FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Ennis' Take ENNIS: UFC 100 - What It All Means

Jul 13, 2009 - 10:57:32 PM
by Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist
Before we get started, I want you to do something with me. Close your eyes (well, after you finish the sentence,) then take a deep breath, thinking happy, calm thoughts and getting a hold of your emotions. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay. Feeling alright? Great. Now let's look at the fallout from UFC 100. I know everyone's been talking about it since Sunday, from Keller to Snowden to Kid Nate and Luke Thomas (I was doing my prelim write-up and my ability to crank out the columns with the speed of the big boys just isn't there yet,) and I don't have much on those guys, but I'm going to give it a whirl and tell you what it all really means.

So let's look at what happened here. Probably the two biggest stories coming out of the event, or at least the two that are causing the most outrage, are Lesnar's post-fight antics and Henderson's post-knockout punch. Let's start with Henderson.

Was what he did legal? Absolutely. It was more legal than Renato Sobral's choking of David Heath after the ref tried to pull him off. Still though, should he have done it? Probably not. But here's the thing: if this event were not UFC 100, the big one, the one that everyone was watching, would there be such uproar? Or is it just the fact that the mainstreamers who were watching happened to catch a glimpse of what sometimes happens after a big knockout? Because whether Hendo knew Bisping was out or whether he didn't, people were going to decry it. (And by the way, the only ones who seem to be upset by it outside of the MMA media are those who have been predisposed to dislike MMA. The article that our own Wade Keller posted this morning was case in point.) If you remember, the knockout (and the follow-up) made the top 10 plays on the episode of Sportscenter that immediately followed UFC 100, with no comment as to the late blow. To me, this is something that happens too often for it to be a big deal. You can argue that the problem is Henderson saying he did it on purpose, and you've probably got a point. But people aren't going to remember that. In the end, people remember the visual. And if you watched the top 10 fights in UFC history on Spike TV (their categorization, not mine,) you'll remember that Gabriel Gonzaga landed a few shots to the dome of an unconscious Mirko Cro Cop after delivering his famous head kick. That's just the first example that comes to mind. There are myriad other examples of unconscious opponents taking unnecessary shots. Ask Kid Yamamoto if he's ever punched a guy after he's out—or better yet, just look it up on YouTube.

So to me, yeah, Henderson probably shouldn't have thrown that punch. But the fact is, it's part of the sport, intentional or no. We've always known that this isn't for everyone, just like any other sport. And that's okay. If the sight of an unconscious man taking a punch to the head is going to turn a person off to MMA for good, then if they weren't turned off at UFC 100 they would have been at UFC 101. Or maybe they'd be turned off by BJ Penn dipping his gloves in an opponent's blood and licking them, because it's happening if he beats Kenny Florian.

Now, moving on to Lesnar. With apologies to lots of writers for whom I have a ton of respect – to say that Lesnar's post-fight tirade is bad for the sport is ludicrous. For everything Lesnar said and did after the fight, from the bird-flipping to the trash talking of a semi-conscious Frank Mir, you'd better believe that the only thing Dana White was upset about was Lesnar dissing his blue-chip sponsor. This is fightsport. It's not golf, it's not tennis, and it's not even football (where trash talk and opponent-belittling is prevalent, but not always caught with a microphone.) If all UFC fighters were maniacs after the fight, that would be one thing. But just like in all walks of life, there are different people with different reactions and different personalities.

If you were exposed to Lesnar on Saturday night, you were also exposed to Georges St. Pierre, who is the ultimate gentleman and oh-by-the-way an indisputable top-three pound-for-pound fighter. Those watching their first MMA event (I had three such people at my house on Saturday) may not immediately remember GSP and his civil mannerisms, but next time they see a commercial touting his next fight, they will. Or if they don't, at least they'll remember him winning a dominating five-round decision.

And that's the thing. Attention for Lesnar means attention for MMA. And the more MMA is fairly examined, the more an objective observer will see that for most fights, there is mutual respect before and after the contest. On the same night that Lesnar got in Mir's face, Jon Fitch embraced Paulo Thiago seconds after pounding the side of his head from behind. Alan Belcher and Yoshihiro Akiyama embraced after a three round war. That's the norm, and anyone who looks can see that. And it's too easy to say that reporters seldom give MMA a fair shake. If someone's going to smear the UFC, they don't need Brock Lesnar. A reporter who wants to do a smear article on the UFC can use any number of things to do just that, and those pieces are rarely taken seriously by objective people. What MMA needs to gain mainstream acceptance is time. Time for the younger generation of sportscasters and sports columnists to take over the older generation. Where Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser are sometimes turned off by the brutality, Tony Reali and Max Kellerman are ardent defenders of MMA.

Oh, and one more thing. Brock Lesnar's post-fight comments are no worse than any Dana White press conference. Heck, Brock didn't swear half as much after a fight as the President of the UFC does when he's in "polite company," and he's the public face of the organization. So let's just give this a rest for a while, shall we? Life will continue as we know it, the UFC and MMA will continue to grow, and not in spite of Brock Lesnar and his comments, but partly because of them.

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