Penick's Take
PENICK: With retirement on his mind, Brock Lesnar appeared checked out in UFC 141 loss to Alistair Overeem
Dec 31, 2011 - 3:00:13 PM PENICK: With retirement on his mind, Brock Lesnar appeared checked out in UFC 141 loss to Alistair Overeem

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Brock Lesnar had his game face on in the lead up to UFC 141 on Friday night. He was saying all the right things, his training partners were talking up this camp, he came into the weigh-ins with an intensity that was absent in his last two fights, and he just appeared ready to get back on track in the sport.

Then came his walkout on Friday, and he looked neither intense nor all there in the moment. Taking into account his post-fight retirement, it's clear that Lesnar wasn't mentally in the fight on Friday night.

After two performances in 2010 where he drew heavy criticism for his reaction to punches, he actually did have better reactions to getting hit in the head this time around. But with Overeem deciding to attack Lesnar's body, it was again far too overwhelming.

But even before he got hit with the Uber-knees to his ailing gut, he looked out of his element in this fight in a way that he just didn't in the Shane Carwin and Cain Velaquez fights. He seemed to check out before the bout started, and with retirement on his mind he may have just been there for the paycheck.

Though it was likely in the back of his mind all week into the fight, Lesnar didn't let on that this was near, and in fact there were even reports that he would be signing a new UFC contract win or lose on Friday. After two years of battling diverticulitis and putting his body through hell, however, it all culminated in what amounts to a career cut short.

We'll never know what Lesnar could have done had he not been stricken with that disease. It wreaked havoc on his body, and in combination with a higher level of adversity in the cage as well made for a brutal combination for him. Many will write about him leaving another sporting endeavor when the going got tough, and in many ways that's what has happened.

That said, it's also hard to blame him for walking away with the money he's made after what the last two years have done to him. To continue training at a high level would keep putting a strain on his body that still could result in a return of the diverticulitis; and with how badly he's suffered with it already, that's not a stress he wanted to put himself or his family through. It's an unfortunate and unceremonious end to his MMA career, but not entirely surprising in retrospect.