Quote of the Day: Frank Mir Still Chasing His White Whale
by Luke Thomas on Dec 13, 2009 5:14 PM EST
in MMA News
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"Do I definitely think that I’m neck-to-neck with the top two guys in there? Absolutely...I think that Cain Velasquez is a very impressive fighter, but he also just went three rounds with Cheick Kongo, where he couldn’t knock him out or submit him…"
...
"It was more a statement for myself and my training camp to say that I could bounce back from such a decisive loss to Brock… a loss to Cheick would have been a pretty bad statement on my career...He was an opponent that I really felt that I had to come out there and decisively smash to make a statement. If I had of went out there and won a three-round decision against Cheick Kongo, I don’t believe that would have elevated my status."
-- Frank Mir, vying for another shot at UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.
Despite his petulant desire to mock competitors, dismiss criticism and assert his ego, it's very hard to not enjoy what Mir brings to MMA, the UFC and the heavyweight division.
Mir's poor sportsmanship is problematic, but it has nothing to do with his ability to compete. As a moment of candor, I savored Mir's destruction of Kongo after having to digest all of the incredibly poor analysis and critiques in blog posts, comments and message board threads in the weeks and days leading into the fight.
Some of you may wish to be rid of him, but he has reasserted himself in a major way. And he did so with impunity despite repeated assurances made to me that Kongo would take ownership of his soul. Funny how MMA works, no?
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Why potentially put the brakes on one of the few contenders they have right now?
"My diet is like Atkins, but with the carbs." - BJ Penn
You could say the same thing about Cain/Nog, at some point some of the top-10 guys are gonna have to fight each other.
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
I agree, but it doesn’t have to be THIS point. Cain has 6 UFC fights, and is progressing on schedule. Carwin has 3 fights, and the reason he was given Brock wasn’t because he really deserved it. It was because of the size matchup. If Carwin/Brock isn’t going to happen, Carwin should be given some more experience before he enters the top 3.
"My diet is like Atkins, but with the carbs." - BJ Penn
I just hope Dana keeps his word and chills out on the interim belt for a while.
"Talk all the shit you want now!
by Earl Montclair on Dec 13, 2009 5:55 PM EST up reply actions
As a moment of candor, I savored Mir’s destruction of Kongo after having to digest all of the incredibly poor analysis and critiques in blog posts, comments and message board threads in the weeks and days leading into the fight.
I was robbed of this small victory. The guy next to me I was talking to in the bar the whole night hated Mir, and he also looked like he had to cut to 265 as well. I just had to smile and nod and agree that Mir was still an asshole. Inside I was stoked.
His personality
Works. He plays the heel perfectly with his arrogance. It’ll help him gain some heat from fans. Love to hate him or just love him, people will watch.
Follow me on Twitter @lelandroling
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I remember that Mir vs Kongo was the fight that no one asked for or cared about. I have to give it to Mir because there really was no heat between the two to really derive from, yet Mir through being the cocky and arrogant heel made the fight relevant.
I wonder....
why Shane Carwin the moral authority off MMA has not gone on a twitter-spree about Mir’s disrespectful attitude.
He like Frank must know that the only way to be truly relevant is to hitch themselves to Brock as much and as close as they can.
"He's got a great package and it's an unusual one." - Joe Rogan on Lyoto Machida @ UFC 94.
I hate the whole pro-wrestling, fake smack-talk shit, but I admit it sells. And who am i to get in the way of what the people want. So my advice to Carwin would be to go off on Mir for being so disrespectful and presumptuous in assuming he deserves the next title match . It get’s his name back in the limelight and will prevent the UFC from leapfrogging Mir ahead of him. At the very least they would have to pair the two off in a number one contender’s match.
I mean why not let them fight. Frank already made it perfectly clear he has no desire to fight Nog again for fear of having another one of his career defining wins be shown to be the fluke that it was so why not throw him and Shane in there?
"Talk all the shit you want now!
by Earl Montclair on Dec 13, 2009 5:49 PM EST up reply actions
Not a fluke. Mir was the better fighter that night, to be considered a fluke it would have been say a one punch KO after two rounds of getting his face smashed in but it was far from that. Mir picked Nog apart on the feet and dropped him a number of times.
I don’t see one spot where Nog puts Mir in any great danger. I don’t think Nog can sub Mir, and in the stand up Mir isnt great but hes on he same level and can deal with lethal strikers. Nog can win don’t get me wrong but to call Mir’s win a fluke is a bit much.
Despite his petulant desire to mock competitors, dismiss criticism
I think that it is very clear that Mir not only listens to criticism, but works very hard to fix the problem. Of course he talks trash and puffs his chest when talking to media. He is a very smart guy who knows how to sell himself. Toss in the fact that he has the ability to destroy people and make it look easy, and you got a winner-winner-chicken-dinner.
his goal,
To get even bigger for Brock Lesnar:
"I want to get to where I’m cutting 15-20 pounds just to make 265 pounds," said Mir, regarding his goal for the Lesnar showdown. "That’s going to take some time. But that way I’ll be the same size he is. I may not be quite as strong as he is, but I’ll be strong enough to neutralize his strength, and then it will come down to who is the better technical fighter. He will never be as technical a fighter as I am because he started too late."
Frank creeps me out more than Diego Sanchez
"Talk all the shit you want now!
by Earl Montclair on Dec 13, 2009 6:03 PM EST up reply actions
I’m not so sure getting bigger will help him next time. Some guys just have that “freak strength” (Lesnar, Carwin) and some don’t. Brock is freak of nature and you can’t just lift weights to match him. I still think Mir can beat Lesnar (he’s done it before), but he has to out think him and draw up a good gameplan for a guy that is stronger than him. He got hammered last time, beacuse he got taken down to easy, and let Lesnar maul him. Watch what Couture did (his scramble) and learn from that.
