Lesnar is more of a product of UFC’s PR rather than a serious fighter

[Steel Mamba]

From Fedor's manager

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Team-Fedor-asks-now-who-s-overrated-?urn=mma-281053#remaining-content

"I have long said that Lesnar is more of a product of UFC’s PR rather than a serious fighter and that fight clearly confirmed it," said Fedor's manager Vadim Finkelchtein.

"I do not want to say that Lesnar is a nobody, but he has very little experience. What does he have six fights in MMA? He's a pure product UFC, who met a real fighter and he lost."

"Now we are in active negotiations with Showtime on a contract extension, and perhaps we will renew it. But the UFC does not offer such opportunities and imposes its monopoly conditions. They believe that everyone should be in the UFC. We would love to fight with Lesnar, and Velasquez and all but why should we give up all these undertakings, all the years spent on Fedor’s development will go to them? Fedor did not grow in the UFC, right? So why should he go to the UFC? If Dana White wants to fight, he can easily hold it, because we do not mind. And while the contract with Showtime gives us more opportunities."

Interesting how he mentions negotiating with Sho and not StrikeForce. Who really runs SF now?

But anyway couldn't agree more with his initial quote.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Here's what I don't understand about the Lesnar bashing.

"He finally fought a real fighter"

I guess Couture, Mir, and Carwin weren't "real fighters". Or Herring for that matter.

The Lesnar bashers who were waiting for him to fail so they could finally crawl out of the closet and gloat, are just as bad as the fanboys and casuals who pumped him up. Remember, he wast going to beat the other four guys, either. You know, the "real fighters" he faced the first four times. He'll never beat Randy. Ok, he'll never beat Carwin. Ok, he'll never beat Cain. SEE! We we're right!

Lame.

He didn't lose becaue he faced a "real fighter", he lost because he faced a better fighter. Doesn't make him a fraud or a product of PR. Besides, how would you elitist dopes like UFC to promote him? "Pay to see our champ, he's not that good and a product of hype, but pay up!". Get real.

Its like I always said all along, when he finally lost, the moronic shit would come out. He's not a fraud, and he's not the baddest man on the planet. But he's closer to the latter, like it or not.

[EmpireWF]

Fedor's handlers always talk about these opportunities. WHAT exactly are they talking about? It's not Fedor has taken a fight in Japan in recent years. They talking about sambo related stuff?

As it is, they lost a lot of luster when Fedor tapped out. You don't a lot of fans crying to see Fedor in Zuffa anymore.

Besides, if he won't fight Ubereem...does that mean he gets to pound on Rogers again?

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

I guess its best to keep a fighter under 3 minutes of work per year.

[Steel Mamba]

Here's what I don't understand about the Lesnar bashing.

"He finally fought a real fighter"

I guess Couture, Mir, and Carwin weren't "real fighters". Or Herring for that matter.

The Lesnar bashers who were waiting for him to fail so they could finally crawl out of the closet and gloat, are just as bad as the fanboys and casuals who pumped him up. Remember, he wast going to beat the other four guys, either. You know, the "real fighters" he faced the first four times. He'll never beat Randy. Ok, he'll never beat Carwin. Ok, he'll never beat Cain. SEE! We we're right!

Lame.

He didn't lose becaue he faced a "real fighter", he lost because he faced a better fighter. Doesn't make him a fraud or a product of PR. Besides, how would you elitist dopes like UFC to promote him? "Pay to see our champ, he's not that good and a product of hype, but pay up!". Get real.

Its like I always said all along, when he finally lost, the moronic shit would come out. He's not a fraud, and he's not the baddest man on the planet. But he's closer to the latter, like it or not.

But, it's ok for Dana to bash everyone who's not in the UFC? But, the second the tables are turned it's a problem.

As far as who Brock has faced, it's pretty evident that Heath is no longer 'in it' anymore. He hasn't fought since facing Brock and hasn't beaten any high caliber fighters in years. Randy is a LHW who Brock still struggled against. Shane was beating his ass until his cardio forced him to check out in the 2nd. He's 1-1 with Mir. Not as impressive of a resume as some are making it out to be.

Of course they have to promote Brock and sale the fights, but be realistic about it and push him the same way you do other upcoming fighters. Of course assuming the UFC and its' fans wants MMA to be respected as a legit sport. So what you say about him is that he has a lot potential, he's exciting, etc etc. This nonsense about him being the best HW and us having to sacrifice women to him makes the UFC look like a bunch of dolts and comes off as more WWE than pro sport.

[Warner2BruceTD]

You're really off the deep end here. How does Lesnar make the sport any less legit? If anything, his fights have raised the profile of MMA. He garners more attention from "legit" places like ESPN & newspapers than any fighter in history. He has almost single handedly helped take MMA to the next level from the TUF explosion to mainstream.

If you want to point to fighters who set MMA back in the public eye, its Kimbo and the CBS debacle you should point to. Lesnar is a real athlete who wins real fights.

[EmpireWF]

Well since it appears Strikeforce and CBS are done, I'd say Mayhem, Diaz and Melendez hurt MMA more than either Brock or Kimbo.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I think James Toney embarrassing himself is far more insultiing to the integrity of the sport than anything Lesnar has done.

[Tailback U]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Cain have a similar background to Brock's?

Great NCAA wrestler with fairly minimal MMA experience?

[Steel Mamba]

You're really off the deep end here. How does Lesnar make the sport any less legit? If anything, his fights have raised the profile of MMA. He garners more attention from "legit" places like ESPN & newspapers than any fighter in history. He has almost single handedly helped take MMA to the next level from the TUF explosion to mainstream.

If you want to point to fighters who set MMA back in the public eye, its Kimbo and the CBS debacle you should point to. Lesnar is a real athlete who wins real fights.

That's not what I said, I was talking about the way the UFC chose to promote him, which has nothing to do with Lesnar himself.

[RyanLeaf16]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Cain have a similar background to Brock's?

Great NCAA wrestler with fairly minimal MMA experience?

Yeah, but, Cain has shown tremendous growth since his fight at UFC 99 with Cheick Kongo. He almost got KO'd by Kongo on a couple of occasions, his stand-up has since improved.

As for Brock being a product of hype. I call bullshit. I actually can't stand Brock Lesnar, but, the guy is a legitimate athlete and a legitimate fighter. Brock's achilles heel is that he doesn't appear to have grown as a fighter and seems to rely a little too much on his wrestling. However, you can't blame him for sticking with what works. I would love to see him fight Mir again - down the road. I'm a big fan of Mir and he was really close to locking in a sub attempt at UFC 100 early in the 1st. Had he been successful, maybe Brock's rise to the top would have been slowed greatly.

And anyone knocking Fedor is out of their mind. Fedor is the most dangerous man on the planet. Guy went 32 fights before his first LEGITIMATE loss - a match in which he actually scored an early knockdown of Werdum and just didn't finish. Give him Werdum again and it's lights out Fabricio.

[Liquidrob]

Fedor and M-1 are dealing with Showtime more because they are trying to get the M-1 challenge on Showtime, plus Showtime pays half of Fedors fight purse, so thats why they deal with Showtime

Brock was never the best or number 1, he was a hype job, not saying he isnt good, just not the best, no one with knowledge of the sport said he was number 1, why do you think like 90% of the fighters asked who would win picked Cain?

Brock like Carwin will come down to there next fights, both have HUGE question marks, Carwin's gas tank and Brocks willingness to get hit will show us what these guys are about