One of the biggest stories in the MMA world this week was that of Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos are coaching The Ultimate Fighter, with a fight scheduled for this summer for the right to face Cain Velazquez for the UFC Heavyweight title. With Cain hurt from his fight with Lesnar, keeping him out of action for most of 2011, it makes the most sense for Dos Santos to take another fight while waiting for the champion to heal. And if he can beat Brock, it makes the title fight that much bigger since he’ll have had a stage to become a star and a chance to headline a pay per view with the biggest draw in combat sports. But one thing intrigued me: what would the MMA forum monkeys think about Lesnar being a head coach on TUF?
It was mainly negative, because a vocal segment of MMA fans hate Lesnar for no real good reason, and it got me thinking about this. And the more I kept thinking the more positive things kept coming to mind about the whole Lesnar experience on the UFC’s proving ground for young fighters. I don’t see how this is going to end up being a bad thing in the scheme of things.
Listen to me now and believe me later.
For full disclosure I’m a big fan of Lesnar, going back to his days at Minnesota when I loved the way he wrestled, so when he decided to go from being a pro wrestler to a professional fighter I was intrigued. Brock was always a physical specimen and a phenomenal athlete but cage-fighting is much more than just physical prowess. So when he stepped into the UFC I was intrigued; it is one thing to be a great wrestler, but MMA is more than amateur wrestling. I was happy as hell that he got the success he did and with his loss to Velazquez, a bit of a beating, left his career in a quandary. Where does he go from here? After cheating death, defending his title in the process, Lesnar is now a defeated champion and lost the belt in the worst way possible. Everyone else at his level has fights lined up, and the new champion is out with a torn rotator cuff, so he can wait for someone to get free or take on the #1 contender this summer. A stint on the Ultimate Fighter, and the resultant high profile fight, is absolutely the best thing for him. Why?
Because we get to see the human side of him over a three month season, as opposed to the handful of interviews he gives before a fight.
Brock’s been one of the more hated guys in MMA for good reason but The Ultimate Fighter brings out the best (and worst) of its coaches. Before a handful of guys became coaches they were almost universally reviled by the MMA fanbase. And a handful of guys went from being likeable to not as liked. Ken Shamrock and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson were liked going into fights / coaching gigs against Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans beforehand and coming out the latter two had a much higher esteem than they previously had. And people thought Shamrock was an idiot and Rampage wasn’t exactly helped by the perception he was more concerned with pranks than he was with the fighters in his care. So this could end up in one of three ways.
The first is that Brock comes off as the biggest d-bag in the history of d-bags and as such Dos Santos looks like an absolute charmer by association. I kind of doubt this, mainly due to the anecdotes about Lesnar being a first rate guy, but it is possible. Brock has been a WWF bad guy and he does know how to play for the cameras.
The second is the reverse and Dos Santos makes Brock look like a decent guy by association. Again I doubt that because the Brazilians who make it to the UFC all tend to be pretty decent people. It is possible, though, but I highly doubt that.
The third is that Brock brings a lot to the table for a group of eight guys that no one expects, in the process winning over plenty of people who had major dislikes of him. Brock was a first class amateur wrestler and is a renowned workout enthusiast. He went from being a man with no MMA experience to one of the top 10 heavyweights in the world within two years. That doesn’t happen normally; usually it takes many years of hard work and thousands of hours in a particular field to be really good at it. It’s a sign to me of two things.
1. He worked his ass off to learn how to become a fighter
2, He had great coaches that got him up to speed quickly
You just don’t walk into the UFC and beat top quality guys without training like a madman and having good people behind you guiding it. So if Brock, notorious for loving his privacy, is willing to come out to Las Vegas and spend six weeks of his life with a camera crew documenting his every move you can be sure he’s bringing his guys with him. If they can turn him from a guy who was an NCAA champion in the earlier part of the decade into a fighter with a definitive style that has been successful in the highest level in the sport, then they can definitely work with guys who’ve been fighting for some time in the lower organizations. On top of that, they have another thing going for them:
BROCK LESNAR.
Say what you want about the guy, but the one thing he does is work his ass off. And I can guarantee that the guys he picks on his team are going to be working hard. He’s also an accomplished amateur wrestler and I doubt that anyone appearing on this year’s Ultimate Fighter will have his wrestling credentials. So having a guy who has drilled for that many years is a good thing; takedowns are an essential part of the sport. Having a guy of his caliber training them will only help.
Any way you look at it, this upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter is appointment television as far as I’m concerned. But then again, thoughts like these kept me out of the good colleges.
Reprinted with permission from Scott’s weekly pop culture column Monday Morning Critic
