Dana White announced today that Brock Lesnar
and Junior Dos Santos will be the coaches on this season (TUF 13) of The
Ultimate Fighter. The two fighters will continue the tradition of concluding
the season by facing each other in the Octagon. Only two things were assured by
Dana's announcement. The first is that there would be instant controversy
amongst keyboard warriors everywhere on the blogosphere. Lesnar's authoritative
coaching role relative to his inexperience as a mixed martial artist will add
to his already considerable base of critics. The second guarantee is that TUF
13 will be ratings gold! Lesnar has proven time and again that if nothing else
he draws eyeballs. Whatever method you use to track popularity, whether its
Google searches, or pay-per-view buys, Lesnar is undeniably the proverbial
goose that lays the golden ratings egg.
Once one get past the initial awkwardness of
appointing an intensely private individual with relatively little experience in
MMA as a coach, this season offers many intriguing questions. First and
foremost, what will Brock's attitude and personality be? Or rather, maybe the
question should be how will the UFC choose to portray Lesnar? Lesnar has
described himself as a lone wolf type of individual before. He hates large
cities (instead of moving to an established gym he chose to build his own in
rural Alexandria Minnesota) and must dread spending all that time in Vegas.
Lesnar was recently quoted while describing himself:
"It's very basic for me. When I go home,
I don't buy into any of the b.s. Like I said, it's pretty basic: Train, sleep,
family, fight. It's my life. I like it. I've been in front of the cameras for
10, 12 years. I was a star at the University of Minnesota. I went on to World
Wrestling Entertainment. Wannabe NFL player. And here I am, the UFC heavyweight
champion. I just don't put myself out there to the fans and prostitute my
private life to everybody. In today's day and age, with the Internet and
cameras and cell phones, I just like being old school and living in the woods
and living my life. I came from nothing and at any moment, you can go back to
having nothing"
What in that statement leads anyone to believe
that he wants to spend over a month in Sin City, away from his family, under
the glare of cameras? My guess is that the UFC must have paid him a mint to do
this ratings stunt. Clearly they didn't do it for the fighters who will all be
Welterweights (by necessity that makes the show different than this seasons'
where GSP was a consistent training partner for his team). There is a rumour
circling on many internet forums that Lesnar has made a backroom deal with
White that sees him propping up The Ultimate Fighter franchise in exchange for
being allowed to do Wrestlemania this year (which would likely pay Lesnar an
even more obscene amount of money). While this would be great for Spike's
ratings, it would likely turn many traditional fans of the sport off. The
greying of the line between MMA and professional wrestling has a long standing
history that many fans find frustrating. Lesnar seems to have become the symbol
for this hatred, as well as for the predictable backlash from 'original' MMA
fans toward the newer, more mainstream group (aka 'Ultimate Fighter Newbs')
that Lesnar is a huge crossover hit with.
But the question remains: How will Lesnar be
received? When the cameras turn on will he revert back to the brash,
controversial, WWE-bred character that he showed when he initially came into
the UFC? Or will he continue to reaveal his much more humble side that we have
seen since his near death experience last year? Will he seek to intimidate Dos
Santos, or accept his recent failings in the name of improvement? Will he gain
a grudging respect from MMA insiders (as Kimbo Slice did a few seasons ago) or
will he give them further ammunition to use against him? Lesnar has never even
been part of a MMA team in the traditional sense of the word before (he hires
fighters to come in and train with him in Alexandria on a fight-by-fight basis,
but to my knowledge doesn't regularly attend other gyms) how will he adapt to
camaraderie-oriented setting of TUF? Finally, as I mentioned before, how Lesnar
acts on the show and wishes himself to be portrayed might be immaterial in the
end. The real question is likely what Zuffa's editing crew will do with the
footage of Lesnar. Does the UFC need another humble fighter in the Cain
Velasquez mould? Or would it instead be further ahead to encourage the view of
Lesnar as a controversial figure that many would pay big bucks to see get
beaten? The answers to these questions will be very interesting to say the
least.
The biggest issue that the show will no doubt
have to deal with is the legitimacy of Lesnar as a coach, as well as the team
he will bring with him. While JDS has experience as a professional boxer, and
trains BJJ with the famous Nogueira brothers at Team Black House (his belt rank
is widely speculated to be brown... good thing I don't place much value in belt
ranks anyway) what does Lesnar really bring to the table? Well, he definitely
brings wrestling chops. This is no small matter in the current climate of MMA.
In my opinion this is without a doubt the most important base for a fighter.
However, other than that, does he truly excel anywhere else? Can he really
teach Welterweights to be a genetic freak like himself? With such little time
with the fighters I often think that the coaching of the headliners is
overblown. If Lesnar can communicate (such an overlooked aspect of coaching)
his wrestling knowledge and work ethic, this might actually prove to be fairly
valuable. Besides, it's the guys that you bring in that could really make or
break a contestant's experience.
On that note, it is always fun to speculate
which coaches each fighter might bring in. JDS would appear to have a natural
advantage in coming from one of the most experienced teams in the world in the
aforementioned team Black House based out of Brazil. With such notable training
partners as the Nogueira brothers, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, there is a
bevy of options for Dos Santos to choose from. Interestingly, very few of the
team's members are known for having any real wrestling background.
I would assume Brock will bring his boy Greg
Nelson along for the ride (this is likely who will pick the other coaches and
ultimately shape the training for Team Lesnar). He is fairly experienced in the
world of MMA and has clearly done an excellent job in bring Lesnar up to speed
in the relatively short time they have been training. I think the real wild
card as far as Lesnar is concerned will be whose arm he or the UFC can twist in
order to appear on the show. With the UFC having such a strong interest in
promoting Lesnar I wouldn't really be surprised to hear any name at all thrown
in. Any of the current WWs, MWs, and/or LHWs could asked to appear by Dana and
Co. As well, if Nelson and Lesnar have any designs on improving his striking
(which they should given recent results) they should spare no expense in
bringing in a top flight striking coach (just pay whatever sum it takes to get
Duke Roufus Brock). This would leave the door open for any number of trainers
since both Brock's and Dana's cheque books and promotional pull could garner an
appearance from pretty much anyone out there.
It is a long road leading up to when the two
giants will step into the Octagon together, but the inner prognosticator in me
can't help but speculate on the eventual outcome. Early poll results on several
websites showed Dos Santos' to have a 60-40 edge in the minds of fight fans.
The fighters are great opponents for each other. JDS' technical boxing acumen
and overall power have left a laundry list of destruction in his wake as he has
climbed the Heavyweight ladder. When you combine this with Brock's complete
lack of kickboxing training, and subsequent inexperience with being hit, it
seems like a large advantage for 'Cigano'. However, we have yet to see Dos
Santos' ground game tested in the UFC. He does train with some great BJJ
players, but that is no guarantee of anything. Lesnar was able to completely
suffocate Frank Mir on the ground, and JDS is no Cain Velasquez in terms of
takedown defence. At this point it is a complete crap shoot in my opinion. Both
fighters have truly improved each time they have fought (this is an often
overused cliché, but I really believe it in the case of these two behemoths).
To think that they will not have worked on their respective weaknesses is
ridiculous. I am interested to see what each man brings to the table for the
show.
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