Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [61]
How does it feel?
I’ve been waiting for seventeen months to punch this overhyped asshole Frank Mir in the face, use my wrestling skills to control his body, manhandle him like a bitch. I’ve been waiting seventeen months to prove to myself, the public, God, and everyone else who cares or doesn’t care, that this guy doesn’t measure up to Brock Lesnar. I’ve been waiting seventeen months to pull that golden horseshoe out of Frank’s ass and beat him over the head with it.
That’s when it all came out. All of the emotion. All of the pent-up anger.
First, I flipped off the audience with both hands, because they were still booing me. I didn’t even think about it. I just did it. A little WWE left in me? A little bit of the heel wrestler? Maybe. Then Mir stumbled over to me. I was so amped up from the win, I failed to see that Frank was actually coming over to shake my hand. All I could think of was that I got the last punch in, and now I’m going to get in the last word. So I went nose-to-nose with him, got right back up in his busted face.
That’s when I went on my tirade.
I don’t know why, but I happened to look down and see the Bud Light logo on the Octagon floor, and it set me off. Bud Light was a UFC sponsor, and they had a lot of their people at the fight. But they weren’t a Brock Lesnar sponsor, so I said I was going to celebrate by drinking “Coors Light, because Bud Light won’t pay me anything.” I also threw in “I might even get on top of my wife tonight.”
Hey, Joe Rogan asked me how it feels.
Well, Joe, that’s how it feels.
Dana wasn’t happy. UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta wasn’t happy. My lawyers, who had been chased down the hall by Dana and Lorenzo and given a tongue-lashing, weren’t happy. My own sponsors, sitting a few feet away, weren’t happy. Hey, if it matters to you, I was pretty happy. Well, at least I was happy for a little while.
What was I supposed to say? “Congratulations to Frank Mir for a great fight”?
Are you kidding me? And besides, there is more to the story. I don’t know how much trouble I’m going to cause by revealing any of this, but it’s the truth, and that’s why I’m telling this story in my book. If anyone has a different version, write your own damn book and tell the world how you see it!
About a month before UFC 100, Dana and Lorenzo flew to Minnesota to negotiate a new contract with me. My lawyers and I took them on a quick tour of the DeathClutch gym, then we went to a local resort to sit down and talk.
In addition to the contract, we discussed bigger sponsorship possibilities. I thought the UFC people were going to set something up for me before UFC 100, but we never heard anything about it again.
I don’t know if I was supposed to be pissed about that, or if it’s just one of those things. I’m not the easiest guy in the world to get along with. I’m also not someone who likes to be played, so the Bud Light thing was somewhere in the back of my mind during the fight with Frank Mir, and when I saw that logo on the Octagon floor, the trigger was tripped. Hey, I was on top of the world, looking down. And when I looked down, I saw that big Bud Light logo, and all that went through my mind was how much money UFC was making on that sponsorship, and how much I wasn’t.
Everyone got a taste of Brock Lesnar that night. Unfiltered. I said what was on my mind. No script. No bullshit. Some liked what they heard, others didn’t. I don’t care.
Before the press conference that night, Dana took me into a bathroom and let me know what was on his mind. I said later that night that it was a “whip-the-dog session,” and believe me, it was. Dana was trying to run a business where we could all make a lot of money together. He explained that pissing off major sponsors was not the way to do it. And just so I’m honest as hell here in my own book about it, let me say that he didn’t phrase his explanation