The punches are real, of that there is no doubt, but am I alone in thinking the whole circus that comes along with the UFC seems a little bit fake and WWE like? I know a few years ago it was looked at as a serious martial arts fighting gig, but in recent times, thanks mainly to the arrival of Brock Lesnar from the WWE, it has taken on the antics that usually go along with WWE.

Or maybe that is unfair to the sport as a whole … perhaps it is better to be like that to suck in the fans with entertainment than to be like modern day boxing with the greed of fights failing to materialise.

But I make my statement off the back of Brock Lesnar’s latest comments about Canada and his miracle recovery from illness. I don’t want to say his illness itself wasn’t serious but the way the UFC president Dana White played it out and the way Lesnar spoke about ‘Third World Canada’ just hit me as fake right from the get-go … right out of the WWE playbook that Lesnar knows all to well.

And it seems I am not alone:

Two months ago, Brock Lesnar was at death’s door.

The biggest meal ticket in mixed martial arts movable feast of flesh was incognito, first in Canada, then in his home state of North Dakota. No one could reach him. His only link to those starving for news was MMA impresario Dana White, issuing cryptic communiques that did little other than beg further questions. Convenient, that.

And so went the script from there, continuing this week with Lesnar assuring one and all on a conference call that he had survived the wilds of Canada, our ‘Third World’ health-care system and socialism (his words, not mine) and a stomach ailment, to return to e-generations favourite bloodsport any day now. And he did it all naturally, of course, being a far more advanced specimen than your average barroom bouncer.

As Johnny Rotten once said, did you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?

— Chris Young, Toronto Star, 21 Jan ‘10

It really wouldn’t surprise me. First the superstar musclehead goes down with a mystery illness. He isn’t seen or heard from and all comments come through the UFC president who says his life was on the line and his career in jeopardy. Speculation is rife, the papers keep writing, the sport is in the headlines and questions are constantly asked. A press conference with Lesnar is cancelled and then finally he shows his face and sounds off on Canada’s healthcare system without thought to the millions suffering under his own countries. He plays the hero to the American fanbase – miracle recovery from illness, praising his countries doctors and all that stuff – and enemy to the Canaidan UFC fans. With fights coming up in Canada the timing couldn’t be better. Lesnar knows how to play the bad guy roll and will lap up the abuse he’ll take next time he fights in Canada and it’ll sell tickets like hot cakes.

Money making exercise? Absolutely. Comeback sports story of the year? An exaggerated one, certainly.

Kids, if you ever wanted an indication as to why steroid abuse is bad for your mind as well as body, then look no further than the drivel that flowed from the mouth of MMA Champion Brock Lesnar yesterday.

In his first interview since going into hospital with a serious illness he came forth to accuse the Canadian health system, were he originally went when feeling ill, as third world standard.

“They couldn’t do nothing for me, it was like I was in a Third World country,” he said while failing to remember the current situation in Haiti. “I’m just stating the facts here, and that’s the facts. If I had to choose between getting care in Canada or in the United States, I definitely want to be in the United States,” he boasted, while signing his expensive insurance forms that allow him such Stateside coverage.

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