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The invisible Cain Velasquez, and Brock Lesnar’s ‘car wash’ tour of ESPN

By Zach Arnold | March 30, 2011

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I don’t know if Wednesday’s launch of a new season of The Ultimate Fighter can match the upcoming launch of The MMA Gourmet, but Brock Lesnar gave it a go yesterday by doing a ‘car wash’ media tour of ESPN on Tuesday in Bristol, CT. The ‘car wash’ refers to doing appearances on multiple ESPN platforms and shows. On all of his appearances, Lesnar hit a proverbial home run. He was on his game. Maybe not fluid in terms of delivery, but he accomplished everything he wanted to (and more).

What was so striking was how invisible Cain Velasquez’s foot print was in the conversation. Here you have Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos on TUF with the main goal being the winner of the #1 contender’s match in Vancouver getting a title shot. However, Velasquez feels like the odd man out in that triangle despite being the champion. I understand that he has been going through rehab after the rotator cuff surgery (painful), but for the average UFC fan it’s as if Velasquez has fallen off the face of the earth because he hasn’t had much camera/media time.

Lesnar came across as a champion on ESPN last night. They consistently featured a graphic talking about his reign as UFC Heavyweight champion from 2008 to 2010. He specifically made sure to plug his fight against JDS regularly and did all the basics – kept mentioning his opponent’s name, didn’t put his opponent down and built him up, specified a clear goal, and when it’s happening. It was practically textbook 101.

“Well, it’s a tough match-up for me. I’m facing a guy with heavy hands. He’s got a lot of boxing skills and so that’s where I’m going to have come in and force myself to be comfortable and win this fight, get another chance at Cain Velasquez to get my title back, and that’s my mission.”

You could tell that everyone at ESPN was practically in awe of the guy.

When asked about his loss to Cain last October in Anaheim, he broke down what his feelings were about his performance in that title match.

“Well, losing’s a hard thing to do, you know. First thing’s first, you’ve just got to sit back and dust yourself off and get back on the horse again and analyze what went wrong and I think the most important thing is for me, watching the fight again, is finding the things that I did right and moving on with that, you know. In this game, it’s a matter of inches. You get two big guys swinging little mounds of leather around. Somebody’s going to get hurt.”

When asked what he needed to work on the most (taking a punch would be the correct answer), Brock said it was just a matter of experience.

“I think I just need to get more comfortable, you know. I’ve had six or seven fights as an Ultimate fighter. These other guys that I’ve faced have had a period of time, 12, you know, between 8 and 12 fights to work their way up the ladder. I’ve been thrown to the wolves. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I came in and faced former champions and worked my way up the ladder facing very tough opponents.”

He also addressed the rumors about returning to WWE. He had been reportedly offered a big deal by Vince McMahon to be a guest referee at Wrestlemania, but the idea was shot down. He has no plans to retire from MMA at the moment.

“I haven’t (retired) yet. You know, when I can wake up and look at myself in the mirror and say, you know, if I’m feeling it in here still, you know, this is my home. In the Octagon is where I feel like this is what’s meant to be. There’s going to be all kinds of people out there saying what they want to say about me, but at the end of the day I’m happy doing what I’m doing and that’s being an Ultimate Fighter.”

Money is the one factor that would motivate him to do some return spots in WWE.

“The all-mighty (about to say dollar)… I should never say never but I mean, you know, it’s one of those things. When my stint in the UFC is over there’s a possibility, but folks, it ain’t happening very soon, that’s for sure.”

Brock was asked about Dana White claiming that he’s now underrated in the eyes of fans and media writers who rushed to bury him after the loss to Velasquez.

“I can appreciate that, given the stature of where I’ve came from in such a short amount of time. I’m continuing to learn every single day and that’s all right with me. I’m comfortable with that quote but it just says that I’m here to get better but I’m at the top, I’m sitting here talking to you, ain’t I?”

He was asked a couple of questions not related to his upcoming fight. One of the questions dealt with his thoughts on the future of Jon Jones in the UFC.

