Like it or not, Brock Lesnar is now the face of MMA
Published by Zach Arnold on July 14th, 2009 in Current Events

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Brock Lesnar and Kimbo Slice are now the faces of Mixed Martial Arts. Dana White made sure of it and he is cashing in on it. On Monday, two days after UFC 100 took place in Las Vegas, ESPN and sports media outlets were buzzing with talk about Lesnar becoming the UFC Heavyweight champion. Lesnar content was on every ESPN radio and television show. Here is how SportsCenter anchor Josh Elliott addressed UFC 100 on ESPN Radio:

“Not sure if you saw the latest and great card from the UFC over the weekend but UFC 100 did not disappoint. Among the several great bouts on the undercard, we saw a devastating finish to the grudge match between TUF coaches Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping. While the British got the better of the US during the season, Henderson’s right hand got the better of Bisping’s chin. Advantage: US. We saw Georges St. Pierre rout Thiago Alves, making us wonder about what might come to pass if GSP climbs a weight class and gets Anderson Silva in what would be arguably the biggest fight in UFC history. What was not was your main event. Brock Lesnar overwhelming Frank Mir in a fight long on thuggery, short on substance. Afterward, Lesnar’s morphing into his pro-wrestling persona of old set this legitimate sport back a decade or more. Dana White afterward was quick to distance himself and his sport from Lesnar’s display, arguably the best move on a night full of them.”

On Tuesday morning, Dana Jacobsen went on ESPN Radio and gave her advice and support for what Lesnar did.

“I’ll admit it up front, I’m not a huge MMA fan. I do understand the draw, though. I knew about UFC 100 this weekend but it didn’t really peak my curiosity until after the fight between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar. More importantly, after Lesnar’s post-fight antics. See, Lesnar won the fight, retaining his heavyweight title, and then proceeded to taunt Mir, insult sponsors, and flip off the fans. After a talking-to by UFC President Dana White, Lesnar apologized, said he was amped up, and apparently fell back to his way former WWE ways. And while I think he went too far, Lesnar may want to find some middle ground. Seriously. When you’re trying to build a sport you can use all the attention you can get and maybe this is just me, but just because you act like a fool after a fight doesn’t mean you’re a joke during one. Didn’t we learn about that boxing? It was characters outside the ring, talent in it like Tyson that brought the fringe fans and could just do the same now as long as these guys keep the fighting real inside the Octagon, bring on the show outside it.”

However, the biggest and most notable discussion between sports writers on Brock Lesnar’s rise and UFC’s rise in popularity happened on Pardon the Interruption between Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and Michael Wilbon, former writer from the Washington Post.

First, the two men discussed Brock Lesnar’s rise in MMA and whether or not he is good for the sport.

Bob Ryan: “Now, UFC isn’t exactly the sport of gentlemen, but could anyone have envisioned a champion as over the top as UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar? The former NCAA wrestling champion and WWE villain has in a state of just five UFC fights become both the Heavyweight champion and a phenomenal drawing card. Now Saturday night in Las Vegas, he put on a spectacular performance, first taking care of Frank Mir in just 1:48 in the second round to become the undisputed heavyweight champion and then Middle-Fingering the crowd, dissing a key sponsor, and just generally raising hell. A UFC central casting dream, Mike?”

Mike Wilbon: “Well, maybe, maybe not. The thing that UFC seems really intent on, Bob, is selling the product and not making it a show. I mean, they want to distance themselves from WWE, from pro-wrestling I should say, in general. They really want to catch the new generation that is a boxing generation, they want to sell it on athleticism, yes on the violence and the physicality, but they don’t want the whole good guy, bad guy thing so maybe that’s not central to it, what do you think?”

Bob: “I think they will take what they get. If suddenly an outsized personality with some legitimacy with this collegiate wrestling resume, you know, not to mention the notoriety he brings with him from wrestling with wrestling fans, if he’s the guy that puts you over the top to start, hey you worry about cleaning up the mess later. If you want to get a good guy, they got to develop some good guy antidote, don’t they?”

Mike: “Bob, maybe, but it just seems to me that they’re very careful about this, that they want to plan this for the slow growth and if you go good-guy, bad-guy, you get stuck, you get stuck with that wrestling formula going back to the late 40s and early 50s with Gorgeous George. It doesn’t seem like they want to go that way and they told him, look, you are a great athlete, you don’t need to put on a show.”

Then the discussion moved onto whether or not UFC will become a legitimate, mainstream sport like baseball, football, basketball, or hockey is.

Mike: “Let’s stay with this for a second, this theme, and look at the bigger picture for the UFC. The PPV event was clearly the biggest event of a slow weekend, granted, said to do as any as 1.5 million buys. UFC President Dana White said, “This sport is like a virus, it spreads and effects you. It’s only getting bigger, not smaller. Tonight took us to another level.” Bob, setting aside whether you personally like what you see, is the UFC becoming a sport of consequence?”

Bob: “Those buys are hard to ignore, that’s on the par with some of the great boxing buys. It’s clear that it is on the move, it is getting attention in national publications and the other day I was walking through Times Square, Mike, and the results of this bout are up on the marquee on that ABC HQ building, that’s important, that’s a step, I’m sure Dana White was very proud of that, all right? It is coming, and it doesn’t shock me, this is the Howard Stern crowd, is it not?”

Mike: “Yeah, Bob, it shocks me a little bit too because I’m old enough to be have been raised on boxing. I see it becoming that, I don’t know that’s it there Bob for this one reason – the great boxers going back to the turn of the 20th Century were some of the most famous people, the most recognized people on the planet, not just Ali’s time but going back to Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey and obviously Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, the most recognizable men on the face of the earth. UFC has a long way to go before they get to that, don’t you think?”

Bob: “Oh, absolutely, it’s not going to ever be I think on the par with our big four mainstream sports, but it’s going to be a very prominent niche player for a while because it does appeal to a segment that…”

Mike: “It seems like it’s a player already. If you’re 35ish or under, this is your thing.”

Bob: “You know, PT Barnum once said, no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

While the Lesnar discussion died down considerably on Tuesday, it is very clear that UFC is starting to suck out WWE’s pro-wrestling marketing power in a similar way that PRIDE sucked out the pro-wrestling marketing power from New Japan and All Japan in the last two decades.