After his impressive showing Saturday night at UFC 87, Brock Lesnar has answered some questions at, of all places, the New York Times Freakonomics blog. Asked about the prevalence of steroids, Lesnar said:
"I really don't know. I mean, the shows are tested and the results are made public. A vast majority of the time the guys are clean, but occasionally they're not. I can tell you that the testing is real and, at least in the U.F.C., the fighters can be tested at any time."
My take: I would assume that in Lesnar's former career -- pro wrestling -- steroids are much more prevalent than they are in the UFC, although it would be naive to think that of the 180 or so UFC fighters, not a single one is using performance-enhancing drugs.
On whether he should have had to pay his dues in the lower levels of MMA before getting heavy promotion in UFC, Lesnar says:
"A lot of people lose sight of the bottom line: this is a business. It's about making dollars by selling tickets, Pay-Per-Views, and merchandise. It's up to the promoter to decide what is televised. I just train hard, then get in the octagon and fight.In regard to the "You haven't paid your dues" stuff: sure, I came into this sport with a name, but I didn't just build my name and my reputation in pro wrestling. I also came in with twenty years of amateur wrestling experience."
My take: Lesnar is right about that, and I've come around a little bit on my own opinion of Lesnar with respect to the part he plays within the UFC. I don't really have a problem with him getting heavily promoted, and I think he proved by destroying Heath Herring that he's worthy of respect in his new sport.
Asked if he has ever read Freakonomics, Lesnar said:
No. I don't have the Internet, so I've never read the blog.
My take: I'm not sure if Lesnar realizes that Freaknomics is a book, but whatever. We don't watch him in the Octagon because we care about his reading habits.
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