Lesnar’s Classless Celebration Was Unacceptable
Broke Lesnar is talented, there’s no denying that. With his second round technical knockout (TKO) of Frank Mir to retain the heavyweight championship belt on Saturday, Lesnar showed just how good he is — and how much potential he has in the UFC octagon.
Lesnar, using his incredible strength, took Mir to the ground easily, and landed numerous elbows and punches that left Mir’s right cheek bloody and swelling at the conclusion of the first round. Mir, who had defeated Lesnar in their first non-title fight less than a year ago, looked helpless in this fight. In their first meeting, Lesnar mostly dominated until he left his leg unguarded — Mir capitalized and submitted him with a knee bar. Lesnar had no trouble with Mir in Saturday night’s fight, however, as once again took Mir to the ground in the second round. He reeled off a string of 14 consecutive punches, forcing referee Herb Dean to stop the fight.
Lesnar had won by a TKO, but the real excitement of the night came immediately after the fight. Once Dean stopped the fight, Lesnar yelled at Mir, “talk all the [expletive] you want now.” See, Lesnar and Mir had been engaging a good amount of trash-talking leading up to the fight. Mir was mostly the instigator, and it clearly frustrated Lesnar. When Lesnar barked at Mir, Mir looked ready for another fight — as did Lesnar — but security guards and members of their respective camps held them off. Because of his remarkably confident and cocky attitude, fans in attendance already did not like Lesnar. The fact that he was trying to anger Mir, a Las Vegas-native, caused them to boo Lesnar incessantly. Lesnar, who was as fired up as could be, decided to give the entire crowd the middle finger.
To cap it all off, Lesnar gave a post-fight interview for the ages with UFC analyst Joe Rogan. About the antics of the crowd, Lesnar said: “I love it, I love it, Keep going, keep going.” This, of course, only made the crowd boo louder.
The reason why he was so fired up after the fight: “Frank Mir had a horseshoe up his [butt] , I told him that a year ago, and I pulled that son of a [expletive] out and I beat him over the head with it.” All of the trash-talking truly had gotten to him, and it was as clear as ever based on those comments.
On his plans for the rest of the night: “I’m gonna go home tonight and I’m gonna drink a Coors Light, that’s a Coors Light, because Bud Light wont pay me nothing.” Bud Light is a sponsor of the UFC, and UFC president Dana White — and Bud Light, for that matter — surely wasn’t happy with that comment.
And to finish it all of: “Im gonna sit down with my friends and family and hell I might even get on top of my wife tonight.” The fight was on pay-per-view, yes, but it was an inappropriate comment nonetheless.
Lesnar’s behavior was rude, classless and unacceptable behavior from a UFC champion. One of the great aspects of the sport of of mixed martial arts is the incredible amount of respect fighters show for each other. Sure, there have been numerous feuds in the sport, but the fighters have usually found a enough respect for each other to shake hands after pummeling each other for however long. For Lesnar, however, respecting an opponent is not an option. He has repeatedly stated that he has no respect for anyone he fights. As a result, his antics Saturday night were not surprising, but they were disturbing.
This was UFC 100, quite possibly the biggest night in the company’s 16-year history. Many great fighters of the past, including pioneer Royce Gracie, were in attendance. Of all the night’s to show no class, this was not the night. With all of the hype surrounding the fights, many new mainstream viewers were going to tune it to watch the UFC for the first time. If they had a bad perception of the sp0rt, fans minds likely weren’t changed after watching Lesnar. If fans thought that it was a blood-bath sport with fighters who had bad tempers, Lesnar fit right into that idea. While every other fight was what MMA truly is about, Lesnar vs. Mir was the main event, and Lesnar should have known better.
