For once in my fifteen plus years of following MMA, I feel like I don’t have to announce to the world the results of the last PPV.

If you weren’t paying attention to the UFC, and you’re a sports fan – someone who’s used to watching ESPN, following various sports news sites, and maybe in a quick but short but black and white blurb in a major mainstream newspaper on Sunday – you’ve definitely already known that Brock Lesnar all but destroyed Frank Mir in just under two minutes of round two.

That’s about seven minutes of relentless pounding by the former professional wrestler who came to the UFC via a stint of training for the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, and a controversial stint with New Japan Pro Wrestling, which pretty much launched the lawsuit which settled what was once a ten year noncompete agreement between Lesnar and the WWE.

All this leads to a point.

Mostly, the point is that the WWE and Vince McMahon all but feared that this day would happen.  They must have foreseen the potential, knowing firsthand the dedication, physical attributes and training regimen of the man monster Lesnar. Why else would they insert a clause in their agreement with Lesnar’s departure, one that was ultimately struck down, but for the time seemed to push Brock to the NFL, but not to competitive combative or pseudo combative sports.

Lesnar’s football career had a few setbacks. For one, he wasn’t experienced in the game. For another, he had a rather serious motorcycle accident, which set him back weeks at a time when he had to be training, learning and having hands on participation with coaches and skilled peers. Now, Stephen Neal of the New England Patriots made the jump from dominant heavyweight in the NCAA to superb lineman in the NFL. And Carlton Haselrig did the same with the Pittsburgh Steelers a decade or so earlier.

The potential was certainly there.

But Brock Lesnar has proven that he’s not exactly a team player.

Which isn’t quite the same as being unsportsmanlike. Emotional reactions to hostile crowds may inevitably give bad reputations, but is it truly unsportsmanlike? Foolish statements about sponsors, even alcohol peddling ones, isn’t exactly unsportsmanlike. Potentially harmful for the company’s bottom line, and likely more the cause of any verbal tirade by Dana White on Mr. Lesnar, but not exactly the definition of unsportsmanlike. Overreacting to a win, which erased the sour taste of a foolish loss, is borderline unsportsmanlike… that one, I agree with.

The funny thing is that the PPV had one significant display of unsportsmanlike conduct, which is when Dan Henderson struck Michael Bisping after the man was already clearly KO’d. Sure, it was a split second, but then again, Henderson did admit administering the blow for reasons other than simply winning the fight.

As well, one of the other co-main events featured a man who some claimed used substances on his body to gain an illegal advantage in his last significant fight.

Plus we can’t overlook the plague of boring and lackluster fights (including the last two events headlined by Anderson Silva) which can be traced back to Frank Mir and Tim Sylvia, former UFC Heavyweight champions who seemed to put safe and tentative fighting above the expectations of a rabid fan base.

Which a point that most mainstream sports writers easily miss in this situation. Las Vegas isn’t just another stop on the UFC’s national and international touring. Las Vegas is the home base of the UFC, and it’s the home of high rollers, high profile fight fans, and more so, the fan base of hard core Mixed Martial Arts enthusiasts.

Which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is the kind of fan of the sport that sees Brock Lesnar not as a much more mainstream star, but as an invader of the MMA industry; a usurper of the UFC Heavyweight Championship better held by Randy Couture; and worst of all, someone better suited to being one of those professional wrestlers.

The horror!

So when the Las Vegas heavy hitters, the ones paying tens of thousands for ring side seats, and $500 for the nosebleed seats (as in the cheap seats, not the seats where you can really and truly see a nose bleed,) saw Brock Lesnar destroy their fabulous and technical pretty boy, the result wasn’t the polite applause of the Japanese sports fans, the vociferous cheering of the hardcore sports fan of almost any professional sport, or event the gracious reward of a standing ovation of a mainstream crowd appreciating a dominant win.

Nope. It was the smattering of cat-calls, loudness of booing and overall disrespect of the fans themselves that triggered (well, we can certainly argue who started what) such a vehement response from the former WWE Unified World Heavyweight Champion.

Ironically, the last time Brock got such a bad reaction from the fans was his final ‘fight’ in the WWE, where he face the one time wonder Bill Goldberg, and where Shane (son of Vince) McMahon cheerlead the raucous crowd that called both men sellouts.

Ironically, the hardcore WWE crowd long ago dispatched Brock Lesnar from the promotion in a similar manner – enough booing to make an impact, over and above the numerous fans who appreciated his talents.

Ironically, we’re now seeing a backlash by writers hellbent on finding a bad spot in an otherwise hugely popular sport, and one that either set impressive records, or at least garnered far more mainstream attention than it ever has.

This is an industry that saw Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz, that saw Liddell/Couture in a several match series, and which saw the humbling of Kimbo Slice by a record of six million viewers last year.

(By the way, the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter wrapped up last week, and it features Kimbo, Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson.)

But in each of those huge MMA fights, you’d have had to be a dedicated fan, or have actually watched CBS, to know what happened. MMA has slowly been opening doors, and hasn’t quite yet gotten reinstated in New York, and only recently in Pennsylvania, and has a smattering of states which need to authorize and/or regulate it. But the doors today are open enough for mainstream fans to peek in.

And with Brock Lesnar crossing over from Professional Wrestling, he brings a half million fans, plus the potential for many more.

But the thing is, professional wrestling isn’t divorced from reality, despite Vince McMahons leading it down the path away from its glorious history. Pro wrestling grew from the days of hours long wrestling matches (century old MMA fights) and pro wrestling became what it is today because pure athletes eventually get boring, and evenly matched fights tend to become defensive battles, not exciting.

Is Brock Lesnar simply channeling the figures of his previous industry’s past, or is he recreating the role for the modern day fans?

Reality is, when viewers watched the UFC Countdown to 100, and saw Brock bust off a door because of his emotional reaction to watching his loss, over and over again, did we all just watch and think “that was staged” or did we think “that man is going to destroy Mir” ???

And then, when that same emotion spilled into the post match shenanigans, why suddenly does it become something more than what it was?

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I’ve got a look at Chikara Pro Wrestling’s Anniversario Yang up next. See you at the fights!