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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I think Brock mentally got beat, but I always thought that they didn't treat Brock right either. I thought they threw him in too soon. He's fighting guys that had 20 fights in his second fight because he's so massive and so impressive. It wasn't fair to him. If he would have got groomed properly, he could've been the best fight in any weight class, best pound-for-pound ever, if he was groomed properly. I'm not sure that [the diverticulitis] is everything. I know that's a big part of it, but what if he was training properly? Would that have even been a factor? I don't even know. I'm just saying, this guy had an opportunity to be great, and I just saw him mentally get dwindled down because he was thrown right into that. With guys that had a lot more fights than him, a lot more technical than him. Imagine what you could have done with this guy if you had groomed him properly?"
Penick's Analysis: As insane as it seems, Shamrock is making a logical argument here. I know, that doesn't seem to happen often. But that's one of the great "what if's?" In this sport. What if Lesnar had been given time to develop more slowly? What if he could have refined his skills over a couple of years before fighting the top fighters in the world at heavyweight? There's a case to be made that he was done a disservice. At the same time, he was such a commanding presence, and carried a hefty price tag, so the UFC had little choice but to book him in big fights, especially when he was game to compete. Regardless, these "what if?" scenarios are only hypothetical, and it's impossible to say whether or not it would have worked out differently.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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