Columnist: Lesnar’s attitude not bad for sport
Lesnar’s attitude not bad for sport … just for opponent UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has been showered with criticism…
Lesnar’s attitude not bad for sport … just for opponent
UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has been showered with criticism since the first day he arrived in the UFC. For a guy with his social aversions, it was bound to get under his skin eventually.
He flipped off the fans at UFC 100 in Las Vegas for booing him, talked smack to Frank Mir after beating him senseless and ran down a major UFC sponsor in his post-fight interview. Classy? No, not even close. But we all saw it coming.
Lesnar’s not the first major UFC competitor to act like a cocky jerk, and he won’t be the last.
Remember Tito Ortiz? People hated him, too. And like Ortiz, something tells me Lesnar will be one of the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draws, as people will be more than willing to plunk down $50 for the chance, however slim, to see someone beat him.
The big difference between Ortiz and Lesnar is that Ortiz was cocky in an extroverted way, because he’s a self-promoter who likes the attention. Lesnar is an introvert. He’s the most talked-about fighter in the UFC, but he just wants to be left alone. He’s an irritable guy. For God’s sake, he tried to walk out on the UFC 100 prefight press conference, and nobody had even said anything bad about him yet. Dana White had to tell him to sit down. This guy does not enjoy social gatherings, especially when he’s expected to participate and play nice.
Tito Ortiz wanted to command your attention; Lesnar just wants you to go away — especially if you don’t have anything nice to say about him.
MMA purists laughed when he came to the promotion with a 1-0 record in 2008 and a well-known past as a pro wrestler with WWE. Before he ever set foot in the Octagon with Frank Mir in early 2008, he was doomed to be lambasted by critics afterward. If he lost to Mir, he would be written off as a joke. If he beat Mir, he would be viewed as an embarrassment to the sport, since a “fake” wrestler could never, ever become a legit fighter. Could he?
Lesnar says he doesn’t care what people think, but he does. You could see it on Saturday, even while he fought. He would pin Mir to the mat. The audience would get on his case for stalling. He’d punch Mir as hard as he could in the face until they shut up. Every time he got booed, Lesnar took it out on Mir’s skull.
Eventually, his gigantic paws had smacked Mir enough times that Mir covered up, and the fight was waved off. Mir’s face was a mess afterward. Lesnar’s still not the perfect MMA fighter — few guys are — but he’s good enough. To his critics, that’s part of the problem. They know he can’t execute an omoplata, but he wins anyway. It drives purists crazy that this guy is making such quick work of respected MMA fighters like Mir and Randy Couture.
As Mir staggered to his feet after the loss on Saturday, Lesnar took a victory lap around the cage. Then he circled back to Mir, who appeared ready to congratulate Lesnar and accept a pat on the back for a good fight. That’s what usually happens after a UFC fighter finishes his opponent and then walks up to him afterward. It’s a sign of good sportsmanship, a show of respect.
Not this time, apparently. Lesnar angrily barked something in Mir’s face that was hostile enough for a swarm of suited officials to quickly get between them and move the champ to the other side of the cage. (“Talk all the s— you want, now,” was Lesnar’s comment to Mir according to UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg.)
That earned Lesnar a chorus of boos from the fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. He responded with a double-bird salute to the audience that just paid big bucks to watch him mutilate Mir.
