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LOS ANGELES - In the arena of the modern-day gladiator, a new breed of combatant is spilling new blood. Gone are the days of the one-dimensional fighter – the striker, the wrestler, the jiu jitsu player – able to fall back on one facet to reign supreme. As the world of mixed martial arts continues its revolution, those at center stage continue their evolution. There is nowhere in which it is more prevalent than in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, no doubt the standard in the world of mixed martial arts and the pinnacle for all mixed martial artists to display their craft. Much like the mainstream sports and leagues that MMA and the UFC have fought so tenaciously to become a part of, the best of the best continue to streamline every avenue of their game while striving to become bigger, faster and stronger. "I think we've seen that if you don't have all three phases of the game, you don't have a chance anymore," Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator Mike Goldberg says. "You have to be able to do everything." Goldberg has called more than 100 UFC events, hitting the century mark at the recently past UFC 91, where former NCAA wrestling standout and World Wrestling Entertainment star Brock Lesnar knocked out UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture for a piece of the organization's heavyweight title.  Brock Lesnar made the leap from World Wrestling hot shot to UFC superstar. Lesnar joins the fraternity of UFC titlists, among them light-heavyweight Rashad Evans, welterweight Georges St. Pierre and lightweight BJ Penn. Penn, St. Pierre and Evans are blueprints for tomorrow's MMA competitors, able to stand up with strikers, roll with jiu jitsu experts and grapple with wrestlers. For the man-beast that is Lesnar, he is example enough of a competitor that aspires to be just that. "I just try to learn something everyday," Lesnar said in a post fight interview shortly after he had dethroned the iconic Couture. "You have to be a well-rounded fighter in this day and age. I will continue to keep molding myself into a dominating fighter, hopefully." But Lesnar, in his current form, is just as much an example of the UFC and its competitors' future. His mammoth size is noticeable enough, but his quickness, speed and agility make him all the more frightening. Thus, whether it's at the NFL's combine, throughout baseball's minor leagues or in the center of the octagon, today's athletes are growing into tomorrow's elite not just by being able to run, block and catch or by becoming or a five-tool outfielder or by molding themselves into a complete fighter, but by dedicating their minds and bodies and all their time into becoming the total package. "We're getting these guys that aren't just big guys anymore, they're very, very good athletes," Couture said in a post fight press conference after his loss to Lesnar. "The Natural" was speaking of the heavyweight division and athletic mastodons like Lesnar, Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, but with cutting weight becoming a science and training becoming a full-time job, big and athletic is equating to better in every division. "I just think that's the natural evolution of time," said Goldberg of the UFC's fighters, along with competitors in every other sport, becoming larger and faster than their peers.
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