UFC 100 Results: Lesnar Is Great for MMA -- Deal With It

Las Vegas -- Brock Lesnar needed a little less than seven minutes to avenge his February 2008 loss to Frank Mir at UFC 100 Saturday night in Las Vegas. He then needed only a couple of seconds to officially become the biggest villain in mixed martial arts. 

Both occurences are great for the sport.

Lesnar's post-fight antics are sure to go down as one of the defining moments in UFC history, and it's fitting that it happened at this historic event.

First, Lesnar flipped off the crowd, who booed him from the moment he walked into the arena until the moment he left. Then he got in Mir's face and did some more trash-talking. As if his beatdown wasn't enough. Then he criticized one of the UFC's biggest sponsors, Bud Light, for not sponsoring him. And finally, he suggested he was going to make love to his wife, former WWE Diva, Rena "Sable" Mero, before the night was over. The crowd supposedly hated every minute of it. I thought it was brilliant.

I heard other members of the media throw around words like "disgraceful," "embarrassing" and "bad for the sport" immediately following Lesnar's post-fight celebration. I couldn't help but wonder if these individuals "get it."

How many times do we criticize athletes for being too bland or packaged? Have you ever heard a semi-interesting post-game interview on an NBA or NFL telecast? I sure haven't. Yet here was Lesnar, just moments after unifying the UFC's heavyweight title, showing some raw emotion and I'm supposed to think it's disgraceful? Sorry, no can do.

"I'm just kind of speechless," Lesnar told UFC.com following his victory. "You know, I put my heart and soul into this. I want to be a great fighter, and at the end I want to be a great entertainer. I don't care, you know, people pay good money to watch us get in there and go at it. A throw a little salt and pepper at the end ... Love me, hate me -- whatever. It is what it is. I am who I am."

Interestingly enough, Lesnar immediately apologized to Mir and Bud Light for his behavior at the post-fight press conference. I can understand why the UFC wouldn't want to upset a major sponsor, but I was surprised to see him apologize for some of his other comments. UFC President Dana White said he spoke to Lesnar backstage and voiced his displeasure with his behavior.

"I acted very unprofessionally after the fight," Lesnar said at the post-fight press conference. "And I'll leave it at that.  ... There was a lot of emotion in this fight for me."

Lesnar even hypothesized that he still has a little pro wrestling left in him.

"You guys ask me all the time, 'Is there anything that I can drag over from WWE?' And I guess you seen a little bit tonight," he said.

For the UFC to have their most controversial fighter also be their heavyweight champion is a gift from the pay-per-view Gods. Bad guys will always sell, and despite Lesnar's apology, he's stil the bad guy. I bet everyone who criticized him tonight can't wait until the champ fights again.

"People paid a lot of money to get in those seats, and I think I put on a hell of a show all the way around," Lesnar said. "As a fighter and an entertainer."

Amen.

Meanwhile, Georges St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title defeating Thiago Alves via unanimous decision in another dominant peformance. St-Pierre revealed at the post-fight press conference that he severely injured his groin in the third round, which makes his victory all that more impressive.

"It's pretty bad," St-Pierre said of his injury. "I'm in real bad pain."

Once again, St-Pierre's gameplan was perfect, as he controlled the Muay Thai specialist, Alves, for five full rounds on the ground. Much of that credit goes to one of his trainers, Greg Jackson, who also didn't show my compassion when GSP told him he was injured midway through the fight.

"It was pretty crazy what was going through my head," St-Pierre said. "I came back in my corner -- some people are going to see that on TV, they're going to laugh because I come back in the corner, and I told my trainer I pulled my abductor. And my trainer, Greg Jackson, said to me, 'I don't care. Hit him with it.'"

It remains to be seen who St-Pierre will fight next. Smart money says the winner of the Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann fight in September will get the next shot, but stranger things have happened. It doesn't seem likely that GSP will fight Anderson Silva in the immediate future.

In other UFC 100 action:

* Dan Henderson knocked out Michael Bisping at 3: