Brock Lesnar turned the MMA world on its head when he won the UFC Heavyweight championship in seemingly record time.
The former WWE Champion left the wrestling business, and a brief flirt with the NFL, to make the jump to MMA in 2007.
Brock Lesnar took his 4XL gloves to Japan for an impressive win on his MMA debut before receiving a call from Dana White to join the UFC.
He followed a debut loss to Frank Mir with a win over Heath Herring to earn an unprecedented UFC Heavyweight title shot in just his third UFC fight
- READ MORE – 5 Brock Lesnar fights every MMA fan needs to watch including his TKO title win over Randy Couture
Brock Lesnar beat Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight title in just his third fight
277 days after his UFC debut against Mir, Lesnar shocked the world and Randy Couture by becoming the UFC Heavyweight champion in Las Vegas.
At UFC 91, the bigger Lesnar used his weight advantage to out-grapple Couture, holding him up before taking him down in the first round, although Couture managed to escape and take very little damage.
The first round was a close one, but the second was Lesnar’s for the taking.
After laying in a big knee to Couture, Lesnar caught him with a one-two combination, which didn’t look like much at first, but the way Couture collapsed showed that it was something special.
Lesnar pounced and began laying in hammer fists to the skull of Couture, giving the referee no choice but to end the fight and award Lesnar the UFC Heavyweight title.
It was a monumental win.
Lesnar had debuted less than a year ago, with zero experience in the octagon. He was an accomplished amateur wrestler, but his career had been spent fake-fighting in the WWE, not taking on trained MMA stars in the octagon.
Lesnar’s fights became must-see, and anything could happen, and he could beat anyone. His rise was meteoric, but it may shock you to learn that three fighters ascended to the top even faster than Lesnar.
Three other fighters did it quicker than Brock Lesnar, including Ronda Rousey
While Lesnar’s rise was historic and meteoric, there are three other fighters who became champions even quicker after starting their UFC careers.
Rampage Jackson and Anderson Silva both won gold less than 200 days into their UFC run, with both picking up world titles in their second fights for the promotion.
However, they pale in comparison to Ronda Rousey, who was the UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion before she ever set foot in the UFC’s octagon.
| Fighter | Days between UFC debut and title win | UFC fights (including title win) |
| Ronda Rousey | 0 | 0 |
Anderson Silva | 108 | 2 |
| Rampage Jackson | 166 | 2 |
| Brock Lesnar | 277 | 3 |
| Zhang Weili | 392 | 4 |
That is because, as the Strikeforce champion, her belt was absorbed into the newly-created UFC Women’s Bantamweight belt at the pre-fight press conference for UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Diaz on December 6, 2012.
She would debut in the UFC less than two months later at UFC 157, beating Liz Carmouche to defend her belt for the first time.
Given the incredibly unique circumstances surrounding her entry into the promotion, it seems like nobody will ever beat Rousey’s bizarre record.