Brock Lesnar is the Mike Tyson of MMA

(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar put on another resounding performance in avenging his UFC debut loss to Frank Mir.

While it seems like everyone likens his behaviour to World Wrestling Entertainment theatrics, it would appear to more closely mimic an iconic former boxer.

Lesnar’s display was dominant and reminiscent of a young Mike Tyson when Tyson ruled boxing’s heavyweight division with comparable fury. And the similarities between the two don’t end there.

When Tyson was coming up in the mid-80s, he quickly became a star everyone wanted to see. His rise was meteoric and he became the sport’s youngest heavyweight champion ever. While Lesnar is 32-years-old, he is young in mixed martial arts years, having started only two years ago and notching just five fights under his belt.

But the 6’3”, 265-pounder has become the man to see in the UFC. He is responsible for some of the organization’s biggest recent pay-per-view numbers. He just headlined their most important event. And love him or hate him, he is the talk right now.

His post-fight antics after pounding interim heavyweight champion Mir in the second round were the kind of polarizing actions that create media buzz and interest. He is clearly a loose cannon. Getting up in the mangled face of his opponent had the potential to be a disaster were it not for the security that stepped in between.

He then flipped off the disapproving crowd and dissed a sponsor in an emotional rage that cemented his uncanny infamy. At times, he seems to lack the filter from the brain to the mouth and body that stops one from causing a scene and being offensive. Very Tyson-esque from the boxer’s heyday.

But despite Tyson’s supposed savagery, he is an intelligent being and understood the value of playing the villain. Everyone wants to see you get beat. And they will certainly pay. In this aspect, Lesnar has learned very quickly going back to his days when he ruled in the WWE.

The insincere non-apology at the press conference was a public relations move forced by the boss that every character goes through when they do offensive things. It does not mean the beast has been tamed.

Remember Tyson’s apology after biting Evander Holyfield’s ear? His very next fight he almost intentionally broke Francois Botha’s arm in a clinch.

Leading up to the fight there was a lot of chatter and disrespect coming from Lesnar who called Mir’s interim crown make-believe. The talk was very reminiscent of Tyson in how he viewed himself compared to the pretenders to his throne.

In another Tyson-like move, he used the pre-fight instruction time as a chance to further intimidate Mir when he stared him down and refused to touch gloves. He was all business and his business was to make enemies.

Like Tyson some 10-15 years prior, Lesnar is bringing back legitimacy to his sport’s heavyweight division. Before Tyson, boxing’s marquee weight class was a group of dregs nobody cared about.

UFC’s heavyweight division was also an afterthought before Lesnar since their top guy, Randy Couture, wasn’t even fighting due to unhappiness with his contract situation.

A list of the UFC’s past champions beyond Couture does not contain any real standouts. Whether the current champ changes that is yet to be seen but the one thing we do know is he has made the division relevant again.

Everyone is wondering who can challenge Lesnar. There are plenty of guys with more MMA experience but Lesnar is so big and strong and athletic and ferocious that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who is a clear-cut favourite over him.

That brings us to Fedor Emelianenko. He is considered the top heavyweight in the world but he fights for Affliction. UFC boss Dana White has insisted recently that Emelianenko will be in the top league and that a fight with Lesnar is inevitable.

That clash could create the attention and revenue like Tyson’s fight with Michael Spinks in 1988. When it was over, you couldn’t find many places in the world where they hadn’t heard of Tyson and didn’t know of his path of destruction.

While most experts would pick Emelianenko to win the super-fight, would anyone really be surprised if Lesnar won? Probably not since despite his relative inexperience, he is getting so much better, and so much more comfortable, with every outing.

Brock Lesnar is a name that is starting to transcend the field in which he competes because he has that “it” factor. So when you look at the indomitable Lesnar, think Mike Tyson and realize we’ve seen this movie before. We have a new baddest man on the planet.

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