Brock Lesnar Is Not Bad For The UFC. Period.

It’s time to face reality, folks. Unless Brock Lesnar makes a mistake in a match that costs him a match, he won’t be losing one any time soon. As uncomfortable as it is for some, that’s just reality. Lesnar came out on Saturday and absolutely demolished Frank Mir, who’s not only a legend in the sport, but a guy who was easily in the best shape of his career for that fight.

After the fight, Lesnar was perceived as being less-than gracious. He taunted the crowd, flipped ‘em off, talked down a sponsor and said he may even “get on top” of his wife. Oh yeah, and he went over to Frank Mir, yelled at him on the ground, and said, “I told that boy he had a horseshoe up his ass. Well I pulled it out and beat him with that sumbitch.” All that behavior was apologized for afterward, in the post-fight press conferences. Many people I respect a great deal in the MMA community are furious over Lesnar’s behavior. Me? Honestly, I couldn’t possibly care less.

Before I go into why, I want to take people back a few years. The Thrilla in Manila. Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali. Almost universally accepted as one of the biggest and most important fights in boxing history. In the run up to that fight, Ali did a masterful job of turning the fight into a racial issue. “Both fighters are black!” you say, and you’re correct. Ali, however, portrayed Frazier as a gorilla, a savage, and fell just barely short of calling him the dreaded N word. He then, somehow, spun that into Frazier being a “white man’s” toy. Essentially, Frazier, from one of the poorest neighborhoods in West Philly, was “the white man.”

Ali won that fight, of course, as he did many more. In fact, 56 times his hand was raised in victory. His antics outside the ring were as legendary as his talent in the ring. He regularly berated opponents, taunted them in teh ring, and showboated around as his dazed opponents looked on helplessly trying to muster enough strength to fight back after the relentless beating they took. That was when Ali would set you up and knock you out. He did that 37 times in his career. To call him a prolific knockout artist would be something akin to pointing out water is wet.

No one would ever question Ali’s greatness, but his attitude outside of the ring was abysmal. He was nasty, disrespectful, and downright ornery. He showed no class in the ring, in pre-fight or post-fight interviews, and if he did smile, it was often during a rant to the rest of the room about how great he was. He was that kind of guy.

On Saturday, one of my favorite folks on Twitter, Gray D. from 6th-Round said something that I found puzzling…

“Brock Lesnar is horrible for MMA.”

Obviously that was said in reference to his actions after the match. I understand the sentiment, but I completely disagree. No one would ever argue that Muhammad Ali was bad for boxing; doing so would be like arguing Babe Ruth was bad for baseball and you should rightfully have your head smashed open with a chisel for saying it.

Some things to think about with regards to Brock Lesnar.

1. In his first fight against Frank Mir (his first UFC fight) he didn’t get booed any more than one would expect someone fighting a legend to be. In exchange, he was respectful to the crowd even in defeat, and gracious to Frank Mir, despite the fact that he got a bum deal on the “back of the head” stuff from Mazzagatti. He lost on a stupid mistake and still managed to be decent about it.

2. In his second fight against another great one, Heath Herring, he was pretty much assaulted with boos from the start. The UFC fans, some of whom are really effing elitist jerks, couldn’t bare the thought of a wrestler from the WWE that isn’t all show and no go. Brock hit a downturn as far as fan respect goes and started giving it back to the fans. Incidentally, he beat the ever loving crap out of Heath Herring and mocked him in the ring. While that received a lot of play on the web, none of Herring’s continuous (and I do mean continuous) trash-talking even warranted a mention. It was at this fight that Brock as the “villain” began to become the order of the day.

3. In his third fight against Randy Couture, he was roundly and thoroughly booed. How did he respond? By knocking Couture almost senseless with a ground and pound that was described by everyone who saw it (myself included) as vicious. Couture, like Herring, was disrespectful and got embarrassed. The fans caught grief from Lesnar. The legend of the villain grows.

