Revenge a factor in Mir-Dos Santos?
UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos won't come out and say it, but when he faces Frank Mir on Saturday in the main event of UFC 146 in Las Vegas, there will be more than just his belt on the line.
After all, Mir is the man who didn't just beat Dos Santos' mentor, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, he broke him. Quite literally. Well, at least his arm.
Mir said heard a pop, but hadn’t realized the damage he’d done.
His submission win over Nogueira at UFC 140 on Dec. 10, 2011 seemed like one of the many Mir has compiled in his career. He worked his way into a kimura, locking Nogueira's arm into a position limbs simply aren't meant to be put in, heard the pop, and was declared the winner via tapout at 3:38 of the first round in their co-main event bout.
It was awarded Submission of the Night and Submission of the Year honors. UFC president Dana White afterward called it the "submission of the century."
But that's not what made it different than other submission wins on Mir's resume. It was the fact that Nogueira's arm was broken.
"I didn’t realize it was as bad as it was," Mir told FOXSports.com. "I kind of assumed it was like the Renzo Gracie-(Kazushi) Sakuraba type of submission, where I thought his elbow just kind of dislocated. In that situation, people can straighten it out and once it pops back into place, from what I’ve seen in the past with other individuals, there’s no damage. Their arm might be sore for a couple of weeks, but they’re fine. I didn’t realize it had broken the way it did with Nogueira."
In the aftermath, Mir was left wondering why a move he had used so often to less devastating results left an MMA legend writhing in pain in the center of the Octagon with a major bone split into pieces.
"It made me curious as to why it worked out that way," Mir said. "I’m more clinical, I guess. I was just thinking, ‘Wow. I broke his humerus? I wonder if he’s ever had to have any kind of treatments. What would he have ever done that would make his bones weaker?’
"Not to take away from myself, I’m a pretty strong guy. But I’ve submitted people before in that way, and other individuals have been submitted in that way, and usually it’s the shoulder rotator cuff that tears or it’s the elbow. So I tried to break it down technically. Did I grab it in a different way? Or did he maybe have a pre-existing condition, some kind of injury that weakened his arm? Maybe he just didn't drink enough milk."
Dos Santos, who was still basking in the glow of having won the UFC heavyweight title less than a month earlier at the first UFC on FOX event, was forced to watch his teammate suffer a painful loss. Dos Santos trains with Team Nogueira, run by the legendary Brazilian twins (Antonio Rodrigo, aka Big Nog and his light heavyweight brother Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, aka Lil Nog) and saw his mentor go down in a big way.
Originally, Dos Santos was going to face Alistair Overeem in the main event, but Overeem tested positive for elevated testosterone levels and was forced out of the fight. Mir, who was to face the man Dos Santos beat to win the title, Cain Velasquez, was promoted to the headline bout by White on April 20.
When he learned he was going to face the man who conquered Big Nog, Dos Santos said he thought about it a bit. But while many see this as an opportunity for the champ to avenge his friend, that's not how Dos Santos necessarily sees it.
"For sure, it crossed my mind. Obviously, I saw the fight. It crossed my mind when I found out I was fighting Frank Mir," Dos Santos told FOXSports.com through his interpretor, Ana Claudia Guedes. "But it doesn’t influence or motivate me for the fight.
"My only motivation going into this fight is that I want to defend my belt. I want to remain the champion. I have a lot of really great things happening in my life. Being the champion has been a fantastic experience, and I want to keep things going in that direction for myself. So my motivation is myself, my career objectives and my family."
Mir, too, has given some thought to the fact he's not only facing the current champion, but also someone who views Nogueira as a hero and mentor. But he, too, doesn't necessarily buy into the whole vengeance scenario. Besides, he feels simply losing to the noted knockout artist Dos Santos wouldn't even mean he exacted revenge.
"I don’t know if it factors in, but I’m aware of the situation," Mir said. "But really, if he wants to have vengeance to redeem Nogueira, he would have to submit me. I think that’d be the only way to really get an eye for an eye. If he goes out there and gets a victory over me, it’s like, ‘OK, he won, but I still submitted Nogueira.’ That’s not going to change anything."
Dos Santos said there's a strong connection between pretty much all the Brazilian fighters in the UFC, but the bond between himself and Nogueira goes beyond that.
"I think there is (a connection), especially in our case, me and Big Nog," Dos Santos said. "When I started my career, I started out helping him a lot. I was his sparring partner. I learned a lot from him and we’re on the same team, so we’re very close."
Mir said he knew Dos Santos and Nogueira were close, but he didn't realize how close until he saw the first episode of UFC Primetime: Dos Santos vs. Mir on FX last week.
"I didn’t think anything of it really until I watched the Primetime show," Mir said. "Their relationship is a lot deeper than I took it as. I thought they were training partners and friends, but Dos Santos really thinks very highly of Nogueira. They have a very close bond that I didn’t realize was there."
And if Dos Santos is, in fact, looking to exact some revenge for Big Nog, Mir can't say he didn't know it was coming.
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