Greetings MMA fans! Hello to all you fans of obscure pop culture. I am DaGenius and I am very excited to get the chance to blog with the guys at unintelligentdefense/headkicklegend (thanks MRoth). So lets start this thing with a bang and talk about the most polarizing fighter in MMA. Brocky Brock Lesnar. I was going to call him the most polarizing figure, but Dana White has both hands firmly around that belt. That's another story ill address later. That said...
No fighter gets the MMA needle moving Brock. Although it often seems like his haters greatly outnumber his fans, Lesnar is the rare MMA fighter that gets so much attention that even casual to non-mma fans know who he is and has an opinion on his tattoos, striking, persona and the overall Brock. Instead of cliches lets look at his fact sheet. 5 wins 2 losses, won and defended the UFC heavyweight belt. Not bad to start your career. From a business side his PPV "numbers" are astronomical and that's why Dana pays him all that money (*for an MMA fighter, cause those guys still get screwed). He's been brash and to some degree cocky but he has walked the talk in the cage up until he got dismantled by Cain Velasquez. In his fights previous to this his style has given his haters reason to call him just a big bully and not a martial artist. This championship level fighter was viewed in some circles as just wrestling and mauling on the floor and how can this guy bully his way to UFC gold. It was a quick and easy leap forward to retirement predictions after his defeat. He is now slated to face Junior Dos Santos during the ultimate fighter 13 and soon to follow in the octagon. For those that didn't get that memo, Brock Lesnar did not retire. He didn't go back to WWE. He is continuing his fighting career. I thought that this might be the first full degree of props he could earn from the hard core mma community. WRONG! Surprisingly the haters that want to bully Lesnar out of MMA got louder and more exasperated at the thought of him not putting his tail between his legs and heading home to Minnesota. Why? Why do the majority of hard core fans want to wish this guy out of the sport? Hey MMA fans who hate Lesnar, this guy can help this sport be much bigger than it is!!! He probably doesn't have a long shelf for MMA but if the price of MMA getting bigger and more mainstream, which i believe to be a good thing for all fighters and fans long term, is Brock Lesnar fighting, i say long live Brock! Another few fights equals more MMA attention, more fighters, more money, more everything that we all love. Does it make me sick to see Dana get richer? Yeah a little. It makes me HAPPIER that more gyms will open up and more people will be pouring their hearts into fighting.
Fans want to bully and hate a fighter just because he keeps to himself and doesn't run around with all the cool kids in the big team camps. He looks little different than most of the kids and hes a little bit country. Now I personally hate bullies :) Its one of the reasons I train. If I saw a big group of kids bullying a a kid who fit that description, I would tell them the same thing I am telling you "STOP BULLYING THAT KID JUST LET HIM DO HIS THING". :) Maybe that kids fighting skill can grow up just a bit and he can put this sport on his back for 1-2 years.
I'm a huge Brock fan. Followed him in his WWE days and into MMA, and I do not believe that he is doing MMA any discredit whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteOn the martial arts point, I think MMA/UFC can almost moved beyond it now. MMA is a sport, and whilst I greatly appreciate the likes of GSP, Maia and Roger Gracie channeling the martial arts spirit (if I can call it that), I'm happy to make a distinction between the two. I always understood Martial Arts as a way of life, something that you carried around with you at all times. Hence, it was possible to follow the Bushido code in feudal Japan, but not so much in our modern world. Especially now some fighters don't even trait MMA as a full time occupation.
Plus, if we look back to where it started, the Gracie family, they sent out challenges, threats and bullied people to prove their martial art/defense system was the best. Not exactly in the spirit of TMAs?
As I went to look at the blogs this morning I contemplated the idea for my next or at least an upcoming piece and rosco has made it official. It will touch on the point you raised just now rosco.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Lesnar - I was one of his biggest critics and haters and I'll explain why - the maddening and unrealistic hype and talent attributed to him. Nothing more, nothing less. Since he has lost and been exposed, it has somewhat subsided but an incoherent Lesnarian can still turn me back into the vitriol spouting hardcore you criticize here. That isn't what this piece is though, and it makes a lot of valid points. Lesnar is good for the sport and honestly I think we'd struggle a little bit to regain the momentum if he did vacate the UFC entirely.
I came into this blog ready to hulk smash a Lesnar rider, but have been defused. Bravo. Run this over to BE where there is a dearth of Brock related content as the fanposts are dominated by tournament talk. Add a picture too. Good stuff.
Thanks guys
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