GO FOR 2

Yahoo! Sports reported today that, because of prolonged illness, Brock Lesnar will not be able to defend his title at UFC 106 this November. His scheduled opponent, Shane Carwin, told Yahoo! that “My heart just sank, as you can imagine . . . ” when he heard that the fight would be postponed. Now, to his credit, Carwin has yet to say anything bad-mouthing Lesnar in regards to this (give him time, though), and rightfully so.

Dana White said he only knew that Lesnar had been ill and unable to train for weeks, but could not confirm that Lesnar had H1N1 flu. A lot of people are probably going to jump on Lesnar for this, but there’s no reason, fighters pull out because of injury all the time. If you don’t think being sick counts as injury (usually guys pull out because of ligament issues sustained during grappling in practice), then here are some things to consider. Conditioning is considered one of the marks of a good fighter, and missing almost a full month of training with only one month until your fight is absolutely going to kill your conditioning. Second, Lesnar – like many fighters – has to cut weight prior to weigh-ins. Cutting weight is hard on your body when you’re healthy, but it would absolutely drain a fighter who has been sick (read: dehydrated) for weeks in advance of having to cut weight. Third, whether you love or hate Lesnar, you can’t argue that this man loves to compete and to prove himself. There just isn’t an argument that he’s scared or not confident, I’m sure this bothers Lesnar twice as much as Carwin. The man has simply been ill, and wants to go out and fight when he’s at his best. Just like every other fighter out there.