“It’s a bright future. This guy, talk about being comfortable (in the cage), this guy gets in the Octagon and he’s comfortable. He makes veterans look like they just started yesterday. So, I mean, this guy’s got a bright future. I wish him the best and, good job, good job the other night, you did a fantastic job.”

To close out one of his ESPN interviews, he was asked about getting called out by heavyweights in Strikeforce and whether or not he would fight any of them now that Zuffa has bought Scott Coker & SVSE out. Brock stayed the course and did what a good promo speaker does, which is deflect any questions that are a distraction to the message that you want the public to focus on.

“At this moment in time, I’ve got Junior dos Santos in front of me and then I’m looking at the title shot against Cain, but Junior dos Santos, look out, here I come. And, you know, after that, it’s a match made in heaven for me.”

After I watched/listened to Brock’s ESPN appearances, I was reminded about how stark the difference is between daily followers of MMA and those who are just casual fans. Lesnar appeared on Sportsnation for a segment about ‘baddest dudes’ and he was pitted against Junior dos Santos in an online poll. Brock won the match-up with 83% of the vote. It just reminded me of an old saying that you hear in politics amongst pollsters, which is that people who are ‘likely voters’ (read: activists/hardcores) are prone to give different answers/trends than those who are casual fans (‘low-information voters’) who judge more with emotion or name-recognition or factors such as “he’s really big” or “I like his hair.” Amongst hardcore MMA fans, Lesnar is an underdog to JDS. To the casual UFC fans, he’s a major favorite. It presents a very interesting dynamic heading into the June 11th fight, as UFC needs to make sure that JDS comes across as a big star on The Ultimate Fighter. We already know how big of a star Brock currently is.

The Ultimate Fighter starts tonight on Spike. And, yes, I did notice that Brock calls himself an ‘Ultimate fighter’ rather than an MMA fighter.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “The invisible Cain Velasquez, and Brock Lesnar’s ‘car wash’ tour of ESPN”

  1. edub says:

    Wrestlemania this weekend! Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!

    It’s going to very interesting to see how many PPV buys it gets with the comebacks of The Rock and Stone Cold. I know I would have no clue about it if the Rock wasn’t there.

  2. EJ says:

    The thing that i’m reminded of with Brock’s ESPN tour is just how angry Vince must be that Dana took the guy who should be on top of his company and used him to make the UFC even bigger.

    It becomes even clearer when you see what is one of the worst Wrestlemania cards ever this year. Lacking in not only big name talent but matches that people will pay 55 bucks for.

    On the other hand you have Brock making every card he’s on just as big as WM and all the while the UFC’s buys go up while the WWE’s go down. No wonder Vince was so desperate to get Brock on this years card even he sees the writting on the wall when it comes to his product and what it’s lacking.

    • edub says:

      I understand the sentiment, because Brock probably should be one of their biggest draws now. But do you really think a wrestlemania card marked with the two biggest draws of the past 15 years making comebacks is a bad one. I personally would have no clue whats going on in wrestling right now if The Rock wasn’t there, and I’m sure there are plenty of people like myself.

      I would go as far to say that this Wrestlemania is going to be their best selling PPV in the last couple years, but they are going up against March Madness so it could be hit or miss.

      • EJ says:

        I would be shocked if this Wrestlemania wasn’t a flop, everyone I’ve talked to even people who are fans of the current product are underwhelmed by Mania.

        Even The Rock’s return I don’t think will be able to do anything to save the problem with that card. Which is that there are no marquee match ups this seems like a regular ppv instead of the biggest show of the year.

        Vince really should have tried his hardest to have Rock actually wrestle, I mean I seriously can’t remember the last time a WM card was this weak top to bottom.

        • edub says:

          You make some good points. I have no idea about top to bottom, because I’m as casual as you get for this stuff. I heard the rock was back, and I came running.

    • The Gaijin says:

      [Makes the obligatory “stop talking about professional wrestling this is an MMA blog!!!!!!” post to EJ/edub] 🙂

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