Frank Mir: 'I would crush Brock Lesnar standing up'
After winning impressively this week in the main event of UFC Fight Night, former heavyweight champion Frank Mir expressed interest in a rubber match with arch nemesis Brock Lesnar. Lesnar lost to Mir by submission in his first UFC fight, back in 2008.
The NCAA Division I national wrestling champion would go on to avenge the defeat with a TKO win over Mir the next year, after he'd won the UFC heavyweight title. Lesnar hasn't fought in the UFC since 2011, and has spent his time back in professional wrestling and the WWE, where he became a star.
UFC president Dana White has suggested for months that Lesnar is interested in a return to MMA and the UFC, and a recent report claims that Lesnar is cucrently at an impasse in contract negotiations with the WWE, as his current contract expiration date nears. So, perhaps Mir vs. Lesnar III is closer to being a reality than it would have seemed even a few months ago.
If the fight does happen, Mir is confident that he's improved enough to beat Lesnar again. In their rematch, Mir was overmatched as Lesnar largely dominated him en route to a violent stoppage win.
Mir has taken extra confidence from his boxing training and KO win over Antonio Silva on Sunday, however, and recently said on The Fight Corner podcast that he co-hosts with Heidi Fang that he'd dominate Lesnar on the feet. "I think I would crush him standing up, now," Mir said.
Mir pushed the conventional wisdom that Lesnar doesn't respond well to getting hit. Lesnar, the line goes, is only effective when he's the bully.
Though he showed that he's got the heart and fortitude to come back from a beating when he beat Shane Carwin, the tag has followed Lesnar, at least in the minds of his rivals.
"I've always heard those rumors from his camp that he doesn't like to get hit and we've seen it in the fights," Mir claimed.
"The jab-hook combination that I landed on Bigfoot would have floored him too. And then ground and pound I threw on him, to Bigfoot, I think that the same thing that happened with [Lesnar] and Velasquez â when he finally hit his back, screaming for the fight to be stopped. I just don't know that he'd have time to scream with me."
Though he always packed a serious punch, Lesnar's strength was his powerful wrestling. Mir also believes that he's learned how to deal with that aspect of Lesnar's game.
"I think that on the ground and stuff, I've worked with Ricky Lundell and stuff a lot and learned how to nullify the wrestling," Mir said.
"I wrestled three rounds with Daniel Cormier who's an Olympic level wrestler and he had a difficult time taking me down. I think that Lesnar would really have to throw caution to the wind and really rush through and I don't think that he's gotten any better at wanting to take punches."
