It does if you’re being paid to do it. Or don’t you understand what makes someone a professional?
I think he’s saying that it’s a little unrealistic to expect professional face-punchers to act like professionals all the time. I have trouble taking any fighter who doesn’t have a nasty streak seriously.
Personally, I kinda like him. He is a man amongst boys where being so is a skill to be rewarded, i.e. he knows how to throw his weight around (and I still don’t believe he weighs that little ;)), and he’s entertaining in how fast he moves for someone so large. Given these rather large hurdles to overcome, who can beat him? He would have to get pretty sloppy. He broke Herring’s orbital lobe in one punch. So, arguably, he can’t finish. So what? What condition is the opponent going to be in if he can’t fight back? I would pay good money to see Lesnar vs. Fedor.
Ok, but it is possible to be a showman and yet not a dick to the people paying to see you. I think it behooves UFC to tone down the 'raslin antics in Lesnar.
But, different strokes I guess…
UFC has him billed at 265 pounds? Okay, that’s ridiculous. He’s got to be up in the 280 range now. He was reportedly at 285 when he tried out for the Vikings.
That’s just it - no UFC fan is going to flounce off in a huff because Lesnar gave him the finger, but an awful lot are going to start hating Lesnar. If there’s one thing that wrestling can teach MMA, it’s that (the fan’s) genuine emotion spikes buyrates bigtime- and no emotion does that as effectively as anger.
In the short term yes, but do it long enough and your sport becomes a soap opera. I hate the Yankees and would pay to see them lose and they’ve never even flicked me off.
Against the backdrop of the Pacers-Pistons-Pistons Fans brawl a few years back, Milton Bradley’s weekly flipout, NASCAR driver fistfights, the NFL’s hire-a-convict policy, and so on, the UFC has a lot of work to do before it will be taken seriously as a soap opera.
No, I understand. I’m just pointing out how stupid it is for you to apply the restraints of your profession to MMA.
Dana handed him his ass over the Budweiser comments. He should have, too; trash talking one of the top sponsors isn’t just unprofessional, it’s freaking near suicidal. That’s something else Brock might want to think about - as a fighter his main paycheck isn’t going to come from the fights, it’s from endorsements, and mouthing off may be taking money out of his pocket. Anyway, he later apologized to Mir and to Bud:
There’s also some talk in the article by Dana about a possible Lesnar - Fedor match up.
Yeah - attacking the sponsor is obviously a horrible idea, unless they’re in on it or something. I was referring solely to Lesnar getting in Mir’s face and flipping off the crowd, for the record.
I follow. If he’d left it at that, Dana probably would have let it slide as “youthful exuberance.” 
ETA: had to add my favorite headline I’ve seen so far: “Lesnar smashes Mir and then loses his mind in postfight.”
Just want to say, we freaking love him in Minnesota. UM alum, lives and trains in Minneapolis, fairly active in the community. The bar I went to was packed and you should have heard the eruption when Lesner won. Frank Mir was talking a lot of shit about Lesner pre-fight and I think Lesner really wanted to prove something. He didn’t tap gloves at the beginning of the match and kept up his intensity from there. When the crowd booed him, he probably saw it as a homer crowd (Mir is from Vegas) and just flipped out.
The UFC doesn’t “bill” their fighters’ weight the way the WWF does. The state athletic commissions weigh them in. He cuts weight to get down to the 265lb Heavyweight limit.
Uh, yeah, they all do that. They cut SERIOUS weight during the days leading up to the weigh-ins by dehydrating themselves. They do it in the sauna, mostly. Then they drink a lot of Gatorade and Pedialyte to rehydrate themselves. how do you think they always weigh exactly what they are supposed to? Haven’t you ever watched The Ultimate Fighter?
I met and talked to Rich Franlkin when he was the MW Champ and when he was a few months away from his fight with David Louiseau at 185 lbs. I asked him what weight he was walking around at and he said about 205. (Fun fact: My BIL remarked that he looked like Jim Carrey and he told us that is where he got the nickname “Ace”)
ETA: Cisco beat me to it
I watched the pay-per-view.
After the fight, when Lesner was walking out of the ring, he was led out by his wife (I presume).
The last “live” shot I saw of him was taken from the front as they were in the tunnel (returning to the locker/green room). His wife DID NOT look happy. She looked like she was sad and dissapointed. (Not angry.)
Did anyone else see that?
I wonder if he was so pumped up that he said something dick-ish to her, too, on the way out of the ring. (Or maybe she just doesn’t like this side of his personality.)
Just watched it again after reading your post. She seemed quite happy and was smiling for the main part. There was a slight look of concern when a fan did what seemed to be a throat slit gesture.
I missed that part.
She’s a brave, brave woman.
Huh. I didn’t know MMA had an upper weight limit so I assumed heavyweights didn’t have to suck weight.
Super Heavyweight doesn’t have a limit, but Heavyweight does.