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| No Mir Mortal |
James Denton |
Does Frank really deserve a crack at the UFC Heavyweight title?
To MMA purists, the fact that Frank Mir is the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion is almost as offensive as Brock Lesnar being the official UFC Heavyweight Champ. Of course, Brock is nothing short of the devil to these people - a fake pro wrestler who didn't earn his shot at Randy Couture and somehow doesn't deserve to hold the belt, even though he dicked 'The Natural' from pillar to post at UFC 91.
Mir, on the other hand, is the golden boy who threw it all away. He made his name by breaking Tim Sylvia's arm to win the strap back in 2004, but subsequently fell victim to the Vegas lifestyle and a horrific motorcycle accident. The once-phenomenal fighter was reduced to a lazy lump of lard, showing up to the cage in terrible condition and gassing out within minutes of the opening bell.
And yet despite this, he was springboarded straight into a title shot when he beat Lesnar in a fight he was supposed to lose (and, in fact, should have lost, if not for Steve 'Dana White Officially Says I Shouldn't Be A Referee' Mazzagatti). And after tooling a similarly broken-down Minotauro Nogueira at UFC 92, he's now on a collision course with Brock to unify the belts.
Neither of these guys would be champion had Couture not been greedy and tried to strong-arm the UFC in 2007. Mir and Lesnar were nowhere near even a sniff of the Championship, as Randy was set to face Minotauro in one of the few remaining UFC versus Pride dream matches. Instead, however, Couture held the belt hostage and created this whole interim mess in the first place.
The result was MMA's two most legitimate champions being smashed by what many consider the two most illegitimate. We vindicated Brock back in issue 34, so now we must answer the question: does Frank Mir deserve to wear UFC gold, and does he stand a chance in a rematch with Lesnar?
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 37 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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