To my mind, the reason Mir got pounded last time
is because he has no idea of what wrestling is. He’s purely in a BJJ mindset on the ground, which isn’t good against a fighter who is content to sit in half-guard and demolish your face.
Mir honestly needs to do one medium/long camp working on nothing but wrestling transitions. Nothing high-level, just simple stuff like wrist control, over/under locks and standing up from various positions. Mir has never shown even novitiate level transition ability, and that’s why Brock steamrolled him. Mir wasn’t allowed to get into a position where he could fight back, which was Brock’s whole gameplan.
One low/mid-level wrestling camp and Mir should be able to at least fight back when it gets on the ground. As it is, he’ll have the same thing happen to him next time, barring a one-punch KO, which is basically a 50/50 situation if they stand and throw at each other’s heads. At some point, it’s just a question of who lands first, and I don’t think Brock will allow the fight to degenerate to a 50/50 throwdown.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
It’s true that Mir is liable for another fight. Both guys beat each other once. But i don’t think Brock Lesnar should have another match wasted on the same guy for the 3rd time. You gotta see him fight someone new, or else you’ll never know how he fairs against different or better opponents. I mean you will.. but you’ll have to wait another few months lol.
You have to love (hate) Mir.
The guy is very good at what he does (MMA), and he has grown into the roll of self promoter quite well. As for a rematch with Brock, not so quick, guys like Cain, Carwin, Nog and Dos Santos are all in the mix for a shot over the next year. You need to beat one or two of these guys to get shot.
Nice win, but you are not next in line. Oh and keep the self promotion up, it never gets old, but it does get even funnier with time.
What's on everyone's mind
I think the biggest question is “Can Frank Mir 2.0 actually beat Lesnar?” Hmm…. intresting thought.
Firefrankwren.com: It's gonna happen this offseason
I thought Frank Mir 2.0
beat Nog and then got destroyed by Lesnar. By the time we get to the trilogy fight it will be Frank Mir 11.0 and he will have night vision, 4 arms and a platinum horseshoe up his ass.
"Talk all the shit you want now!
by Earl Montclair on Dec 13, 2009 6:35 PM EST up reply actions 3 recs
you never know. frank was doing fine on his feet for the short time it was there. I think he was too willing to conceed the takedown. If he is more elusive on the feet and really fights the TD it could make a difference.
He didnt even get taken down up against the fence though. He threw that retarded flying knee and put himself on his back. Besides, i thought Frank was supposed to be the best heavyweight on the planet fighting off of his back. Whatever happened to that?
"Talk all the shit you want now!
by Earl Montclair on Dec 13, 2009 6:54 PM EST up reply actions
Mir v. Carwin is the most obvious next big matchup if Brock is going to be out another 6 months or more. you can’t offer carwin a title shot and then say he’s not ready for mir or give him a non top 10 opponent. Dana said Mir isn’t leapfrogging anybody to the title so who else is left for him? JDS, nog, cain, are all busy and Mir is ready to get back in training. Also it makes sense in terms of finding out if Mir can fight better of his back against a large powerfull wrestler ( or maybe just get the job done of the feet.). Carwin hasn’t fought since march 7. I know he’s recovering from swine flu but he cant just be sitting around a whole year or more waiting for a fight. That’s not good for anybody.
Carwin will bite his tongue when asked about mir dissing congo but when mir starts qustioning carwin’s cred then we can expect some words of wisdom from the mma moralist.
Whatever
I still think he just beat an over rated fighter in Cheick Kongo. He will never EVER beat Brock again. Actually, I wanna see a rematch between him and Big Nog so he can finally get it through his head that he is NOT a great striker.
"Well... You're damned if you do, and You're damned if you don't."- Bart Simpson
a mir/ JDS matchup would definetly prove mir isn’t a great striker. I don’t know why the have to give Yvel such a tough fight in his debut. Having JDS available for a mir or carwin main event would be sweet.
Mir plays the heel well...
because he’s not so obvious. Most people just look at him as an overly arrogant punk, and he may be. However, I feel sure he amps it up to sell fights. I’ve always liked heavyweights with awesome BJJ, so maybe that’s why I kind of like Mir. I don’t know if he can beat Lesnar again, but I don’t think an impressive Lesnar win is a foregone conclusion like many would assert.
"Mir's poor sportsmanship is problematic,"
No, it’s genius marketing. This article would’ve never been written if he spoke like Randy Couture did. You’d just roll off a couple comments about his great striking ability and sportsmanship.
This ‘heel’ attitude does wonders for the Frank Mir marketing train.
Give him Roy Nelson! Both have good BJJ, Nelson can stand. Mir would have a size height advantage. And we could see two guys who believe size is the key to a good ground game.
I don’t think Mir believes size is the key to a good ground game at all. Mir is an amazing BJJ artist but knows that not being thrown around by a ape like wrestler is a sure help when trying to win a fight. Size only matters when the both guys have the same amount of skill, case and point being BJ/GSP. Mir finished Brock the first time due to Lesnar being green and leaving his leg open for a sub (size did not matter Mir had more MMA skill). Second fight Brock learns a little more and knows how to use his wrestling properly and it puts him on a equil Skill playing field with Mir and size mattered
It's not time for Nog vs. Mir 2
This fight needs to happen while Nog is still where he needs to be, but it’s too soon. Maybe end of 2010 if both fighters are still relevant to the title. Mir vs. Carwin should happen first (111 or 112?). How long will that mean Carwin has been on the shelf?
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