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Brock Lesnar is the talk of the MMA world right now.  The former professional wrestler's foray into the Ultimate Fighting Championships has captured a lot of people's attention in both the pro wrestling and the Mixed Martial Arts worlds. Lesnar, a phenomenal amateur wrestler who was NCAA Heavyweight Champion in 2000, was one of the fastest rising stars in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Paired with ECW creative genius Paul Heyman, who played Lesnar's on-air agent/manager, Lesnar debuted in WWE the day after Wrestlemania 2002, and immediately shot to the top. He won the King Of The Ring tournament and then saw his stock soar even higher when he destroyed Hulk Hogan in a memorable television match.
 
"That was the turning point, in many people's eyes," commented Wrestling News Desk.com editor Matthew Cooper, "when people saw Brock kill off the Hogan character, they realized that Lesnar was a major force in the wrestling world."
 
Heyman, who gave Lesnar the tag "The Next Big Thing" told reporters during a press call, "Brock Lesnar is the most physically gifted athlete I've ever seen enter the wrestling business. He's a monster of enormous proportions, yet can do anything he sets his mind to. He's like one of these 3 year old prodigies who listen to Mozart and can then play it on the piano. If Brock wants to accomplish something physically, it's going to happen."
 
Lesnar defeated movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for the Undisputed WWE Title at Summer Slam in August, and his popularity started to soar. In a controversial decision, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon split up Heyman and Lesnar, when Heyman's character doublecrossed Lesnar at the Survivor Series pay per view from Madison Square Garden, helping the 7 foot tall Big Show defeat Lesnar for the title.
 
Lesnar would eventually regain the championship from Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 2003 in Seattle, Washington, and turned back heel (villain) later that year. But Lesnar grew discontented with the wrestling industry, and notified McMahon he wanted out shortly before his Wrestlemania 2004 match against Bill Goldberg.

Lesnar entered the MMA field last year, crushing Kim Min-Soo at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the 1st round of their K-1 fight. The fight was contested in a ring, not in the cage (or, in UFC's case, the Octagon).
 
UFC came calling.  Now the 30 year old Lesnar will compete for the very first time in UFC next Saturday Night when he steps into the Octagon against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada in the most eagerly-anticipated match on the UFC 81: Breaking Point pay per view.

"I'd like to believe I have the ability to reach the heights of people like Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz — I would like to be one of those guys," Lesnar told the media this week, "I admire all of the guys in this sport. I've been training in MMA for a couple of years now and it takes a great deal of sacrifice and dedication and a lot of hard work."
 
Lesnar is not short of confidence, either.

"I think the sky's the limit for me in this sport as long as the chips fall in the right places and I keep working hard and keep winning fights," he noted, "I want to be the UFC champion one day but I'm taking it one fight at a time."

There are critics who say that if Lesnar wins his fight against Frank Mir, it will be worth a lot of money to UFC, but bad for the sport, because all of a sudden a "fake" professional wrestler will be ascending to the top of the "real" MMA sport. Lesnar disagrees, commenting "Any pro wrestlers wanting to make the transition into MMA don't have the credentials I have as an amateur wrestler — and you need a strong wrestling background to succeed in this sport."

Next Saturday Night, either Brock Lesnar will be stopped from becoming UFC's "Next Big Thing" by former champion Frank Mir, or Lesnar will push the MMA world to the "Breaking Point" at UFC 81.

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