The clock had struck midnight two Saturdays ago,\nbut the Cinderella story was just beginning. At one end of the octagon stood a more athletic man two inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and with a four-inch reach advantage over his opponent. The man, former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Brock Lesnar, was the 2000 NCAA wrestling champion. His opponent, Cain Velasquez, was only a junior college national champion. Lesnar held the Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight title and Velasquez was the challenger. On paper, Lesnar was by far the favorite. That all changed about two minutes into the fight when Velasquez took control and never let up. As the first Mexican-American heavyweight champion in combat sports history, the underdog embodies the new American spirit.
The so-called "Protestant work ethic" has been lauded as the nation's defining characteristic for personal achievements. Hard work in a capitalist economy is a great predictor of success. Our society has been saturated with rags to riches stories, ranging from John Rockefeller's self-made fortune to Will Smith's portrayal of Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness to media personality Oprah Winfrey. All these people faced overwhelming odds and struck it big. Although his financial worth pales in comparison to these three individuals, Velasquez is the contemporary epitome of the Protestant work ethic.
But Velasquez faces a different set of obstacles. Whereas tycoons of the 19th century such as Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie struggled through impoverished upbringings and the Gardners and Oprahs of this century surely faced the challenges of racial prejudice, Velasquez faces a distinctive task. Velasquez must represent a nation, and even a people, every time he steps into the UFC Octagon. Standing in his way are laws directed toward his people: suggestions to fence off the Mexico-U.S. border and policies requiring people to carry residential papers in an attempt to overturn the 14th Amendment and potentially demote Mexican-Americans to second-class citizenship. As the cerebral person that he is, Velasquez has combated anti-Mexican sentiments prevalent in parts of the Southwest United States by flaunting his heritage. He dons the words "Brown Pride" tattooed across his chest, appeared on Telemundo and Univision and told the audience, during his post-fight victory interview, that "Todos Latinos, we did it, eh?". Because he has leaned so heavily on his heritage previous to the fight, any success that came from it was attributed to it.
The UFC has been an instrumental force in promoting the fighter. The event this weekend was held in Anaheim, California which has a population of nearly half Latinos or Hispanics. And even though Brock Lesnar's Goliath image and marketability has taken a hit, UFC President Dana White shrugged off any concerns. During the post-fight interview with the media, White stated that although the UFC will take a financial hit because Lesnar was defeated, it hopes to gain a growing Latino market and might even take a UFC event to Mexico.
A byproduct of Velasquez's promotion is the promotion of the Mexican lifestyle, and more generally the immigrant lifestyle. This way of living no longer revolves around the need to become Americanized and drip into a uniform melting pot. Instead, it is its own unique dish distinguishable from the American melting pot but still on the same even-footed table. He is proof that success in America is because of effort and not assimilation. Making his heritage an integral part of his life has only served as motivation to work harder instead of as isolation from the rest of society. And success follows hard work, regardless of how similar or different you are from your peers. Belonging to a different culture and not fully assimilating is no longer always held against individuals and in some cases might even serve as an advantage. Velasquez has done his part in being a model for preserving heritage while gaining success, and the UFC and Dana White are capitalizing on Velasquez's work ethic. Now it is up to sports fans to see Velasquez as an ambassador for mixed martial arts and up to the rest of the country to see Velasquez as an ambassador for Mexico.
With the belt now secured around his hips, Velasquez has proven that nothing is out of his reach. His goal was to uplift a country, and the reaction at UFC 121 is evidence that he succeeded. If his next goal is to change the American perception of culture assimilation, then any failure to do so will not be a result of his lack of effort. If Americans fail to embrace what Mexicans and Latinos have to offer to the country, it will be due to stubborn clingliness toward unfounded prejudices in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Hung Vu's column normally appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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