For decades, Jeffrey Herlings pretty much owned the position of being the most transparent, outspoken and polarized rider in the sport. The Dutchman always loved to say what he thinks, and he still does. Wrong or right in his comments, it got attention, and we all loved it.

If ever a rider in the sports history came under the microscope, it was “The Bullet” and it didn’t only give him a much better financial gain, because everyone wanted to be involved with the factory KTM rider, but it also meant the eyes of the sport were on him. It's been said many times, but he pretty much carried MXGP on his back for 15 years.

Now, as Herlings is slowing making his way into what is without doubt, his final couple of years on the circuit, two young men are taking the mantle of being polarizing and the sport is only going to benefit from it.

AMA supercross champion and the man who has already scored himself three AMA motocross championships, and two SMX titles, not to mention that AMA supercross championship and of course a regional 250 supercross championship, is Australian, Jett Lawrence.

Lawrence, who is also outspoken and while he isn’t the same up front in your face type as “The Bullet”, he does come across for many people as arrogant and over-confident. I will say, I haven’t seen it once, but some media are pushing that he says the wrong thing. I find it ridiculous that saying he wants to beat Jeremy McGrath’s 72 supercross wins, or the fact he makes tongue in cheep jabs at his rivals as anything other than entertaining and in no way, have I seen any of that as arrogant or over-confident. The kids probably the greatest rider the sport has ever seen, so his goals will be up there with the all-time greats of McGrath and Carmichael.

The problem has arisen, and it isn’t a new problem, is the fact, some American fans, generally, really don’t like their men getting beat and they voice it. I get it, for decades, the American riders owned the sport, and it is easy to get arrogant as a fan to expect that to last forever, but guess what, it didn’t. The Euro's took over the World scene and now an Aussie is doing the same on the US of A landscape.

For sure, Eli Tomac has been the best American from the last decade and he at times, could have been called, the Fastest Man on the Planet, until he faced Jeffrey Herlings at Ironman in 2017, and it was laid to rest who owned that position. Just to make it clear, a week after Ironman, Herlings then won the USGP on America soil to make it obvious, he was THE FASTEST MAN ON THE PLANET.

Herlings is considered a legend in USA and the American fans either loved him, or loved to hated him, they all watched him. As I have said above, he was the most polarized rider, probably in the sports history. Now, as we enter the 2025 AMA season, two men will be taking over that roll of “The Bullet” and those two are 21-year-old Jett Lawrence and 18-year-old Haiden Deegan.

For Lawrence, he has probably already taken over the mantra of being the fastest man on the planet (some will say it’s Jorge Prado), and in my opinion, the Aussie is also the most polarized rider of this era. Beautiful to watch on the bike, well spoken and he doesn’t mind saying it, as it is. His press conference for the opening of the AMA supercross season showed he isn’t backing down for anyone and any negative comments, can be shoved back where they belong.

“I think it is more just the criticism is a big thing,” Lawrence said. “Obviously, I'm already a person who's fairly hard on myself with some things. It’s really easy for some people to say, 'Hey, don't look at this, don't look into it.' But when it goes from, at first, when I first started, I wasn't too bad cause it was like, out of 100 people it’s maybe 10 or 15 out of 100, now it feels like it's closer to 80% of people that are doing it to where it over weighs the actual proper fans.”

Whether you like it or not, booing a rider, in any country is WRONG. I am not sure I have ever heard a Grand Prix booing somebody. Sure, we want the Americans to lose the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations on most occasions, but in my opinion, the euro crowds have too much class for that. Unfortunately for Lawrence, he has suffered big time and on multiple occasions.

“I am a foreigner and I'm winning a lot of the titles that are here. So, I kind of understand the fans all now because at first, I'm like, I've always kind of been a nice kid and yes, sometimes not the best with my words. I come across a bit blunt. That's the Australian side of things, and it comes off rude. People who know me get it but people who don't, they take it in a different way. I wanted to smash these guys and destroy them [last year] and it's still the same now,” he says. So, I think having that mentality for me is the same as when I first came in, even when I didn't have any numbers to my name or any facts to back it up. It's still the same. That's when I had no facts. So yeah, nothing's changed. I think it's going to in the end make me a better person. There's something I got to learn there. The one thing they're getting pissed off about is that I'm winning and beating everyone and being they're Americans, to make them happy I would have to stop winning. But sadly enough, I can't do that.”

As for Deegan, he says what he thinks and that is as entertaining as anything Herlings ever said. Maybe similar attitudes, the American and the Dutchman? However you look at Deegan, he is a confident kid and being that he races at home, in USA, he generally gets a good rub of the green, but even he gets negative comments, even from his countrymen.

“I try to feed into the talk,” Deegan said of the negative comments. “You know, say something to me, it motivates me. When people say something to me, I honestly need that because it's like I'm already a motivated person but add that into it and it just turns me into a working machine. So, I enjoy when people kind of punch back. A lot of people I feel like can't really say nothing because I'm out there beating them most of the time. So, honestly, when people do kind of take little punch lines at me and I'm already beating them, it's kind of like, why are you doing that, but I kind of enjoy it too. Like, I kind of did the same thing when I was not beating somebody. I take a little punch at them and see if I could break them down. So, a couple of guys get into Instagram comments. I know me and Levi are going back and forth. I don't know if Bobby Regan was trying to motivate me, but he says Levi called up my team and asked what coast we are racing so he could race against me. I'm like, “Dude, I'll text you what coast are racing!” It's like, let's get it on! I do not care. I beat you multiple times. So, I'm down for it. Anytime anyone that wants to race in 250 class, I don't really care, I’m going to work hard, and my goal is to go win."

Although, when he is winning, the celebration from the spectators is generally one of joy and excitement and it should be, because this kid is special and American motocross can ride off this kids back for at least a decade, similar to how The Netherlands got the most out of Jeffrey Herlings.

“Racing in front of the hometown crowd is always awesome. I mean, down at Fox Raceway I went 1-1 that was super cool. So, if I could come out to Anaheim and race that, that'd be awesome too. But generally, just when I peak in training, whenever that time comes is when I'll go race. So that kind of depends on what coast I do and it's up to the team, too. They see how I ride each week, so they want to send me or not.”

So, while both these sensational talents will be booed in 2025, lets hope that both are also celebrated in victory, or even in defeat, because talent like these two, only come along once or twice in an era. Enjoy America, you are in for one hell of a ride. Love them or hate them, you will always watch them.