By Giancarlo Aulino
In this Beyond The Game interview Correspondent Giancarlo Aulino speaks with TSN MMA analyst and host of Enjoy the Hostilities podcast, Robin Black.
In addition to TSN, Robin, in his very own MMA podcast provides an in depth analysis on upcoming MMA events and recaps some of the memorable moments that took place on each event.
During the interview, Robin gave his thoughts on the Daniel Cormier vs Brock Lesnar fight, which was made following Cormier’s heavyweight championship victory in July, the UFC Calgary main event between Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez, and who he feels has the best chance of winning Bellator MMA’s Welterweight Grand Prix tournament.
Giancarlo: UFC 226 took place recently, where we saw Daniel Cormier knock out Stipe Miocic to become the new UFC Heavyweight Champion, but after the fight there was a confrontation between DC and Brock Lesnar… a little pushing and shoving going on. Now somebody like yourself who has broken down so many big fights and studied the fighting styles of both these fighters, how do you feel Brock Lesnar and DC match up?
Robin: Well, it’s a very fascination one. And we’ve seen Brock Lesnar, even a decade-plus ago, fighting other geniuses of combat and winning. He beat Randy Couture. And you know, fighting is not as broken down by these athletes and by their coaches this way anymore, but we the viewers still try to compartmentalize it, but if we do compartmentalize it, Randy was better at boxing and kickboxing. He was a better quote striker than Brock Lesnar. Yet, Brock landed the big punch that knocked him down and won him the fight, so Brock has been able to beat geniuses of combat before and Daniel Cormier is one of them. He is big, powerful, barely human in his attributes, and he was one of the great wrestlers in the world and became that by combining skills with physical attributes and none of that changes. That’s the case when he faces anybody, including Cormier. The difference is that Cormier, although much smaller and not physically impressive, Cormier is equal to him in those tactical wrestling skills. It is a fair, interesting, and really compelling match-up, hard to pick a winner. As viewers and casual consumers, we often try to say: “Well this guy is better at this, so that means this.” But fighting isn’t really like that, it isn’t. So this is a fair, reasonable, and cool and compelling fight.
Giancarlo: Yeah and based on the popularity of both these fighters, it’ll most likely be the main-event of a pay-per-view card. For those that may be unfamiliar with the business side of the UFC, how does this fight impact the UFC as well as both DC and Brock Lesnar financially?
Robin: So there is a ton of things that we all, whoever we are, whether we play football, surgeons, drive a vehicle for a living…whatever we do, there’s a lot of things that matter, money is a big one of course, but so is pride in your job, so is accomplishment, so is for some people the word legacy… whatever that means to any of us. All of those things here if we’re starting with Cormier, all of those things are at the highest level. He will make more money than he’s ever made, probably in his top-five fights combined. He will have a fight that is meaningful to him because of what a fan he is of the world of professional wrestling. And he is, he grew up loving that stuff. This is a fight that he’ll remember for the rest of his life, one that he’s prepared for. He’ll be richer, more famous, it’ll be exciting. So for him it’s the pinnacle, the greatest moment that he could have. The other night that punch that landed on Stipe Miocic, the big right hand, changed his life forever because he became the heavyweight champion and gets to have this super fight and you don’t ever fight again after that, and he said he won’t.
© Highlite Reel | YouTube
For Brock Lesnar, Brock Lesnar is a big ol’ weirdo that lives in Saskatchewan, in the forest, and just likes to come out of hiding a couple times every year or two and beat people out on television. He’s richer than he could ever need so I think for Brock Lesnar it’s just sort of business as usual. A big ol’ strange man in the forest who likes to come out and have a big exciting and insane night, and he’ll have that. And then for the UFC, they’ve had challenges over the last few years. The world changes. We are all consuming so much more Facebook and NetFlix, and all of these things whether its NASCAR or fighting or movies, it’s been spread out so it’s harder for the UFC to make the kind of money they once made, but this fight will do it. So everybody wins in this one and we’ll all have fun watching it because it’s a big powerful superhero/supervillain in Brock Lesnar against somebody that everybody loves who’s very special as an athlete, so it all comes together.
For the full interview with Robin Black, click here:
Don’t forget to tune in to VIBE 105 from 2-3PM every other Friday for a new episode of Beyond The Game and follow us on all social media platforms @BeyondTheGameTO.
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