By David Gibb
Last Saturday in the main event of UFC 91, something happened that seemingly hadn't happened for ages in a professional fight: what was supposed to happen.
Don't be fooled by the naysayers, Brock Lesnar should be the UFC Heavyweight Champion, and even if you don't agree with that, you must concede that he definitely should have beat Randy Couture. Despite his storied career, Couture came into the fight at 45 years and 147 days old and absolutely should have been beaten by the 31-year-old Lesnar.
Anybody who believes that Brock Lesnar somehow came into UFC 91 as an "underdog" or "Cinderella" needs to use the most classic litmus test to determine who the dominant fighter is: ask somebody who knows nothing about fighting. For example, if I showed my mother (who thinks that UFC is a movie starring Weird Al Yankovic) a picture of Lesnar and a picture of Couture she would say, "The young, muscular one is going to dismantle other guy." Let's also remember that Lesnar is fighting 40 pounds heavier than Couture. It doesn't even sound like a fair fight!
The story of Lesnar's meteoric rise to the UFC Title seems like something out his previous career of pro wrestling, and that is exactly why the new champion has so many doubters. His connections to wrestling not only make people doubt his legitimacy as a fighter, they also provide more than enough circumstantial evidence for anybody who wants to accuse him of steroid abuse. Even as a shoot fighter, he carries himself with the seeming arrogance and sense of entitlement of a pro wrestler. If he comes across as cripplingly smug, though, it's only because he's confident is his ability to, well, cripple.
However, UFC boss and uber-genius Dana White allowed Brock Lesnar into his title picture for the same reason that WWE boss and uber-genius Vince McMahon did: Brock Lesnar puts butts in seats and makes people buy pay-per-view fights. Some people love him. A lot of people hate him. Don't discount how many hardcore, but frugal fight fans will suddenly start buying PPVs to try and see the night in which somebody finally beats Brock Lesnar. White's pay-per-view audience will now be more global than ever with Lesnar's fame as both a wrestler and shoot fighter around the world, especially in Japan.
Lesnar's championship reign will surely also assist in one of Dana White's clear long-term goals: convincing pro wrestling fans to cross over to watching mixed martial arts. By placing "The Ultimate Fighter" on SpikeTV following pro wrestling, UFC has won countless new fans. If the move pays off and Lesnar builds a career as a legitimate champion and contender, it is certainly White and the UFC's best chance to eclipse pro wrestling and convince the entire country that brutal, legitimate fights are more acceptable than brutal worked fights.
This Heavyweight Title reign is truly a microcosm of the state of the sport. Brock Lesnar wearing the UFC Title belt represents the way the business has flourished by embracing multimedia culture. The weekly television shows, free fights on Spike, tons of internet content and advertising all worked out to build a tremendous fan base, and now branching out by including guys like Lesnar, who is an entertainer with an established army of fans in his own right, is the kind of move that could put the company absolutely over the top. White has also recently teased putting together a heavyweight edition of "The Ultimate Fighter" and extending an invitation to now-fallen multimedia star Kimbo Slice. It is the moves like these that prove that Dana White is poised to become one of the most powerful and successful fight promoters in history.
On the other hand, if Lesnar quickly loses the title or is embarrassed in a fight, it could be disastrous. Let us not forget how the unmasking of Slice absolutely murdered his promotion. UFC is the only MMA promotion conceivably above such a catastrophe, though, and that's why they're the top promotion. They only stand to lose casual fans if Lesnar is undressed and will be able to survive on their dedicated fans, as they have for years, until the next big thing comes around.