Frank Mir Talks Brock Lesnar, Still Gunning for Rubber Match
by Luke Thomas on Dec 6, 2009 2:30 PM EST
in MMA News
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The former two-time UFC Heavyweight champion cannot let go of the rivalry:
Despite their volatile history with one another, Mir seems genuinely concerned for the hulking Minnesotan’s well-being.
"He’s a pretty tough guy," Mir said. "If anybody can get through it, it has to be him. I want him to be able to be there for his kids. Do I still want to go in there and rip his arm off? Absolutely."
With Lesnar on the sidelines indefinitely, talk has inevitably turned to the creation of potential interim title fights. Mir, who was interim champion between December 2008 and July 2009, thinks the UFC would do well to steer clear of such scenarios.
"I hate interim titles," Mir said. "I think it’s stupid. It’s retarded. It’s confusing to fans. Let [Lesnar] keep the belt [until he can fight again], or go ahead and put it away. Either he can defend it, or he can’t. If he can’t defend it in a year, strip him of the title. I’ve lived on both sides of it. If we can avoid it, let’s avoid it."
If Lesnar can return and successfully defend his title, and if Mir defeats Kongo or potentially another challenger, then the rubber match between these two is not an outlandish idea. After Mir's loss at UFC 100, the domination of Lesnar seemed to deflate any idea of a third fight in addition to undercutting the value of Mir's first win.
You also have to hand it to Mir: a fighter who can provoke more than he excites can still create opportunities for himself. He's obviously still a relevant heavyweight, so outside of his self-promotion there's viability to his title shot candidacy. But clearly his obsession with avenging the loss to Lesnar remains Mir's professed raison d'etre. And as long as he has the ability to at least talk as if a rematch is necessary for himself and the heavyweight division, I suspect he'll get it. I also suspect he'll create heat and intrigue.
As for the interim title argument, I don't buy the argument that such titles are confusing for fans. The more relevant question is what value-add does an interim title offer? Other than giving a belt to a top contender when there is a temporarily absent champion, the interim belt offers little.
But all this talk of Lesnar when Mir faces a very tough Kongo seems misplaced. The real question for Mir is: what's the back-up plan? If Lesnar can't return, what then now?
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I have zero interest in seeing a rubber match.
Hopefully some other HW will talk trash about Miguel Torres so Frank can turn his attention elsewhere. Mir’s whole “I’m obsessed with BROCKLESNAR” thing got old a few months ago
I specializes in grammar fail.
MythBuster will show up soon
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
by Damon O. on Dec 6, 2009 3:28 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
i do
after lesnar fights and presumably beats carwin, nog and velasquez.
http://mixedmartialartsblogger.wordpress.com/
by Cory Braiterman on Dec 6, 2009 8:24 PM EST up reply actions
oh
and dos santos and should he ever hit the ufc, fedor. also the rubber match could happen regardless of lesnar continuing his win streak
http://mixedmartialartsblogger.wordpress.com/
by Cory Braiterman on Dec 6, 2009 8:25 PM EST up reply actions
Dear Cheick Kongo,
Please do this to Frank Mir’s face:
Sincerely,
MMA fans everywhere
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
by ufc4 on Dec 6, 2009 2:43 PM EST reply actions 5 recs
xD the bee sting picture
"he's the best punchy face man in the buisness"
by blubber_guard on Dec 6, 2009 3:04 PM EST up reply actions
I’m always confused by the term “rip his arm off” as applied to submissions. I don’t think any arm submissions have any kind of ripping motion going on.
But I guess “I still want to hyperextend one of his joints” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
That seems like more of a twisting than a ripping. But it would be funny if Mir implying that he wants to beat Brock with a kimura, specifically.
by JRN on Dec 6, 2009 5:05 PM EST up reply actions
Well, the tissues rip if you pull hard enough, and the joint-subs are pulling the limbs in the wrong direction, so it makes sense.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Dec 6, 2009 5:19 PM EST up reply actions
Nah, I would start with biting.
