Frank Mir explains why he wants to kill Brock Lesnar in the Octagon
Published by Zach Arnold on February 23rd, 2010 in Current Events

 Print |  Email |  RSS

In the fight game, you can say a lot of things during interviews and get away with it. One line, however, that you don’t cross is saying that you want to kill your opponent and do so in the ring. That just doesn’t go over.

Which is why I am very surprised UFC management has allowed the audio from a recent interview last Friday between Frank Mir and former WCW announcer Mark Madden to remain online for listening.

Madden interviewed Mir for about 13 minutes and it was a wide-ranging interview. Mark Madden may have been too hot for ESPN management to handle, but he is a terrific interviewer at asking the right questions and manages to balance interest between hardcore sports fans and the casual sports fan that may be stopping by to listen for a few minutes. Combine that with someone as vociferous and opinioned as Frank Mir and you had an interview that was bound to be informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, you also had two combustible mouths that could say something wrong at any time as well.

Madden started off the interview by saying that the three top heavyweights in MMA are Frank Mir, Brock Lesnar, and Fedor. He asked for Mir to respond.

“I believe so. I mean, but, you know, I don’t know. Right now it’s one thing great about being in the heavyweight division that we didn’t have you know a couple of years ago is that there’s several names on that list, you know, … There’s a lot of guys out there right now. I mean, we have a lot of up-and-comers, I mean, that kid Stefan Struve is 7 foot tall running around there, you know, fighting his way up. Todd Duffee, you know, I train with him, his debut in the UFC, knocks a guy out in 3 seconds. So, right now, you know, there’s a lot of interesting match-ups and stuff. So it’s definitely a more competitive weight class, so if you can say you’re one of the best now, it’s something to be proud of.”

Madden, like many fans, wonders why Fedor never signed with the UFC. He asked Mir if he was disappointed about Fedor being in Strikeforce and why he thought the Russian didn’t sign with UFC.

“Yeah, I’m disappointed but I realize too, I think Fedor doesn’t give a… doesn’t care about the business aspect of our sport. I think he pretty much fights wherever his management puts him and I think that maybe financially for whatever reason they felt it was best to avoid the UFC. I got to think though Fedor’s a pretty competitive guy, I mean he does Sambo competitions to this day… still and on his own, you know, so you know he wants to compete and you know fighting in Strikeforce, I mean, who’s he going to fight over there? I mean, you know, I don’t know, I think if he wants some tough competition, the UFC’s where you go in any weight class and especially in the heavyweight class. He’s the only heavyweight I can think of that’s in the Top 10 that’s outside of the UFC.”

Mir is coming off of a rebound win against Cheick Kongo last December in Memphis. He lost his fight to Brock Lesnar at UFC 100 last July, the most-watched PPV in the history of UFC by far. Madden asked for Mir to elaborate on what changes he has made in training since losing to Lesnar.

“Well, you know, that’s something that I’ve been working on with Mark Philippi, he’s a strength coach here in Vegas. You know some people might recognize the name, he did some Strongman competitions, The’ World’s Strongest Man and he’s a football strength coach at UNLV for 16 years. So after that fight, you know it’s something you have to do. When you see a loss, one thing is acknowledging that I loss and you can’t make excuses. I had to sit there and go wow, you know, 40 pounds amongst skill athletes MATTERS, you know because I’m so used to big guys in the gym and I just trashed them but you know a big guy whose skilled as Lesnar is especially with the wrestling, it’s a whole different scenario. So, I’ve basically been working on strength training. Putting on size myself, you know, maybe you know I don’t know if I’ll ever be stronger than Brock Lesnar. He seems to have pretty good genetics in that category. I just have to close the gap so it’s not so overwhelming.

“First of all when I first walked in the gym I was concerned about the scale or if I put on size what it would mean. Not so much now because I realize it’s more less about you know if I’m moving weights at a fast speed and I’m lifting heavyweights and moving them around, that’s what I’m more concerned with and the weights kind of become my personal weight gain becomes an afterthought. So the one thing I’ve really noticed is just the ability to be anaerobically in shape. I think a lot of martial artists are in good aerobic shape you know sit there and hit pads or spar at a nice pace all day long, but the minute we go to do something extremely heavy or explosive they can be fatigued and that’s one thing with the training that I do at Philippi’s, a lot of it you know he has the Atlas Stones and we’re picking up stones and running around with them. It’s conditioned my body now that I can sit there and I’m not as fearful of using my explosiveness now in the Octagon because I’m like, oh, I can do it several times during a match. I don’t have to worry about holding back and conserving myself because I know if I explode I’m going to get tired.”

The obvious dynamic that made the Mir/Lesnar feud so hot in 2009 is that both men truly hate each other. Mir accurately summed up why the heat between the two men is so much more real than anything WWE is producing right now.

