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.
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.
As Joe Rogan went to interview him, the crowd booed even louder than the first time. Lesnar smiled and gestured for more noise.
"I love it! Keep going! Keep going! I love it, man!"
Rogan asked Lesnar why he was still so angry at Mir, considering he won the fight.
"Frank Mir had a horseshoe up his ass," Lesnar smirked. "I told him that a year ago. I pulled that sumbitch out and I beat him over the head with it. Whoo!"
Lesnar then turned his verbal attack to another, unexpected target in major UFC sponsor Bud Light. He pointed at the Bud logo on the Octagon canvas and defiantly told fans about his plans for the rest of the evening.
"I'm gonna drink a Coors Light," he said, emphasizing the word Coors. "That's a Coors Light, because Bud Light won't pay me nothin'."
He parted by telling the fans he might even get frisky with his wife later on, and left the cage with the UFC heavyweight belt strapped around his waist. Online, MMA critics and fans on Twitter were declaring Lesnar's words and actions offensive. Well, except for one pretty famous guy.
Mark Cuban Twittered away on Saturday night, clearly very entertained by the action he watched at UFC 100. The thing he loved the most, it seemed, was Brock Lesnar's post-fight behavior.
"lesnar post fight speech prob best ever in all sports," Cuban tweeted.
"he is going to drink a coors lite because bud won't pay him anything...hysterical," Cuban added seconds later.
There's a moral to the story, here. Unlike Tito Ortiz in his heyday, Lesnar may not willingly be playing the villain when he acts up. It might just be a natural reaction from an introverted guy who hates criticism and responds to it by celebrating his victories a little too much.
Whatever the reason for Lesnar's attitude, it's not the end of the world. If Ortiz and Tank Abbott didn't kill MMA, Lesnar certainly isn't going to either. He might be a jerk now and then, but so are many athletes. It's not even exclusive to MMA. So to those who are crying that Lesnar is bad for the sport, I say, relax and enjoy the show. Someday, Lesnar will get beat, and he'll learn to be a little more humble. Until then, direct your venom to a more worthy cause, like dangerous cheap shots after the buzzer or vicious elbows to a clearly unconscious opponent.
You know, like Dan Henderson landed on Michael Bisping on Saturday. Well-respected, soft-spoken Dan Henderson not only took a measured cheap shot on a motionless opponent, but he largely got away with it, uncriticized. Sure, the ref could have stopped it earlier. But Henderson's been around MMA forever. You think he didn't know Bisping was out cold?
Henderson, like Lesnar, may have simply been acting on adrenaline. Deep down, I don't think either is a terrible person at heart. They're just human beings who get carried away sometimes.
So why does Lesnar catch all the heat while others escape it? Is it just the WWE thing?