Keep firing Assholes!
Fedor has accomplished nothing until he fights Kimbo.
See, what “rip his arm off” calls to mind for me is just grabbing the arm and, you know, ripping it straight out, like a movie monster or something. I don’t equate “rip his arm off” with “carefully apply an armlock technique in order to induce the proper leverage in a twisting motion, resulting in the ripping and tearing of the joint and subsequent wholesale removal of the arm.”
The latter is what actually happens, but I have a hard time believing that’s what he’s trying to convey.
by JRN on Dec 6, 2009 8:42 PM EST up reply actions
Justice League of America
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
Brock’s health is in Mir’s best intre$t$.
Keep firing Assholes!
Fedor has accomplished nothing until he fights Kimbo.
Exactly.
Talking about a rubber match makes Mir seem as if he’s relevant, even if he’s not.
Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing.
by lowellthehammer on Dec 6, 2009 3:10 PM EST up reply actions
Hey noober you accidently put dollar signs where the s’s should be in “interests”
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
by ufc4 on Dec 7, 2009 8:33 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Damn, I'm feeling kind of lonely being a Frank Mir fan over here...
Also, great train of thought from Mir:
I want him to be able to be there for his kids. Do I still want to go in there and rip his arm off? Absolutely.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
If Mir rips Brock’s arm off and he bleeds to death he won’t be there for his kids.
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
I feel like Brock’s shit would just heal up, like Wolverine
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
Brock’s shit obviously doesn’t heal that well.
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
by ufc4 on Dec 6, 2009 4:30 PM EST up reply actions 3 recs
lol
well played
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
on a roll tonight man
Welcome to the Machida Error.
by slapjaw ackrite on Dec 6, 2009 11:32 PM EST up reply actions
I feel like soon Frank Mir and Mark David Chapman will be linked in ways we never imagined. Obsessed much?
"He's got a great package and it's an unusual one." - Joe Rogan on Lyoto Machida @ UFC 94.
By stabbing the wrong person?
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
Look it up you dunce.
"He's got a great package and it's an unusual one." - Joe Rogan on Lyoto Machida @ UFC 94.
by Earl Montclair on Dec 6, 2009 4:44 PM EST up reply actions
Yoko Ono allusion
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
fuck
Who am I thinking of? Someone was stabbed….
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
by Anthony Pace on Dec 6, 2009 11:34 PM EST up reply actions
Monica Seles. maybe?
"(Brock Lesnar) is never in good spirits and he's not in good spirits now." - Dana White
I think you are very very wrong sir
"He's got a great package and it's an unusual one." - Joe Rogan on Lyoto Machida @ UFC 94.
Can’t blame Mir. Is his Brock obsession getting a little out of hand? Damn skippy, it is. On other hand, in terms of his star power, he’s arguably the most underpaid guy in the UFC at 45k a fight. Hitch his star to Brock’s somewhat, put his name out there more, maybe he’ll start getting bigger paydays.
Or just the fuck beaten out of him. Either way!
Please Mir, go away already,
Go Leafs and Bruins!
by Brad Ackerson on Dec 6, 2009 7:15 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I have NO interested in seeing Brock beat Mir yet again. He beat him handily the second time and was beating him bad the first time until he got caught. It wasn’t like some great back and forth battle where one guy dominated once and then the other guy the next time dominated. Plus, Mir is annoying.
Can’t really blame him I guess though. Brock is the champion and Mir wants to stay relevant. Good luck with that Mir.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." - Jack Dempsey
I actually do want to see the rubber match. It’s heavily marketable, Mir is a top ten heavy and it’s one of the most intriguing match-making possibilities available after the obvious (Carwin/Velasquez/Nog/Cigano). Will it end any different than the last fight? Nope..
"I’m sorry. I didn’t drink last night, so I’m not funny today."
-Sakuraba
I think the problem is that it does very little for Brock.
