Brock Lesnar: 5 Reasons He's Still the Biggest Draw in All of MMA

The UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter show has struggled since Season 10: The Heavyweights, which featured Kimbo Slice. But in Season 13, UFC President Dana White and Co. turned to the promotion’s biggest star to help revitalize the program. Unfortunately, through the first three weeks of the show, it has not worked out so well.

With the surprisingly lackluster ratings that TUF 13 has pulled so far, there has been discussion among MMA circles that perhaps Brock Lesnar isn’t the draw that we once believed him to be.

But I’m here to tell you that not only is he still a big draw—he’s still the biggest draw in the entire sport.

5. The Freak Show Factor

No matter if it’s boxing, professional wrestling or mixed martial arts, fans have always been drawn to the top contenders in the heavyweight division.

Whether we want to admit it or not, it’s just a lot more fun to see giants who look inhuman beating the crap out of each other for our entertainment...and Brock Lesnar is among the biggest freaks ever in the sport.

Not only is he 6’4” and 265 pounds, but Brock also looks like a cross between a professional bodybuilder and 10th-century Viking.

So it should come as no surprise that fans love to watch everything he does.

4. Unique Crossover of Pro Wrestling Fans

Let’s get the collective eye-roll from the MMA community out of the way. Yes, pro wrestling is fake. No, it’s not the same thing as MMA.

But the fans can definitely cross over, and they do for Brock Lesnar.

As the former youngest World Champion in WWE history, Brock Lesnar made himself a household name well before he ever even considered stepping into a cage for the UFC.

Though he was never the WWE’s biggest draw, Brock has done more than his fair share of pulling over the WWE’s very large and dedicated audience into his new sport. To this day, there remains an audience of fans who mostly, or only, tune in to watch Brock Lesnar in the Octagon.

3. Ability to Sell Fights Through Words

With fighters like Frank Shamrock, Frank Mir and Tito Ortiz paving the way for trash-talking in mixed martial arts, the sport has never been more exciting. Now there is a new breed of fighters like Chael Sonnen, Michael Bisping and even Brock Lesnar who are carrying the torch today.

A South Dakota native and former college wrestling champion, a decade ago it would have been difficult to imagine Lesnar as one of the best trash-talkers in the sport. But his talking skills have developed almost as well as his physical skills.

His second fight with Frank Mir showed that Lesnar can sell fights even against an opponent who had previously beat him. He may have a chance to do it again against Cain Velasquez if he can defeat Junior dos Santos to earn himself a rematch with the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

2. Pay-Per-View Buys

Though the ratings of The Ultimate Fighter have been mediocre, that show is not what the UFC is most concerned about. There’s only so much money to be made on cable television, and although they would prefer the show to be putting up great numbers, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of concern that it isn’t.

The bottom line for the UFC is and will continue to be their pay-per-view buys, which Brock Lesnar has been the biggest producer of since the minute he stepped in the Octagon.

In the company’s history, the UFC has put on seven events that have received at least one million pay-per-view buys. Brock Lesnar has headlined four of those events.

No other fighter in the history of the sport has produced anywhere near the pay-per-view buys that Lesnar has.

He did lose his last fight against Cain Velasquez, which could hurt his future pay-per-views in some way, but he has proven before that he can continue to draw extremely well, even after a loss.

1. No One New Has Stepped Up

Perhaps the biggest reason for Brock Lesnar continuing to be the sport’s biggest draw is the most simple one—no one else has stepped up to take his place.

Sure, Cain Velasquez took his place as the Heavyweight Champion, but the media still hasn’t picked up on the heavy-handed fighter from the American Kickboxing Academy. Hardcore MMA fans will certainly tune in to watch the new champion, but your average fan—the casual fan—may not even know who he is, other than that he’s “the guy who beat Brock.”

Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre have long been the champions of their respective divisions, but neither has proven to be the draw that Lesnar is. In fact, unless they eventually fight one another in a pound-for-pound superfight, there is no reason to believe the upcoming shows that either man will be on will outdraw what Lesnar has done in the past.

Realistically, the only man who has a real chance of pulling ahead of Brock Lesnar as the sport’s biggest draw may be the freshly crowned UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Jon “Bones” Jones. At only 23 years old and already a champion, Jones’ personality has caught the attention of fans and the media.

We may see Jones overtake Lesnar in the future, but as long as Brock stays in title contention, it’s going to be a difficult road for the youngster.

For now and the foreseeable future, Brock is the man who brings in the most cash for the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts as a whole.

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