Issue 082
December 2011
BROCK LESNAR VS FRANK MIR
How the themes behind the title-deciding heavyweight clash between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir at UFC 100 in 2009 brokered one of the most successful nights in MMA history
The feeling was quite different. The build-up and hype was different. The storyline? Much the same. When reigning UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar took his more-than 265lb of grizzled strength to ground gifted interim king Frank Mir for a second time at the historic and ceremonious UFC 100, could technique beat power? Would the same rule people learned a century of UFC pay-per-views earlier hold true? When skill trumped strength as jiu-jitsu talisman Royce Gracie compressed the arteries and twisted the limbs of men many pounds his senior to take the first clutch of UFC tournaments.
It was a perfect blend of circumstance that caused the Lesnar-Mir main event of UFC 100 in the summer of 2009 to be so special. The match-up played on one of the founding questions of mixed martial arts; possessed a very real, imagination-stoking mutual distain; and boasted one of the Western sport’s most appealing characters in former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Match to that the unmistakable feeling of UFC history – that sense of weight and grandeur – and July 11th 2009 was not just another night in mixed martial arts.
And there was something to settle too. Lesnar had succumbed to a Frank Mir kneebar 18 months prior in his UFC debut. Lesnar felt Mir was lucky: the finish was the result of a sequence of events following a restart, before which Lesnar was dominating Mir with grounded strikes. And, after using his size, weight and two MMA wins to snatch the heavyweight title from Randy Couture at UFC 91 in November 2008, many fans felt Lesnar was an undeserving and unproven champion. Mir had found renewed life after he submitted Lesnar then taken a surprise stoppage win over Pride legend ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira for the right to be called the UFC interim heavyweight champion. The UFC 100 main event, then, would even a score and decide the undisputed divisional boss.
“I am the UFC heavyweight champion – enough said,” declared man-mountain Lesnar in the weeks before the July fight card. “The other belt that Frank holds is a make-believe belt.” Mir, the possessor of said “make believe” strap, played down the significance of the gold and leather prize on offer. “The difference between the real belt and the interim belt; I just want to win the fight,” he told the media. “Everything else is just a bonus.” And while Lesnar would declare he had “zero respect” for his opponent and vowed to outright defeat him, Mir was more subtle. “I feel that Brock is still just a professional fighter getting into this sport,” panned Mir, “and I’m going to prove that I’m a martial artist and that’s the path to go. I don’t think that being the biggest bully in the yard is going to dictate who can win fights.”
On the event’s countdown show Mir went one further, suggesting he was “working on the intricacies of details of maneuvers that [Brock] still doesn’t even know the name of.” Taunts like these, as well as further jibes at Lesnar’s hardcore strength training regime were not appreciated by the Minnesotan. “He’s a glorified karate kid that won a few fights,” snapped Lesnar during the pre-fight hype, “and here he is with a golden horseshoe up his ass.” The pair were giving the unprecedented surge of media interest in the UFC’s centennial big-card event plenty of headline fodder. The fight, then, promised to be quite something.
Such was the expectancy for the UFC’s debut event into triple digits, that come fight night, prices for front row tickets for the UFC 100 card at the sold out Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas soared to as much as $45,000. While Dan Henderson’s knockout of Michael Bisping, and Georges St Pierre’s dismantling of Thiago Alves earlier in the evening were all worth the price of admission, the main event bad blood between Lesnar and Mir was still the top attraction. A crowd of 10,871 vociferously greeted Lesnar and Mir with their wholehearted choice of cheers or boos, and such was the event’s significance, Bruce Buffer’s traditional 180-degree turn prior to introducing the fighters was, for one time only, doubled to a full 360-degree spin for the marquee bout.
Lesnar’s aggressive dismissal of Mir’s offer to touch gloves after their center-ring referee instructions was an omen of things to come. In front of a reported 1.6 million pay-per-view customers in North America alone, Lesnar maliciously dictated the entire bout. Dragging the jiu-jitsu stylist to the ground in the opening round, the Division 1 champion wrestler outmuscled Mir with a precise and calculated assault. Trapping his Las Vegas adversary under his weight and thrusting jarring rights into Mir’s face. Though in the second round the interim title holder momentarily buckled Lesnar with a jump knee from the clinch, it meant a tumble to the canvas and a sealing of his fate. Lesnar pushed his foe against the fence then encouraged Mir into unconsciousness with a pounding right fist. Lesnar had won – and with strength.
A primal display of victory preceded his dressing down of a bloodied, bruised and confused Mir, telling him: “Talk all the s**t you want now!”
Lesnar had no interest in playing the humble champion during his post-fight interview either. “Frank Mir had a horseshoe up his ass,” declared Lesnar as his spittle collided with Joe Rogan’s microphone and viewers’ close-up porthole view into the former pro wrestler’s speech. “I told him that a year ago. I pulled that sum’bitch out and I beat him over the head with it.” When pressed by Rogan on what the future held for him, Lesnar was unabashed by revealing his true plans; million-dollar center-Octagon sponsors be damned. “I’m going to go home tonight,” started Brock. “I’m going to drink a Coors Light – that’s a Coors Light because Bud Light won’t pay me nothing – I’m going to sit down with my friends and family, and, hell, I might even get on top of my wife tonight. See you all later!”
Afterward, speaking for the benefit of UFC media in the Mandalay Bay locker rooms with sweat still on his brow, Lesnar explained his sequence of remarks were a little extra “salt and pepper” on top of his performance. “People paid a lot of money to get in those seats and I think I put on a hell of a show all the way around, as a fighter and as an entertainer… I tip my hat to Frank [but] in the end you’re looking at the right champion.”
In the days prior to the event and the mainstream-teasing heavyweight headliner, UFC president Dana White spoke to the press about the Lesnar-Mir card’s likely impact and the gulf between the two-person Zuffa beginnings back in 2001 and the impending importance of the card in question on July 2009. “We’ve come a long way, but we’re not even close to being where we’re going to be.” Over two years on, it appears might have been right.