After the fight ended, all Lesnar should have done was shake hands with Mir, answer all of Rogan’s questions, conduct his post-fight press conference and leave the Mandalay Bay Events Center. While he did do the latter two in a nice manner, the former two went a little bit differently, and not in a good way. Lesnar had decisively won the fight — he took absolutely no punishment from Mir. At no point in the fight did you get the feeling that Mir had a chance to win. Because it was such a seemingly easy victory Lesnar, he should have been gracious and acted like a professional. He was anything but a pro on Saturday night.
For his part, Lesnar did use the post-fight press conference to apologize for his antics. “Well, first and foremost, I want to apologize,” he said. “I acted very unprofessionally after the fight and I’ll leave it at that.”
He also apologized to one of the UFC’s biggest sponsors: “I apologize to Bud Light. I’m not biased — I drink any beer –and tonight I’m drinking Bud Light all night.”
White surely was not pleased with how everything went down after the fight, and Lesnar discussed what was said between himself and White afterwards, and he also gave his final apology. “Dana came back and we had a ‘whip the dog’ session, and I screwed up and I apologize. The only thing I had against Frank was that he beat me. We both talked a lot of crap, and in the end I was just amped up.”
Sorry, Brock, but being “amped up” is not a good enough excuse. Ones temper can always rear its’ ugly head, but on a stage like UFC 100, Lesnar had to know how to contain himself. Lesnar could learn a thing or two from welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who is always gracious and classy after fights. Did we see St. Pierre yelling obscenities at Mir? Absolutely not. Did we see Lesnar giving the crowd the middle finger? No way. What we did see, however, was St. Pierre shaking Thiago Alves’ hand, giving him a bow and praising him in the post-fight interview. Lesnar needs to realize that St. Pierre is a perfect example of how a fighter should conduct himself. Lesnar, however, has no filter. He doesn’t seem to realize that what he is doing is way out of bounds until after the fact. That quickly needs to change.
While Lesnar’s antics did get everyone talking, that is certainly not how White and co-owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta want to sell the UFC.
Lesnar alluded to the fact that he is “used to selling PPV tickets” and that he “come[s] from a business that is purely entertainment.” Lesnar is referring to his former employer, the WWE. That is a business based on fake wrestling, ridiculous storylines, and as Lesnar said, entertainment. MMA and the UFC are not the same thing as WWE. The UFC sells incredible athletes with an extraordinary ability to use different fighting styles and techniques. They also sell fighters who show class both after wins and losses. Lesnar is one of the most remarkable athletes on the planet, but no one seems to be talking about that. Instead, people are discussing what happened after the fight. He needs to understand that his boss in no longer WWE’s Vince McMahon.
Lesnar’s actions Saturday night were flat-out classless. When he doesn’t display his temper, he actually has a fun personality. With that, and his fighting ability, he has a chance to propel the UFC to even greater heights. He needs to take the time to realize his mistakes, and come out in his next fight a better, more mature man. Anything less is unacceptable.
Ryan Drescher
The hype over Lesnar is merely that ! Until he faces Emialanenko . In the true sense of the word he won’t be taken seriously as the best that MMA has to offer within the heavyweight division at all.
Dana White merely sees him as UFC’s gravy train because of the salesmanship on his part.
As for Lesnar’s display , it was totally classless !
Alan Parkins 07/12/09 6:19pm
It is so funny to me how we Americans seem to have to soften everything. The whole political system in this country is based on catering to the weak, soft, lazy, effeminate, , illogical, gluttonous, prideful and just ridiculously stupid. For just a few examples of what I mean- 1. Four times the amount of money is spent on education for the “emotionally disturbed” children of drug-addled-welfare-recipient lousy parents than on normal kids with normal parents with jobs that pay the tax. 2. No diving boards at swimming pools any more due to ridiculous payouts on law suits driving insurance costs for PUBLIC parks and recreation and private through the roof. These examples are just a few of the many injustices that we have to endure at the hands of govt. out of control and stupid people selling this country into oblivion. Brock Lesnar is entitled to free speech and is outspoken and masculine. Bravo Brock for trying to bring a few hapless feminized (I say pussified) americans out of their consumer coma like lives. What ever happened to the idea that integrity is a good attribute to have? Say what you mean and mean what you say. Just we all just kiss each other’s arses through life to make everything nice and easy for the idiotic squeamish types out there. I like guys like Lesnar and I will not apologize for it either. Put down the pot America, stop watching american idol and Raymond, set your self a stiff upperlip, stop putting up with all of the BS, and for god’s sake grow your balls back.
