When Brock Lesnar defeated Frank Mir on Saturday night to retain his heavyweight title, he showed he was a tough fighter, but his comments and actions after the fight solidified him as the most hated man in the UFC.
After he defeated Mir, to a chorus of boos, Lesnar flipped the fans the middle finger, dissed Mir and the primary beer sponsor in the post fight interview in the octagon.
There's something to be said about teaching old dogs new tricks I suppose.
Everyone knows that Lesnar came from the WWE, where he was at the time the youngest ever champion. He was billed as a nearly impossible to beat opponent who had massive power.
Lesnar left the company years ago, and after a failed stint in the NFL, decided to go to the world of MMA because simply put he loves to fight.
Lesnar heard the boos at UFC 100 and knows that because of his past, he hasn't received what he might call a fair shake from the die hard fans.
He avenged his only MMA loss and then had a momentary loss of reason or showed who he really was – depending on what you want believe. Or as wrestling fans would say, he cut a heel promo after his big win.
UFC President Dana White, who spoke to Lesnar in his dressing room after the fight about his behaviour was still angry on Saturday night at the post-fight media conference.
"Brock went so far over the top tonight I can't even describe it, put it into words. WWE, that's what it was," White said.
Lost in all the anger and outrage that some expressed is the simple fact that, like it or not, Lesnar was the major talking point about the event at water coolers around offices on Monday by the casual UFC fans.
Not Georges St-Pierre's successful defence despite tearing his abductor muscle, and not Dan Henderson's impressive knockout over the boisterous Michael Bisping.
I understand that White would be angry given the fact that he's trying to build up what is an exciting and legitimate combat sport and he doesn't want his former star wrestler to act like one, but Lesnar's rant will help the UFC in the long run.
This is not going to go over well with die-hard MMA fans, but Lesnar is the biggest name in the sport among the mainstream public. While he wasn't the only reason, I would wager that he was a significant reason why the UFC might have broken their all time PPV buy rate.
Hate sells Pay-per-views.
Dana White, along with many UFC fans hated Tito Ortiz, but Ortiz made a lot of money for himself and the UFC because of his antics. UFC 66, which featured a main event of Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell was the most bought PPV with 1.05 million pay-per-view buys for over two years.
The UFC has done a great job of keeping its loyal following, but in order for the sport to grow where Dana White and the Zuffa ownership group wants it to go, they need to be more mainstream.
This is where things get dicey for die-hard UFC fans. This situation reminds of fans of a band that you've watched in clubs for a few years, that all of a sudden gets signed to a record label and becomes famous.
While the fans are happy for their band, they feel that all the 'new fans' who buy the shirts and talk about the music are some how lesser fans because they weren't there from the start.
If you're a die-hard that watched Royce Gracie wear his gui to fight, I can see how it's difficult to maybe relate to the guy cheering for Lesnar while he gets flipped off, but the two of you actually want the same thing, a successful and thriving UFC.
Brock being the ultimate villain can help it happen, as villains have helped other sports.
George Foreman served that role to Mohammed Ali. The New York Yankees serve that roll in 29 other baseball markets.
I honestly believe that Lesnar is getting himself into the territory where people are going to want to see him get beat up and lose. That means more interest in the sport and more PPV buys.
I know that Dana White will try to sign Fedor Emelianenko after Fedor's last fight with rival company Affliction in August, how many people would buy a PPV that featured the best heavyweight not in the UFC against the sports biggest villain?
I know that I would.
Daan De Kerpel is an MMA fan who is a co-writer of TSN.ca's Double Play Baseball Blog.