I'm a Member of Team Lesnar

No, I didn't get invited to Minnesota to train or become a part of the UFC Heavyweight champ's entourage or anything like that.

Just like I am a member of Team Mike Brown, I'm a member of Team Lesnar, fighting against all the doubters, haters and trash-talkers out there who want to make excuses and complain about the former WWE champion being the best of the UFC heavyweight division.

The first criticism people often fire out there when it comes to Lesnar was that he didn't deserve his title shot, he didn't earn it and d'you know what, they're 90% right. The fact that he broke gatekeeper Heath Herring's face (literally) accounts for the other 10%.

But guess what?

That title shot was more about a massive PPV buy rate and passing the torch tot he future of the heavyweight division than what Brock Lesnar had earned. Demolition of Heath Herring aside, there was no one else available to put on a good show against Couture and Dana saw the incredible potential - both in the cage and at the cash register - of Brock Lesnar and made the right the match. As we all know, Lesnar crushed Couture and that is where the next section of stupidness usually starts to come up.

"He crushed a 45-year-old man who is 2/3 his size," was one argument denouncing Lesnar I read recently on one of my post over at Yardbarker. I'm sorry, isn't the point to beat the snot out of whoever they put in front of you and how come Randy Couture's age and relatively small stature as a heavyweight count as a slight against Lesnar when it's always spoken to how awesome Couture is in the past?

Of course, you can't talk about size without someone playing the steroids card on Lesnar. From the moment he burst onto the scene in the WWE, I've refered to Lesnar as a "genetic freak" - he's 6'3", walks around close to 300 pounds and has the agility of a man half his size, not to mention the strength of a rhinoceros. Obviously, some detractors want to call him a cheat and credit steroids, not genetics and a freakish workout routine.

Here's the thing: this guy has gone from major collegiate wrestling to the WWE to wrestling in Japan to the NFL to the UFC. All of those stops have drug testing, some better than others, and not once has Brock Lesnar tested positive for anything. He was never suspended under the WWE Health and Wellness Policy, had no problems in camp with the Vikings and hasn't had a stiff of trouble with the UFC. To me, that means any allegations and wink-wink, nudge-nudge comments about his size being enhanced is nothing but hate and jealousy.

Then we come to my personal favorite, the skills and abilities section. It's one thing to hear outsiders and fans like you and me knocking the guy because "Royce Gracie he is not" (another fine YB comment), but to hear Frank Mir say stupid shit makes it all the more fun.

Lesnar is featured in the current issue of Maxim, and the magazine spoke to his UFC 100 opponent as well. Here's the brilliance, courtesy of Bloody Elbow:

If you watched when he wrestled in college," he observes, "his abilities were not very technical. He used his size and his power. He won matches by one and two points, drew the pace down, got real boring." He says Lesnar fundamentally remains that kind of fighter and that Lesnar’s strategy will play directly into his own legendary sub­mission skills.

I'm sorry. Is a win by 10 points not the same as a win by 1 point and are you not allowed to use your strongest attributes to defeat your opponents? I love how no one ever knocks Demian Maia for only using his BJJ instead of trading shots, at the same time questioning the shit out of Jorge Gurgel about why he never plays to his strength...

But Brock Lesnar using his strength and power instead of trying to do things he isn't capable of is a bad things, right? No one is saying the guy is Royce Gracie or a submission specialist or anything more than a human steamroller at this point in his career.

The fact of the matter is that a very raw, still new to the sport human steamroller named Brock Lesnar is still extremely hard to deal with and beat one of the Top 5 fighters in the history of the UFC in only his fourth career fight and that scares a whole lot of people.

Like I've said before about other fighters - dislike Brock Lesnar all you want, but give the guy his due. I personally hate Frank Mir and comments like the one above don't help his case with me, but I can't deny that he's one of the Top 10 Pound for Pound fighters on the planet in my books and has been outstanding over the last two years.

Hate him all you want. Me and Team Lesnar look forward to celebrating after UFC 100 and telling all the haters and doubters where to go...