Dean Housekneckt
Perhaps when we actually see some compassion by the country towards its own military veterans rather than just using one day a year to honor them. Then we might actually see the real act of honor. As for Lesnar he was merely showing what an as_shole he really is !
All of a sudden because he feels that he’s redeemed himself be rebukes his opponent and then derides the crowd in attendance who’ve spent their hard earned cash to view this spectacle.
I expect in your eyes you do truly see what he did as being honorable ?
That wasn’t free speech shown by him but merely an act petulant stupidity you’d come to expect from a child !
And oh by the way free speech has its limitations and consequences to begin with !
Alan Parkins
You know what, even though this post is a year old; even though I try to avoid internet arguments, as it usually end’s up in unproductive aggrivation; even though I do in part agree with you, I feel compelled to respond to this. I don’t think Lesnar, or anyone else, should be forced to compromise their integrity by giving false praise to someone he hate’s, and I don’t think the author is saying that either. What I got out of it, and what I think he meant, was that what Lesnar did was immature and counter productive: OK Brock, everybody know’s you hate Frank Mir, but is it necessary to run around like a child, calling names and insulting the people who’ve made it possible to make TONS OF MONEY, doing something you’re naturally good at and you obviously love doing? Sure, sometimes it’s nice to see two competitor’s go head to head, put on a great show, and then shake hands at the end, but it’s ok if they don’t, too. I think one would have to be pretty naive to have expected that from Lesnar & Mir, but to deliver a crushing defeat, and then to scream insults and bloody spit into his face before he was even fully conscious? To insult the sponsors, and more importantly the FANS? Without those two entities (the fans are admittadly much more likable to me), the UFC, and EVERY OTHER PROMOTION is relegated back to shitty bars and third world countries.
This writer seems to see Mir as the instigator of the trash talking, an opinion I disagree with (I don’t think he said anything untrue, but they were OBVIOUSLY things’ Lesnar didn’t like to hear), but regardless of who said what first, it was outside the ring, and not done in such a ridiculously childish way. Can you see it that way? I assume you HAVE SEEN what he did, correct? It looked like nothing so much as a big-ass, overgrown, spoiled kid. And I ALSO assume that as an MMA fan, you know about how the UFC nearly faded away, and how amazingly lucky the entire industry is to have shaken the early stigma of being a “human cock fight,” to get back to being able to get sanctioned to have events in the states, and-for-the-love-of-god, get the chance to have a TV show!(Dana White might have something to say me using the word luck, rather than citing his hard work, but I’m not his personal hand-job man) Who could have guessed 10yrs. ago that UFC, MMA in GENERAL, would be what it is today? Unless you have Nostradamus in your pocket, no one could have. So for him to go running, around acting like an ape w/a hard on, does VERY LITTLE to help their image.
To sum up, Lesnar can run around naked, banging sticks on tree’s and eating bananas at home. But in the cage, put on some short’s, and stop pounding your chest and scratching your armpit. Does that sound more understandable?
Now that I finished that, want to go out campaigning against over-the-top political correctness? Help me show people why being intolerant of intolerance, and inviting our enemies in because we don’t want to go and profile anybody?
[...] night all of that was threatened by the communications actions of one athlete – the new heavyweight champion of the UFC, who in less than 180 seconds offended one of the [...]
[...] night all of that was threatened by the communications actions of one athlete – the new heavyweight champion of the UFC, who in less than 180 seconds offended one of the [...]