4. In the fight on Saturday, we had the rematch of Mir vs. Lesnar. In the pre-fight interviews, Mir taunted Lesnar repeatedly, pointing out how embarassing it was to tap out in the UFC, essentially calling Lesnar a quitter. Lesnar, however, continued to maintain that if he hadn’t made a stupid mistake in the first fight, he would’ve won. After the first round, when Mir was standing in his corner looking like he fell face first into a pile of raw ground beef, it’s hard to argue. It became obvious that Lesnar, barring a big mistake, would walk away with the win. What happened, however, was even more interesting. He pounded on Mir, knocking him senseless, until Herb Dean mercifully stopped the fight. On cue, the crowd booed and booed. Lesnar flips off the relentless crowd who booed him coming out, booed him during the fight, and booed him when he was announced the winner.

Lesnar’s not a stupid man. A stupid man would whine bitch and complain and wonder what he had to do to earn the fans’ respect. After three opponents who showed him no respect in the pre-fight or post-fight interviews, he would wonder what he has to do to make them respect him. Instead, the smart man that he is, he comes out, pounds his opponents into the ground, and wins. Right now, it’s hard to think of anyone that can stop him. Names like Lashley and Emilianenko come up, but that’s theoretical. As it is right now, Lesnar’s record stands at 4-1 and he’s the UFC Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. That’s saying alot.

In reality, though, the complaints about Lesnar being bad for the sport aren’t really about his abilities in the octagon. That argument is past. The guy can fight. Is he the next great grappler or master of a million holds? Nope, but why would you expect a 265 lb. 6’5″ monster to be anything but a brawler that’s hard to get down and punches like a jackhammer? No, the complaints are his lack of “class.” His lack of “decorum.” His lack of “respect.” That’s a hard argument to make, though, when the guy has gotten nothing but disrespect from every opponent (except for Mir 1) and most fans at the live events. Many MMA writers are convinced that this “sideshow” of him versus the fans will damage MMA and the UFC in particular. That’s a load.

As I mentioned earlier, Muhammad Ali, while great, wasn’t universally liked. Lots of people who went to see him fight did so in the hopes of seeing someone shut his mouth. They never did. The legend grew. As did the audiences. I think the same thing will happen with Lesnar. It’s hard to imagine someone beating him right now. He has that belt as long as he doesn’t make stupid mistakes in his fights. I think even the most ardent Lesnar haters would have to admit that. Imagine, though, a megafight. Some giant comes along and moves up the ranks quickly to face Lesnar. Where does that leave the sport? In the doldrums? In trouble? Out of the mainstream? Hell no. Dana White would be walking around high as a kite if he had someone he could put up against Lesnar that could match him with strength, speed, and skill. People would eat it up.

Is this what people see as bad for the sport? Why, because a guy who’s very talented in the octagon is a jerk outside of it?

Sorry, but that doesn’t hold water for me. Brock Lesnar isn’t bad for the UFC. In fact, he’s quite the opposite. Most fans outside of the UFC don’t know Anderson Silva from Antonio Noguera. Many couldn’t tell you who Forest Griffin, Frank Mir, or Randy Couture are. I promise you, though, there’s a bunch of people not watching UFC events who know guys like Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley.

There’s no way that amount of mainstream name recognition hurts the UFC, regardless of what’s perceived as Hollywood antics.

Two comments on Yahoo caught my eye today and I wanted to share them because I think they really nailed it…

Comment 1:

13. Posted by Rob R Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:07 am EDT

There was no game-plan Mir could have put together to win last night. Brock was too good.
You’re not impressed because Brock didn’t hit a spinning back kick or finish him with a gogoplata. But Brock took pretty much zero damage other than the short hook and flying knee (which he walked right through), he scored on all three of his takedowns, and dominated the ground…dishing out tons of punishment while not getting hit once and not being in even remote danger of a submission.
To say Brock didn’t win impressively is absurd.

Comment 2:

16. Posted by Rob R Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:13 am EDT

Shane Carwin said on his blog:
“This is the greatest sport in the world and most of the athletes in it deserve the love and respect they get and some just don’t get it.”
Brock Lesnar gets love and respect? He never got love and respect from about half the fans out there…not even the ones who probably put large amounts of money on him in Vegas. Until people (that includes the fans AND the media) start recognizing him as a serious athlete and deserving champion, he has no reason to suck up to them.
Brock flipping off the crowd was unfortunate, but the people there and the people watching know who he was flipping off. It’s not all the fans, it’s the critics…people who have never given him any love or respect, even though all he does is go out there and win.

Amen, and well said.