He gains nothing but another win in his column by fighting Mir. Where if he spends that time fighting another fighter, he will at least add a victory over someone new. And with only a handful of wins so far, people constantly question his status b/c of that. And the whole Mir thing will just be grouped in together. Plus, Brock does have enough weight to sling around in the UFC to say, no, he doesn’t want to fight Mir again if he really doesn’t want to.
Down the road, if the UFC runs out of other HWs to throw at him. What else can you do, but that. But as long as a new name is out there for Lesnar to fight, I’d rather see him tested by someone different each time.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." - Jack Dempsey
If they rematch after there upcoming fights, then 3 of Brock’s 7 fights will have been against the same person.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Dec 6, 2009 7:56 PM EST up reply actions
yea, that’s a lot at this point in Brock’s career IMO
You don’t want almost half your fights to be against one guy when everybody is always looking at how new you are to the sport (and everything else they say about Brock)
I think he’d just be better off fighting new opponents (assuming there were decent ones for him out there to match up at the time).
Even as a fan of Brock, I’d feel better about his record if he fought Carwin, then Nog; moreso than Carwin, then Mir again.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." - Jack Dempsey
I have yet to meet a fan confused by an "interim title"
And I lurk on the Sherdog forums.
It’s actually in mirs best interest that brock doesn’t return, that way he can always say that he was the only guy to be able to beat the guy, and that he would be able to beat him in a 3rd fight that will never happen. The only way Mir stops talking about Brock is if they do fight again, if they don’t, Mir will continue to run his mouth
by kanodogg on Dec 6, 2009 10:46 PM EST via mobile reply actions
anyone that even
remotely pays attention to MMA will know that if Mir pulled that argument out, that he beat a guy with ONE win in ONE fight. Not something to be bragging about is it?
Now in theaters
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
by ufc4 on Dec 6, 2009 11:45 PM EST reply actions 4 recs
Rec'd
Frank Mir’s the obsessed one though.
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
Yeah, but my pics worked out better this way.
The only thing Jon Jones does better than Matt Hamill is hear.
(And smash faces)
by ufc4 on Dec 7, 2009 12:07 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I want to anti-rec
because I had almost forced this awful, awful thing out of my head. You sonofabitch
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
by Anthony Pace on Dec 7, 2009 12:13 AM EST up reply actions
GF made you see it?
I was roped into this abortion of cinema by someone I was dating.
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
yep. for some reason she didn’t want to go see “Fast and Furious” with me
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
by Anthony Pace on Dec 7, 2009 12:27 AM EST up reply actions
I love how people still can’t seem to get over the fact that Mir and Lesnar are 1-1 against each other and 2 more wins would make a rubber match a must have. All the excuses and blind hate that people have against Mir don’t mean shit, he’s a 2 time UFC HW champion and has wins over 3 of the last 4 HW champions in the UFC. I love that he’s focused like he is right now in being the best, I only hope that he isn’t overlooking Kongo with his Lesnar obssession because then and only then is this a bad thing.
I’m in the category of fans that put a lot of faith in the ‘meaning’ of fights. Don’t do it because Mir talks trash. Do it when there is a legitimate argument for it in terms of competitiveness.
If something happens that exhausts other possibilities and challengers at some point, I’d watch the rubber as a nice little drama play even if I didn’t feel it was competitive. But not ideal for me. Boring old kvadrium?
Roy Nelson vs Heavyweight Division
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dj5xMeXybs I think theres some legitimacy for Roy right here. People always talk about how Mir is a super good guy on the ground… but Roy beat him in a grappling match. (in 2003, but he beat him nonetheless)
I think that with Roy in the picture theres plenty of good fights in the heavyweight division until Lesnar gets healthy.
When is Mir
gonna focus on the fights at hand, is he overlooking the path of people he needs to take to get to Lesnar. BTW, am I the only one that thinks that big Nog and Mir should fight before Lesnar/Mir 3?
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