Brock Lesnar: Good or Bad for the UFC?
The fact that this is even a question is downright silly to me quite honestly. I had my own opinions, but I wanted to hear what other people had to say about Brock Lesnar and his post-fight actions. Here is a sample of the responses:
- It was better than good. Take it from me, someone who doesn’t watch or care that much for the UFC, it was a HUGE deal. It’s sparked some more interest in it. The only reason why I bothered caring about UFC 100 is to see how Lesnar would do
- I think it’s great. MMA finally has a guy who doesn’t give a shit about being classy. It really does get tiring seeing guys touch gloves after each round or striking exchange and hugging after each fight. Look at Nick Diaz, he’s the best “heel” in the biz right now. He just absolutely does not care and is as real is it gets.
One way to look at things is to look at the economic impact Lesnar has had on the UFC. Take a look at the Pay-Per-View numbers from his recent fights.
- UFC 81- 650,000 PPV buys
- UFC 87- 625,000 PPV buys
- UFC 91- 900,000 PPV buys
- UFC 100- Expected to be over 1,000,000 PPV buys
Those are HUGE numbers, especially when you look at the PPV numbers of the events before or after Brock Lesnar fights. For example, Brock’s debut at UFC 81 drew 650,000 buys. UFC 80 did 250,000 buys (although it was on tape delay). UFC 82, which featured Anderson Silva (one of the UFC’s biggest stars) against Dan Henderson for the middleweight title, did 325,000. UFC 90, again featuring Anderson Silva, did about 300,000 buys, compared to the 900,000 buys for UFC 91 with Lesnar vs. Couture in the main event. He brings people in. People want to watch what he’s going to do. Whether it’s former pro wrestling fans, casual fans, or hardcore MMA fans hoping that Lesnar gets his ass kicked doesn’t matter. He creates buzz, and buzz = revenue for the UFC.
There are many classy guys in the UFC, guys like Rich Franklin. Franklin is one of my favorite fighters, but there’s a reason he’s been put on cards that have taken place overseas in his past two fights. He can’t carry a Pay-Per-View card. He drew about 320,000 buys for his UFC 93 contest with Dan Henderson, which is a solid figure for an overseas card, but he can’t carry a major card in the U.S. He’s a great ambassador for the sport, but he doesn’t draw people in.
Anderson Silva is one of the most talented fighters in all of MMA, and certainly belongs in the top 5 pound-for-pound rankings. He can’t sell a Pay-Per-View either. UFC 90 with Silva in the main event drew 300,000 buys. UFC 97 did better, but that was mostly because that card also featured Chuck Liddell. Silva is a classy guy and a great fighter…but he can’t sell a pay-per-view.
You may be asking where I’m going with all this. It’s quite simple: Brock Lesnar = money. Sure the post-fight speech was stupid. Ripping on the UFC’s main sponsor is a downright idiotic thing to do, and we know that Dana White took him to task for it. However, I don’t have a problem with Lesnar getting in Mir’s face after the fight. There doesn’t have to be a hug after every fight. This isn’t hockey where everyone shakes hands after a playoff series. This is human combat, and sometimes you’re fighting a guy you just don’t like or respect. Mir said a lot of things going into this fight that were mainly for promotional purposes, but when you’re a competitor like Lesnar is, he couldn’t turn that switch off right after the fight. His adreneline was still pumping through his system. As Lesnar has stated, he waited 15 months for that rematch and there was a lot of pent up anger that he was still trying to let go of even after he won convincingly.
I’ve also heard people say that Dana White should suspend Lesnar or even void his contract and kick him out of the UFC for his actions. Are you kidding me? Dana White is in no position to tell anyone else how to speak or act in front of a camera or a microphone. Research Dana White/Loretta Hunt if you want to know what I’m talking about. Now, it’s Dana’s right to run the company any way he wants, and I’m sure having Lesnar rip on a sponsor is not exactly his favorite thing to hear. But how is he going to tell Lesnar it’s bad for the UFC when he goes off, if White himself goes around calling reporters obscene names? If Dana was all that worried about the UFC’s public image, he’d remove himself from a speaking role with the company (something I would not want him to do).
Finally, I’ve heard talk about how this hurts the UFC’s attempt to go “mainstream.” I don’t believe that to be the case for one second. UFC 100 will probably go down as the most watched Pay-Per-View in the company’s history, and it’s caused nothing but conversation the past few days. Places where I would never expect MMA to be discussed are having water cooler conversations about it. The media is covering it in ways they never have before. Sure there will be some people turned off by the whole episode, but I guarantee you that more people will be watching now than there were before. Lesnar created a buzz amongst casual fans and even amongst people who had never watched the sport before.
The people that tuned into the UFC for the first time on Saturday got a great show. They saw a world class athlete in Georges St. Pierre completely dominate his opponent with a mix of all the disciplines he has learned. They saw a pretty entertaining striking match between Alan Belcher and Yoshihiro Akiyama. They saw a brutal knockout from Dan Henderson on Michael Bisping. And yes, they saw a large man beat another slightly smaller man into a bloody pulp in the main event. Are you telling me that people who watched for the first time were ok with Henderson hitting Bisping on the canvas after he was clearly unconscious, and ok with Lesnar beating Mir into a bloody mess, but were all of a sudden offended by his post-fight actions? Give me a break. The people watching for the first time who were disgusted by Lesnar were probably disgusted by the whole show to begin with. Those people may not watch again. So what? There were plenty of other people who tuned in for the first time and were completely enthralled by everything they saw INCLUDING the post-match interview. Those people will watch again and tell a friend.
The UFC is still growing. Will it ever be football or baseball? Most likely not. However, the reason it’s not isn’t because the heavyweight champion had a lapse of judgement in a post-fight interview. It’s because combat sports will always be a so-called “niche” sport. The job of the UFC, Dana White and the fighters is to make sure that all of those who would be fans of the “niche” tune in. They are well on their way to doing so. UFC’s old slogan was “As real as it gets.” Guess what…that was as real as it gets.
This brings me back to one of the quotes I brought to you at the beginning of this rambling piece:
Since Brock Lesnar is just one man and doesn’t represent the entire sport, UFC has a great chance to highlight the nice guys of the sport to create a balance and generate buzz about future fights. So I think it should be good.
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Filed Under: opinions
Well written piece. Couldn’t agree more. Marketing is key.
There’s an old advertising theory that there’s 5 categories of consumers for a product (such as UFC): strong supporters, soft supporters, undecideds, soft opposition, and strong opposition. Strong opposition won’t change their minds and strong supporters don’t need any convincing, so the other 3 are where the real action is. And the media attention this has gotten will easily reach those groups. So, if anything, the UFC will gain more fans than it loses because of this.