ESPN's E:60 to Spotlight UFC Heavyweight Brock Lesnar

by Luke Thomas on Oct 17, 2008 8:35 PM EDT in MMA News

This should be good publicity:

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – UFC 91 Heavyweight Contender Brock Lesnar will be in the national spotlight next Tuesday night when ESPN's only primetime newsmagazine show, E:60, airs an in-depth story on this former WWE wrestling star turned Ultimate Fighter^®. The ESPN E:60 will premiere Tuesday, Oct. 21^st at 7:00pm ET on ESPN.

E:60 reporter Tom Farrey talks in-depth to Lesnar about his childhood in South Dakota, his path to success as a professional fighter, his disappointment in not making it in the NFL and subsequent reluctance to be in the public eye and his return to the Octagon™ as he prepares for his November 15th UFC 91 championship fight vs. reigning title-holder Randy Couture.

E:60 will cover Lesnar’s athletic career from high school all the way to his current preparation for the battle with Couture.

ESPN has already given this fight significant coverage. This is the sort of Rampage-Liddell II build-up that will garner significant amounts of mainstream coverage. Say what you will about the meritocracy of the matchmaking, but the star power and athletic pedigree is enough to keep ESPN interested. That's a huge improvement over Kimbo Slice and in terms of coverage, as equally potent.

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I know Lesnar doesn't deserve this shot

But really, the only HW with a truly legit claim to a title shot (taking Nog/Mir out of the equation, since they’re already fighting for a belt) was Werdum. Dana, I think correctly, figured no one would shed any tears for him. And they were right.

THIS is how marketing your product is supposed to look like – not flinging it onto a network, attempting to fix fights and hoping for the best. And worthy of the shot or not, Lesnar has all the tools for a long, successful run in the sport.

by Derek Suboticki on Oct 17, 2008 4:16 PM EDT reply actions

There's plenty of merit to the match making...

You should have been able to see that after what he did to Mir and especially Herring.
It really isn’t that much different than Silva getting a title shot after only one fight in the UFC. He showed that he was a total badass in his dismantling of Leban and the match makers said, ‘hey, this guy could beat franklin and everyone else in the division — is there any reason to protect Franklin?’ A more important question is, ‘why hasn’t machida got a shot yet?’ Answer: there are a lot of stars in front of Machida worth protecting.

I told you I can't build your candy house! It will fall apart, the sun will melt the candy, it won't work!

by mma_dude on Oct 17, 2008 5:14 PM EDT reply actions

Silva is not really a good example. He already had a lot of experience. Something Lesnar has very little of. What is striking in your examples is the divisions have similar traits. They are thin on contenders at MW and HW. Something they are not thin on at LHW.

by szucconi on Oct 17, 2008 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions

i don't understand...

“They are thin on contenders” — is that your explanation for why Silva & Lesnar got early title shots OR your explanation for why Machida doesn’t get one.

’cause Forrest was 5-2 (in the UFC) when he got his title shot and Machida is 5-0 and still waiting. the same “contenders” were there when forrest got his shot. You could also say that Machida had beaten bigger names than forrest to the point when forrest got his shot (i.e. Machida has already beaten Franklin, Bonnar, BJ, tito)

Lesnar gets a shot before Werdum because the HW divsision is thin on contenders?

I don’t get it?

I told you I can't build your candy house! It will fall apart, the sun will melt the candy, it won't work!

by mma_dude on Oct 17, 2008 5:48 PM EDT reply actions

^ that was meant for szucconi

I told you I can't build your candy house! It will fall apart, the sun will melt the candy, it won't work!

by mma_dude on Oct 17, 2008 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, its a little of both. at HW they are crowning a title holder via a mini tonrney and throwing Lesnar is in there. they only person not that deserves to be is Werdum and I can’t totally explain that, but if you are match making and it comes down to Werdum or Lesnar to throw in v. Randy then you go for the bigger number they you will get with Lesnar. I still think Werdum is getting shafted.

Machida and Forrest are, I think, in a similar boat. Forrest beat the number 1 (by some accounts, not mine) in the world at the time and he’s is loved buy the TUF public at large. I don’t think they wanted to give him a title shot, but it was bonus that he won and they could make that match. Machida is taking the long road to a title shot and has only beat one of those people in the UFC and the Tito match was after the Forrest and Rampage match was made. A case could be made for a title shot for Machida, but why pick him if you can make much more interesting matches?

by szucconi on Oct 17, 2008 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions

You are more intoxicated than me!

I love it! However, am I this incoherent? I think I get you, and it sounds like you agree with me. Matches are made based on what is “interesting”. However, your definition of “interesting” is exactly what Dana White’s definition is. And Dana’s definition is based entirely on PPV buys. I ask you this: What is more interesting than the true #1 contender fighting the champion? Machida should have been the one to fight rampage — I just hope he gets to fight the winner of Forrest/Evans. Actually, if Evans beats Forrest, and I’m not sure that he will, the UFC is in a better position to beat machida. By the way, the UFC desperately wants to beat Machida.

I told you I can't build your candy house! It will fall apart, the sun will melt the candy, it won't work!

by mma_dude on Oct 17, 2008 11:52 PM EDT up reply actions