The trainer of current UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar said last week that his fighter is “definitely coming back” to scrap in the octagon.
“Brock Lesnar is definitely coming back to fight,” Lesnar’s head trainer Greg Nelson stated in an interview with ESPN.com’s MMA Live. “He’s just kind of coming up slowly, training, trying to get his body ready and being smart with his recovery.”
Lesnar (4-1), a former three-time WWE champion who played for the Minnesota Vikings during the preseason in 2004, has not fought since he successfully defended his title versus Frank Mir (13-4) by TKO (strikes) last July in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lesnar was scheduled to matchup with Shane Carwin (11-0) at UFC 108 before the champion cancelled the bout due to a previously undisclosed illness.
It was later revealed that Lesnar, 32, had suffered from mononucleosis and an intestinal disorder called diverticulitis.
The disorder badly damaged Lesnar’s intestine and he was forced to undergo surgery November 16.
“Lesnar’s not well and he’s not going to be getting well anytime soon,” UFC President Dana White enigmatically said at a post-fight conference days before his titlist went under the knife.
Lesnar is expected to speak publicly about his illness at a press conference in Las Vegas for the first time sometime this week.
“He’s been going into the doctor and making sure everything is going well for him and he’ll continue to go in for a couple more tests to make sure he is 100 percent ready to train when he starts up,” Nelson said. “He still has a few more things to go through.”
White and many analysts have described Lesnar’s illness as a potentially career-ending health issue.
However, Nelson is confident that Lesnar will eventually heal from his sickness and regain the form that made him a dominant mixed martial artist.
“I know that he’ll be able to comeback,” Nelson said.
“But, we’re not going to push the river at all. We want him to be 100 percent when he starts to train. Being the tough guy and athlete the majority of his life, he’s been able to deal with adversity like this. So, I’m sure once he gets going, he’ll be at the top of his game real quick.”
It is impossible to speculate whether or not Lesnar will ever entirely recuperate from this malady and return to being the overbearing physical force that he once was.
Still, if anyone can rebound it’s Lesnar.
Lesnar is an athletic marvel whose strength, quickness and wrestling abilities can’t be equaled by most other professional mixed martial artists.
If Lesnar can even resemble the fighter who bludgeoned Mir last summer, he will continue to overwhelm UFC’s competition.
Hopefully, “The Next Big Thing” will fully regain his health and compete before the start of next year.
For all fight fans, it would be tremendous to see Lesnar “at the top of his game real quick.”
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Keywords: Brock Lesnar, Dana White, UFC, WWE
