Mike- Wow, Kevin, I have to say that I was immediately impressed by the way you were dominating this question until I had to re-read the part about Brock not having the complete legitimacy as an Elite MMA fighter yet. Ask Randy Couture and Heath Herring if they think Brock is an elite fighter. Better yet ask the 4XL-sized mouse on the left side of Herrings face. Look, I will be the first to admit that I was extremely reluctant to give Lesnar any kind of credit. He dominated Mir most of their fight but made a silly mistake, he then made Herring look like his 8 year old nephew who said “can I play” but then HE BEAT RANDY COUTURE… you know like Randy “The Natural” Couture. He’s that 6 time UFC champion, the one who beat the snot out of Gabriel Gonzaga at 44 and made Tim Sylvia look like a grappling dummy a few months before that. To say that he is not elite now is just wrong. He will have his way with Frank Mir in a rematch and if he learned anything by watching Herring’s fight against Nogueira he will actually finish the fight after he lands a strike, which is all it will take against Nog and he will land one. Sorry, I know that there was another question here but I just couldn’t let that go.

I think that the casual fan will use Brock as a reason to check out the sport, the best thing for the UFC is to get his last two fights on UFC Unleashed ASAP so that they can begin garnering some interest. I think this could be one of the several defining moments for MMA as they break down walls and add to their fan base. The downside: WAY too many idiots out there already think that this sport is either too brutal, not legitimate or worst of all fake. To anyone reading this article I know how ridiculous that sounds but I still hear it all the time. I hate to say it but there are a lot of people who missed the boat on this sport and I honestly believe that they bashed it for so long and so publicly that they may never come out of the closet. Kevin hit nail on the head about future wrestlers entering the sport. Brock doesn’t bring any notoriety to pro wrestlers in MMA, he brings notoriety to amazing athletes who know how to push themselves and learn new things.

Question #2-Is Demian Maia the next big thing at middleweight? Will he be the future Anderson Silva?

Kevin-Yes, Demian Maia is going to rule the middleweight division at some point in the not so distant future, possibly before the calendar strikes 2010. He’s smart to not bite off more than he can chew (as in calling for Michael Bisping instead of Anderson Silva). I don’t think there’s a fighter in that division that can overpower his ground game, but Silva’s standup is top notch (not to mention his amazing ground attack) and Maia should hone those skills before attempting a hostile takeover of the Middleweight crown. Bisping would be a great challenge for Maia and one that he can win. Bisping has a really good standup attack and is also good at defending himself on the ground. If Maia can dispatch him or a similar level fighter the way Kenny Florian took care of Joe Stevenson, he’ll be well on his way to a title fight. It seems that Maia, Kenny Florian, and Dustin Hazelett reminded everyone this past weekend who was the first person to dominate the UFC – Royce Gracie - a jiu jitsu master. Ground and Pound is proving to only be a short term solution; you need a submission game to dominate today in the long term and once Demian Maia gets to the top it will be very difficult to knock him off.