Though Brock Lesnar was dominant in his victory over Frank Mir from a fighting perspective, much of the post-UFC 100 focus was not on his performance. Rather, the UFC Heavyweight Champion caught heat for his comments in the post-fight interview.
After cutting a “heel” promo that included flipping off the crowd and encouraging them to keep booing, Lesnar won some support with two noteworthy comments–he said that he would be drinking a Coors Light later because chief UFC advertiser Bud Light opted not to sponsor him directly and later said that he would likely get “on top” of his wife that night.
UFC President Dana White confirmed that immediately following the fight, he pulled Lesnar from his dressing room into the bathroom and confronted him about the comments. Having been “blown away” by Lesnar’s promo, White felt, “It’s not who we are, and, to be honest, it’s not who he is.” Despite using language in the encounter that he would not repeat for the press conference crowd, White said he garnered a quick apology from Lesnar, who admitted to being embarrassed by his remarks.
Lesnar brought his apologetic tone to the press conference after the show, though he did maintain his humor and ability to make light of the remarks, which pro wrestling analysts immediately identified as Lesnar drawing on his promo instinct to boost his profile with fight fans. Many reporters at the press conference were not, however, supportive of Lesnar’s remarks and argued that the comments disgraced the sport on its biggest night in history. White received multiple questions regarding Lesnar’s comments (and, to a lesser degree, Dan Henderson’s crack that he delivered an extra shot to his knocked-out opponent Michael Bisping to “shut him up”) and consistently found himself defending the UFC Champion, explaining that while Lesnar did make a mistake, he is not a crazy, outrageous person at heart and will not be tough to control in the future.
While it appeared that the main internal concern was Lesnar’s shot at primary sponsor Bud Light (which White directly addressed at the press conference), much of the media appeared discontent with the entire promo, notably the implication that Lesnar would have sex with wife Rena following the show. Mainstream and niche media outlets have already run stories addressing the comments, and while some do make the pro wrestling connection, none appear to accept that the pro wrestling mentality for building fights is viable in the MMA world.