Was Brock out of line last night? Other than the shot at Bud Light, I’d say not really. He had just finished a 17 month quest of avenging his only loss. The build up was ridiculous as Mir kept talking all sorts of ****. When Brock dominated the fight (I think we can both agree on that) and won it, the entire arena booed him. He won it clean, with technique, totally neutralizing Mir for the very large majority of the fight. But that wasn’t good enough. Would that not piss you off too? Yes, he went back to WWE mode during the interview, but what’s wrong with him saying he’s going to sleep with his wife? I mean, if I had a Playboy wife, I’d be wanting to do the same thing. He did disrespect the fans, but the fans have disrespected him since he signed the contract to get into MMA in the first place. I watched the fight with about 10 of my friends and we all thought his post-fight antics were classic (although we agreed from a business stand point, the Bud Light shot wouldn’t stand). There have always been the “bad guys” in MMA and one thing Dana has learned is these guys sell PPV’s which is really the goal here, isn’t it? So long as Lesnar keeps winning and his personality makes everyone want to see him lose, his fights are going to continue to draw ratings and as a result expose other fighters to the mainstream fan who doesn’t check all these sites and couldn’t tell you a kimora from a triangle choke at this point.

He’s helping the sport quite a bit, even though a lot of the fans refuse to admit he’s a legit MMA fighter because of a WWE past. But so be it, Shamrock did ok with it and Lesnar’s doing even better.

anderson on the other hand can do well at 205, but shogun could beat him, forrest has a dammn good chance at beating anderson, i think forrest is a 2-1 underdog at the moment which isnt bad, rampage has the chin to withstand any shot anderson throws at him and has the takedown ability and GnP to beat anderson, and machida-anderson is 90% not likely to happen. rashad has that one punch ko power that gives him a chance against anybody outside of rampage, but machida embarrased rashad, and anderson is more elusive imo then machida.

also jchol hit the nail on the head about gsp, i dont think he feels challenged at all, and might become complacent to just chill. he is in his prime which is very scary, and wants a challenge. the challenge should be a move to the mw division to take on the best mw’s in the ufc imo.

As for GSP, he’s sort of a man without a challenger IMO. I think Mike Swick is a good fighter, and even though I’m in the minority in that I think he can beat Martin Kampmann, going forward he honestly has no shot against a full-force Rush. Ditto with Kampmann. Good fighter, probably more well-rounded than Swick, but the only chance he has of beating GSP is if the champ comes in at anything less than 100%
I do worry a little when a champion starts saying things like, “I don’t fight for the belt, I fight for [fill in the blank]“.
If that’s GSP’s way of hinting that he wants a crack at some MWs, then thats fine. If he’s losing focus or passion for MMA however then thats a problem for us all. Sometimes we as fans forget [I know I have from time to time] that these guys have a life outside the cage. It’s always possible that a guy like GSP feels he has nothing left to prove, no one of merit left to defeat, and is getting a bit nonplussed with the whole thing.
Also, you never know whats going on behind the scenes with the UFC front office. Maybe the relationship is growing acrimonious, but I’m betting against it. I think GSP just wants “in” on the super-fight action, but you never know.
Personally I think that GSP, like BJ Penn and Anderson Silva, secretly harbors the desire to be like Hendo was in PRIDE, and carry 2 belts simultaneously, regardless of any public statements to the contrary. I don’t fault them for that, its natural when you’re at their level to keep reaching for the stars. I task the promotion and Dana White with keeping it all straight, and making sure the contenders in both affected weight classes still get their fair opportunities that they’ve earned inside the cage. What was done to Kenny Florian was a disgrace, as is whats being done to Demian Maia.

As far as cross-class fights go, BJ Penn crashed and burned, and I’m not really liking Anderson Silva’s chances against Forrest Griffin. Even if the Spider does get past Forrest, who has proven to be an up and down fighter, his outlook is pretty bleak. At LHW he’s going to be facing stronger opponents who hit much harder than he’s used to, and BJ Penn proved against GSP that size, and its advantages, most definitely matters. For example, Quinton Jackson would “rampage” thru Anderson Silva in something like 2 rounds.
I have a lot of respect for GSP, and don’t want to see his “excellent adventure” end the way Penn’s did, and the way I think Silva’s is going to.

