’s comments,” said White. “Frank’s been with the UFC a long time, he’s a two-time heavyweight champion and a commentator for the WEC. I think his emotions are running high right now, he has a big fight coming up next month and he’s still upset about his loss to Lesnar. He’s been talked to, he regrets what he said, and he won’t be saying anything like that again.”
“I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks,” said Mir. “I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts. I’m sorry that I stepped out of line.”
During today’s UFC 110 press conference from Sydney, Australia president Dana White announced that there was a good chance that the winner of Sunday’s main event could go on to face the UFC’s heavyweight champ later this summer.
“Brock is back in the heavyweight division now,” White said. “He’s healthy, and he’s going to fight again. Mir and Carwin are going to fight for the interim title because that fight was already made before Brock said he was coming back.
“[Nogueira and Velasquez], the winner of this fight puts them right in the mix because something could happen to either Shane or Mir in that fight where they couldn’t fight Brock, so the winner of this fight would fight Brock.”
“In a perfect scenario, Mir and Carwin fight, one of them wins, comes out healthy, and then we do the Brock fight,” White said.
UFC heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, a former interim heavyweight champ, will square off against the much younger and undefeated Cain Velasquez in Sunday’s main event at UFC 110 in Sydney Australia. The PPV event will be shown Saturday night in North America beginning at 10 p.m. EST (7 p.m. PST) due to the 16 hour time difference.
Current UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar has been sidelined by an intestinal illness and is expected to return this summer. Lesnar had been set to face top challenger Shane Carwin late last year but that fight was delayed and then canceled due to the champs health issues.
Carwin will instead, go on and face former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir at UFC 112 in Newark, NJ for an interim title in the meantime. The winner of this match will undoubtedly go on to face the winner of a Lesner vs Nogueira/Velasquez at the end of the year.
The recent drastic emergence of talent in the heavyweight division of mixed martial arts that has taken place over the last several years with the rapid ascension of fighters such as Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin has served as a testament to the constant growth of the sport. Gone are the days of Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski ruling the division with an iron fist, and sadly, gone are the days of Fedor Emelianenko competing with any type of regularity. In it’s place a “new breed” of big men has been implanted, and with it a question begs to be asked: Who’s next? The guys currently occupying the top ranking in the weight class seem to have come from nowhere over the last couple of years, and only a fool would dare to believe there’s not a strong possibility they may be joined, or even replaced by an even “newer breed” of heavyweights, just like Arlovski and Sylvia before them.
