("UFC Countdown." VidProps: Megavideo.com)
At long last, here is the Brock Lesnar we all know and love/loathe. After weeks of playing it almost unimaginably cool about the fact he’s about to defend his UFC heavyweight title against a 240-pound Mexican(-American), Lesnar finally let the thin veil of cultural sensitivity fall away during last night’s “UFC Countdown” show. It takes approximately one minute, 13 seconds into the above vid for Lesnar to publicly debut the semi-racist jokes about Cain Velasquez that he’s no doubt been trying out for weeks behind closed doors at the DeathClutch Gym. The results are actually kind of comforting. At least now we have confirmation that this dude with the beard really is Brock Lesnar, and not just some politically correct imposter.
"Listen,” quips Lesnar here. “When I get done whooping your ass, I’m gonna go drink a Corona and eat a burrito just for your Hispanic heritage. How about that?"
Besides adopting the whitest possible articulation of Velasquez’s name – forever putting the emphasis on mispronouncing the “squez” part – the idea that Lesnar somehow kept himself from saying anything even vaguely bigoted had been the most surprising part of the UFC 121 prefight hype to this point. Especially considering how much the UFC itself has played up Velasquez’s Mexican roots, despite the fact he was born and reared in California. Now we finally know what Lesnar’s really been thinking all along.
Aside from making that joke – which really just reinforces our suspicion that Lesnar’s opinion of you can always be boiled down to where you’re from and what kind of beer you drink – The Dark Lord has surprisingly little else to say about Velasquez during “Countdown.” Though the show features all of the prerequisite workout footage and slow-motion scenes of sweat dripping from his nose, Lesnar spends most of his time here talking about the character-building experience of almost dying from a rare intestinal disorder and then returning to get beat down by Shane Carwin for the first round of their fight at UFC 116.
“I got my ass kicked by diverticulitis and I got back up to my feet and I got my ass kicked by Shane Carwin for the first four minutes of the fight and I got back up to my feet,” Lesnar says. “That’s life. You get back on the horse and ride.”
Speaking of cultural insensitivity, you can tell that “Countdown” is about to switch its focus away from Lesnar and onto Cain Velasquez at about the 5:30 mark when the soundtrack abruptly changes from a spooky synth fugue to spunky hip hop music. Nice touch there, guys. During its portion of the broadcast, Velasquez’s camp tips its hand a bit here about strategy for the upcoming bout, essentially saying Cain will try to keep it on the feet and test Brock’s chin. Seems straightforward enough.
“We can win this fight everywhere,” Dave Camarillo says. “We can lose it on the bottom.”
The American Kickboxing Academy remains steadfast in its claim that Lesnar’s never fought anyone like Velasquez before – in fact both teams make that contention about their opponents – and that the champion’s size and strength advantage ain’t no thang, either. As evidence, they offer some footage of Velasquez wrestling a few much larger opponents during his collegiate grappling career. At that, as you might imagine, Lesnar just scoffs.
“This is a whole (different) beast here, Cain …,” Lesnar says. “You’re not better than me. No matter who is whispering sweet nothings into your ear. Alright, Mr. Velasquez? You are not better than Brock Lesnar and you will find out come fight night.”
Welcome back, Brock. We’ve all been waiting for you.
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