Lesnar Rules do in fact rule in UFC 141 talk

LAS VEGAS – Two sets of rules exist for fighters in the UFC. There are the rules, and then there are the Lesnar Rules.

One set applies to all but one of the 250 or so fighters Zuffa has under contract, including big stars such as Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva. The other set applies to Brock Lesnar, its frequently ornery, always fascinating, former heavyweight champion.

With Lesnar, you never know if he's going to smile or snarl, give a thoughtful answer to a question or curse unrelentingly. Asked Wednesday for his reaction to being an underdog to Alistair Overeem for their match Friday in the main event of UFC 141 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Lesnar sneered and said through gritted teeth, "I'm an underdog with a big [expletive] bite."

As photographers at a jammed news conference snapped photos of the two fighters, Lesnar didn't wait for UFC president Dana White to pat him on the back to signal it was OK to leave. After posing for a few seconds, Lesnar decided he'd had enough, saluted the fans that had gathered in the hotel lobby and walked off, leaving Overeem standing by himself.

Special rules also applied only to Lesnar at a fighter workout Tuesday at the UFC Training Center, which were designed to accommodate his desire to spend as little time there as possible.

"He's so hard to read, man," White said of Lesnar. "One minute you could be hanging out with him and you're like, 'Oh, Brock's in a good mood today.' Then you meet him the next day and he's back to being the old Brock. He's a very, very tough guy to read."

White and his staff play by Lesnar's rules for one very simple reason: He produces.

Friday's match against Overeem, a former Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 champion, is close to a sellout and White expects the remaining tickets to be gone in short order. It continues a trend in which Lesnar has sold out every building he's fought in since joining the UFC in 2008.

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He perfected the tough-guy persona during a stint after college in the WWE, where he became its heavyweight champion and biggest attraction, but Lesnar was working on the bully role long before he ever thought of becoming a professional fighter.

He grew up in Webster, South Dakota, where he said there wasn't much to do other than go to school, work on the farm and fight.

"I've been a competitor since I was 5 years old," Lesnar said. "I started wrestling when I was 5 and street fighting, phew, probably when I was 8. Who knows? We grew up where there wasn't much else to do other than go to the next town and scrap and steal the other guy's girlfriend."

He's accomplished so much in mixed martial arts in such a short period that it's easy to forget he's still a neophyte in the fight business. He had one fight outside the UFC, which he won, then has gone 4-2 in six UFC fights. He met a reigning, former or future UFC champion in five of those six matches.

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He's endured plenty of criticism since he lost his championship to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 on Oct. 23, 2010, and questions abound all of a sudden about the quality of his chin.

Significantly, though, he hasn't been knocked out, despite facing a series of hard hitters.

Shane Carwin was 12-0 with 12 first-round finishes when he met Lesnar at UFC 116. As was Carwin's pattern, he cracked Lesnar on the chin in the first round and sent Lesnar down in a heap. It looked for all the world that Carwin was going to get yet another first-round finish.

Lesnar, though, managed to survive and submitted Carwin in the second.

[Related: Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem plan to win quickly in UFC 141]

Roberto Flamingo, Overeem's striking coach, said he thinks Overeem may be the hardest puncher in MMA. He said that even when he's wearing the body shield during sparring sessions, Overeem's punches to his midsection are painful.

"I've never felt punches like I receive from Alistair," Flamingo said.

Overeem hasn't hesitated to question Lesnar's chin and guaranteed a knockout in the second round or earlier.

Lesnar growled and responded with an expletive at the suggestion that he has a china chin.

He said he's spent a lot of time working on his standup during his training camp because, he said, "I've been working on trying to become the best heavyweight fighter I can possibly be."

He's not going to win the fight, however, by standing and trading punches with Overeem, a skilled kick boxer. Lesnar is a wrestler of the highest order and he's taken down every man he's faced in the UFC, including decorated wrestlers such as Randy Couture, Velasquez and Carwin.

Overeem maintained that Lesnar wouldn't be able to take him down, but even White scoffed at that. And White, who, like most people who deal with Lesnar has been on the receiving end of the big guy's angry rants, said it makes no sense to question the quality of his chin.

"Everybody keeps talking about his stand-up and his chin, but the thing is, Brock Lesnar has a pretty damn good chin," White said. "He's never been knocked out. He got battered by Cain, but wasn't knocked out."

Win or lose, Lesnar's not going to change. He's gruff, he's grumpy, but he sells tickets, he sells merchandise and he sells pay-per-views.

And that is why in the UFC there are the rules and then there are the Lesnar Rules.

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