If anyone is going to pull off “the Hendo” in the UFC, I’d like it to be GSP, who I consider the archetypical MMA fighter.

As for Hendo, he finds himself in a decent position. The UFC hyped, some would say over-hyped,[myself being one of them] Michael Bisping’s relative fighting skill level. Bisping is what I think of when I hear that a Euro-style kickboxer is transitioning to MMA. Decent fundamentals and cardio, above average striking, and a below average submissions game, and next to zero wrestling. Against Hendo, Bisping found himself in a bout against the exact wrong sort of opponent for his particular skill-set, and it showed.
They like to say in the UFC that “styles make fights”, which I agree with, and would add that in some cases styles break fighters. I think Bisping-Hendo was a clear example of that.
And for those that might think I’m “hating” on Bisping, or not being objective in my breakdown of their fight because I’m a Hendo fan, let me add that Matt Hamill could have exposed Bisping as a one-dimensional fighter a year ago if he’d been better coached and had a better gameplan. As it stands many felt Hamill won the fight as is, and it sent a clear signal to Bisping to clear out of the LHW division before he got grounded and pounded out by someone with more experience than Hamill.
Regardless, I think Bisping would make a great first opponent for a transitioning GSP. Not a housewrecker, as my grandfather used to say, but definitely skilled enough to challange GSP at 185.

Hendo, IMO, deserves a shot at Spider Silva. I know that people will come down on both sides of this thing, but as much as Demian Maia deserves and has earned the next title shot, I just don’t think he’s going to get it.
Why you might say?
Ask Thales Leites, he knows why. ‘Nuff said.
That being understood, I think Hendo should get another shot at Anderson Silva. Personally I don’t think the Hendo we saw at UFC 82 was anywhere close to 100%. I’m not sure what the deal was, but Hendo looked listless and unfocused. Maybe he had personal or physical issues, but as good as Anderson Silva is he isn’t good enough to “voodoo” someone into a bad performance from the start. It almost looked like Hendo showed up, cleared a round, and decided he’d had enough and tapped, so to speak.
I’ve seen a lot of Hendo fights, and consider myself a supporter of his,as I am a lot of Team Quest fighters. I never saw him look so flat in my life as he did against Silva.
Losing to Rampage in the way Hendo did was commendable and understandable. Losing to the Spider in the manner he did is almost inexcusable and confusing as H&ll to his fans and I’m guessing to some extent Dana White and Joe Silva.

And bigchris2328, I completely agree with you that Hendo-GSP would be a huge draw, but I honestly think Hendo would be a bit too much for GSP in his first MW bout. I wouldn’t want to see GSP in with a 185 placeholder either, so I think Bisping is just about the right place for him to start.

It looks like they’re going to have GSP defend against the Swick-Kampmann winner first, and maybe Anderson defend against Maiquarendo then go from there. I just finished watching a interview Hendo posted on his website and on there he said that if they don’t give him a fight with Anderson next he will ask for a top 5 205 guy.

And for the record, my disdain for Brock Lesnar began during the hype for Mir-Lesnar 1, when he went on and on about “smashing up” an “old champion”, and then whined about getting caught in a kneebar in 90 seconds instead of being humble after the fact. That alone should have knocked some sense and respect into him for this great sport and its competitors, but then I had my opinions confirmed when he disrespected Heath Herring, a fighter I don’t think is very good but doesn’t deserve to be disrespected by a guy in his second pro third pro MMA fight.
Lesnar himself on multiple occasions has said he has no respect for any opponent, including Randy Couture.
Last night was just icing on the cake.
How can any self-respecting MMA fan support Brock Lesnar??

Regarding Lesnar’s in-cage performance, I would describe it as “effective” as opposed to “skilled”. Sad thing is, Lesnar is an accomplished college wrestler, and you couldn’t identify him as such by his performances.
He uses his superior strength and weight to great advantage.
If you want to consider that a martial art skill, I won’t quibble about the matter.
Lesnar is the new master of “gorilla-jitsu” or whatever you’d care to call it