Throughout the past two weeks of covering the build-up to UFC 91 - one of the most important sporting events of the year - we've highlighted Brock Lesnar's background and what he's saying now about his previous career in WWE.
It started with Lesnar walking off the set of an ESPN interview when asked about steroids. He also said he didn't want to join WWE out of college anyways, but he took the money when it was offered to him.
Now, Lesnar is trying to escape the stigma of being one of those amateur wrestlers who "turned pro" and joined WWE for choreographed competition. Lesnar's goal at UFC 91 is to prove he's still a great amateur athlete and that he shouldn't be remembered for being a WWE wrestler.
"I think anybody who was smart or understood me already realized that," Lesnar said in Dan Wetzel's column on Yahoo Sports. "I was an amateur athlete. Anybody who knows anything about athletics understood what I could do. And the other people just don't have a clue. You can't blame them for being ignorant."
Lesnar's opponent at UFC 91, Randy Couture, says Lesnar could be considered a sell-out for taking the money in WWE. Lesnar says, "I left the sports entertainment industry for my own reasons," but Couture says he still carries the stigma with him even as he tries to prove himself as a real athlete on Saturday night.
"In some ways, amateur wrestlers look at that as selling out," said Couture. "I think because it is predetermined and choreographed, none of those things sit well with real wrestling, amateur wrestling."
