Watched the Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (2) fight from UFC 100.

Brock Lesnar is just awesome. People might look at his time in the WWE, that is “fake wrestling”, and scoff at him. Go ahead, scoff. He’s the UFC Heavyweight champ and proved last night he’s no fluke champion. You cannot deny his NCAA wrestling history, how he dominated there. Even when he did pro wrestling, he was a dominant figure demonstrating high athletic ability and showmanship; he sold tickets, he sold merchandise, he was a main event draw. Out of the blue he opts to leave and try his hand at pro football and while he didn’t make the final cut, that he got as far as he did and received the complements that he did shows something about his will, determination, desire to learn, desire to improve and excel at whatever he sets his mind to. He’s very strong willed. Then he opts to go into MMA, which was a natural place for him to now, and here he is now, on top of the world.

Lesnar is a beast, plain and simple. He is huge, strong, powerful. He is amazingly athletic and dexterous for a man of his size; again, look at things he did in pro wrestling (e.g. a “shooting star press“). He’s smart and willing to be a student of any game that he works at. Watching the UFC 100 fight, it’s evident that Brock is relying less upon his brute strength and is improving his overall game. He obviously respected Mir’s jiu jitsu skills and looked better on the ground (tho he still has a way to go). He took his time, didn’t just go in blazing fists. Nevertheless, he knows his strengths and used them well (e.g. staying on top of Mir, chest-to-chest, kept Mir’s hands tangled up, kept his head grinding against Mir’s head, and kept popping Mir hard in the face). He also knows his weaknesses and his opponent’s strengths (e.g. start of second round, Brock got the takedown on Mir but was too far away to capitalize on the takedown and he wasn’t going to play Mir’s ground game so he let Mir get back up). He’s still a young guy, and as long as he continues to listen and learn from his trainers, he’s going to continue to dominate.

But what does Lesnar really know how to do well? Work the crowd. He knows how to be a “heel”, a “bad guy” if you will. You can love me or hate me, doesn’t matter, so long as you care about me — the worst thing is to have the crowd indifferent to you. Lesnar primarily worked as “the bad guy” in WWE, he knows how to do it well. Last night he played the crowd well right from the opening (refused to touch gloves with Mir) to the closing (flipping the crowd off after the fight, getting in Mir’s face throwing the “talk all the shit you want now” back at him); they hated him. What makes this great? Because you know when you see Lesnar fight, you’re going to get an awesome fight. You know the action will be good, you know the hits will be strong, you know it will be exciting. And the best part would be if you could see Lesnar get his ass kicked. That’s the appeal of the “heel” character, that you want to see them get their ass kicked. It probably won’t happen to Lesnar any time soon, but if Dana White books future fights for Lesnar correctly, they’ll be good opponents that will challenge Lesnar and offer that chance of being able to kick Lesnar’s ass. While the may give him a fight, they won’t win. But when that match comes that does get the win over Brock, the crowd will go nuts for it (and the rematch). Bottom line: it’s all good business.

Updated: Lance Storm put it well:

One reporter [at the after-fight press conference], who was very offended by Brock’s comments about Mir post fight, pointed out how others who trash talk seem to be able to hug at the end of the fight and show sportsmanship. Dana [White] pointed out that UFC was real and we didn’t want any of the fake hype and pro-wrestling antics that Brock showed in his post match promo including flipping off the crowd.

I see things the exact opposite. Brock was the real deal and all the other guys are the fakers. How many times have we seen fights hyped with guys trash talking an burying their opponents only to see them touch gloves before each and every round, hug at the finish and then put over their opponent after the fight claiming all the trash talking was just hype to sell the fight. Brock genuinely (at least in my opinion) hated the fact that Frank Mir beat him in the first fight and wanted to kill him in the second one. He believed everything he said, and Frank’s cocky trash talking really pissed Brock off. Brock’s emotion was REAL, and he was so jacked up after the fight that he likely spoke, not from his head or likely even from his heart, but from that pure competitive rage that fuels a competitive combat athlete of that caliber. Brock sent a message, a simple and clear one: “If you mess with the Bull, you get the Horn” end of story.

In the Randy Couture fight, Couture was a total pro and so was Brock Lesnar. You treat Brock Lesnar with respect and as a professional, he acts like one. If you run your mouth, disrespecting him and do everything you can to piss him off, expect to see a very pissed off angry man come fight time.