by Tyson Abaroa

Created on: July 07, 2010

           What is the one word used to describe the relationship between Brock Lesnar and The UFC? Marketing! Let’s get one thing straight first. I have always thought that he was just a marketing ploy by Dana White to increase Pay-per-view sales.

            I still will defend that he was given a very quick title shot for that very reason. Thousands of professional wrestling fans used to pay to watch big events featuring him before. Why not try to get a piece of that action? He was also able to draw more viewers with the fact he has to get custom made gloves for his “lunchbox” hands, as Joe Rogan has named them. Even though he brought in a bigger crowd, most of us that have been longtime fight fans predicted his first fight correctly. We all knew that even though he was a collegiate wrestling champion, the first person he would have faced that knows more about MMA than he did would tear him apart. At the end of that first fight, and with a beaten face Frank Mir was victorious with a beautiful knee bar.

            Next up was the “The Texas Crazy Horse” and former Pride contender Heath Herring. Lesnar dominated the fight with a wonderful “lay and pray” strategy with only one good punch that did admittedly break the “Crazy Horses” orbital. Watching Lesnar’s  performance in this fight continued to send rumors through the fight world that Brock was really just a marketing scheme and couldn’t really do anything but use his weight “on top” in the ground game. The UFC’s next action proved the Marketing Scheme Theory. After two fights he was the heavyweight contender for the real Heavyweight Title.

            The UFC Heavyweight Title has had a turbulent couple of years. With contract disputes and a weak field of contention, there was Randy Couture the real Heavyweight Champion, and eventually Frank Mir the Interim Heavyweight Champion. Brock Lesnar after two fights was face to face with “The Natural” for the heavyweight title. It was heartbreaking to see everyone’s favorite heavyweight knocked out by a lucky, but a good punch nonetheless by Lesnar. The Marketing Scheme had just cashed in. Brock went on to unify the title by a Technical Knock Out over Frank Mir, when he showed improvement on his “Ground and Pound” with devastating blows from the top. Still those of us that believed he was still just a ploy only saw him use his weight for the advantage.

            Now is the part that I have been dreading. Recently Brock “The Marketing Scheme” Lesnar earned all of our respect. Just to last one round with Shane Carwin was something no fighter had ever done before, but to have been a completely one sided fighter that had tapped in his first UFC appearance to now a full fighter that has defended his title against an undefeated contender by a submission, and being a Jiu Jitsu man myself I saw a wonderful set up to the submission, I have to eat crow. He is no longer a marketing scheme; I now dub him, Brock “The Investment” Lesnar.

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