Is Brock Lesnar versus Randy Couture good for the sport?

Mark-Great for the sport. Great in that it will be a huge fight and one of the biggest in the sport’s history in terms of PPV buys. Lesnar is a tremendous draw and unlike Kimbo Slice, Brock has actually defeated another practitioner of mixed martial arts. He’s like a Kimbo Slice that can back up the hype because I don’t think this will be an easy fight for Couture, especially with the weight difference. We will either get to see Lesnar take down one of the top heavyweights in the world right now or we will get to see another masterful display by Couture. Either way, the hype may be bigger than the fight but it will still be one of the biggest fights the company has ever put together and anything that raises awareness for the sport and isn’t a complete sideshow is a good thing.

Kelly- Sure it’s good for the sport, but will hardcore fans like me whine because we don’t think Lesnar deserves to be in the octagon with Couture? Yep. I’m amazed Couture is even back in the game after taking a nearly holy oath to never wear gloves with UFC emblazoned on them again. The fact of the matter is, the UFCs lawyers wore Couture down. He knew he faced a lengthy court battle with only a 50% chance of winning and smartly decided not to waste away his last few fights sitting in a chair when he could be sitting on a mountainous payday. Couture’s and Lesnar’s fans will turn out in record numbers to see this fight, which means the potential for tens of thousands of new MMA fans. Is it a proper heavyweight title fight? Nope. Is it good for MMA? You betcha.

Should the UFC adopt the LPGA rule and force its athletes to learn Engrish?

Mark-I would appreciate this rule as doing interviews through translators and people with thick accents is one of the toughest parts of the job. That being said, I think forcing them to learn English isn’t the route to go. It should be strongly encouraged, just because there’s tons of money to be made for them if they do. I think that’s one of the things that holds MMA back in terms of the national coverage but with the UFC’s global initiative, forcing the guys to learn English may not be as important. Also, with morale down among some fighters as it is, it would probably go over just swell with a lot of foreign guys.

Kelly-I agree that interviewing Anderson Silva or Fedor Emelianenko is tough because of the language barrier. Not hat I’ve ever interviewed either, but I know people who say it sucks and a lot gets lost in translation because of it. MMA has a unique mix of foreign athletes and short-attention span fans (how many of you made it to this last question?). That’s a combination that means as soon as a Brazilian or Japanese fighter opens his mouth in his native tongue, the 18-34 male demographic tunes him out. I don’t think it should be mandatory for them to learn it, but they need to know how many potential fans they’re losing by not learning the language. Most sports fans make snap judgments about an athlete based on a quick interview. In that thirty seconds they decide whether they love him or hate him and by not being able to get your view across, non-english speaking fighters fail to bring more fans into their following. They’re doing themselves a disservice by not learning it.