“I don’t think Lesnar made it in pro-wrestling because of his acting abilities. *laugh* I know from his point of view, he doesn’t like me and I can guarantee you talk to anybody in my family, it’s a legitimate hate. It’s been very motivated on my part where just you know it just his very being bugs me just because I see that a lot of children out there that you know they look to athletes and martial artists as role models and it just makes me cringe I sit there and go man I lost to this guy the second time around and now people are out there going, “Well, you know, that’s the way to be, be big, obnoxious, and angry,” you know, I’m like, no man, that’s not the way, that’s not right. So, it’s almost kind of like you know just a viewpoint you know, anger we have against each other, where everything I stand for he despises and dislikes and I can tell you that I truly do not like him as a person whatsoever.”

Those words would soon come to haunt Mir later on the interview.

Mir hyped up his upcoming fight in New Jersey against Shane Carwin on March 27th. It’s going to draw a lot of eyeballs on PPV.

“I’m hoping that you know if all goes well I mean, I got Shane Carwin March 27th and that’s a tough guy so if I get past him, then I’m looking to hopefully fight [Lesnar] sometime this Summer.”

Mir was asked to explain why he said that he felt Shane Carwin posed more of a threat to him than Brock Lesnar.

“Yeah, you know because [Carwin] poses a lot of threats, you know a lot of people think I’m downplaying Lesnar by saying Carwin’s a better version, but it’s easy. I explain it like this: Lesnar hasn’t knocked out anybody out in the Octagon. No one’s really worried about his stand-up, I mean, in our fight the last fight at UFC 100 I was more than happy to stand up with him. He kept me taking me down. So, you know, his strength and his ground and pound is obviously world-class, it’s what enabled him to be the champ. Carwin is you know he walks around 280 pounds, he’s a Division II champion in wrestling, so equally you know he’s still a better wrestler than I am and so he poses the same threats that Brock does as far as his wrestling ability but Carwin’s knocked out several people now, you know, no one’s made it past the first round with his guy. So that’s what I see as a better version because it’s like well I got to worry about his wrestling, but if I just sit there and concentrate on not getting taken down and ground and pound and I fall asleep on his right hand, it could put me to sleep. You know, he’s a very heavy hitter. In the fight with Gonzaga he knocked him out with a one shot, caught him on the chin and Gonzaga was asleep in the cage.”

Madden then asked an old-school question to Mir, asking the ex-UFC heavyweight champion which specific discipline that he trains in to be the most valuable tool in his arsenal.

“I think they all have their different points that make it better. You know I think that you know a lot of my stance and a lot of my striking is more boxing-oriented on my feet, but Muay Thai adds in the elbows and knees and shins and trying to use different weapons where boxing is limited there, you know, you only use your hands. In jiu-jitsu is obviously one of my greatest strengths just because once you hit the ground and you know a guy can have a good chin but no one has a good elbow. You don’t say, “that guy can’t be arm barred!” Not if you get caught in a armbar, your arm’s going to brake, if I catch you in a choke then you’re going to go to sleep. And then the karate, I still use it a lot too just because it’s very much more open-minded. I think sometimes people sit there and go,”Oh, wait a minute you can’t switch stances, you can’t do this, it’s fundamentally wrong,” well I’m like, no, there are certain principles you got to follow but after that just achieve the adjective. Karate has more of an approaching-the-problem kind of aspect to it, it’s more of a lifestyle martial art than just a sport for say just being in combat, so I mean I don’t think I’d be who I was with anything taken away.”

Madden busted out another question, asking Mir why he was hesitant to learn Brazilian Jiu-JItsu when he watched Royce Gracie use it in the pioneer days of UFC.

“Well, I think that it’s just a lot of times I fell into the same trap that a lot of other people fell into, it’s just like you know even though you’ve seen it it’s kind of a denial especially since I’ve been training martial arts stand up version since I was a little kid. My Dad owned a karate school. So I think that you know sometime acknowledging things that you realize that the way you’ve dedicated your life for the last couple of years is incomplete and most people don’t want to do that. It’s like people are so jealously defending their religion, their upbringing, “I have it the right way!” because no one wants to admit that they’ve dedicated their life to something that may not be the most optimal journey and so you know when I frist went into the gym I was 19 or 20 I started jiu-jitsu and there was a guy weighing 145 pounds who was a blue jelt in jiu-jitsu and you know at the time I was still 230, I’m thinking, no way. I got choked out from every way you can imagine. The guy could have been talking to me and telling what he wanted to do and I couldn’t stop him. And that’s when it finally sunk in, you know.”

Before Mir 2.0 surfaced and became the mega-star that he is today, he was splitting time between training for UFC fights and working security at the infamous Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas. Madden asked Mir to put into perspective the troublemakers that cruised through the Rhino versus the athletes that he fights in the cage.

“The guys that go into there, that’s one thing people tell me, “Ah man, I’ve had like 50 bar fights, I’m undefeated!” I’m like, really? My wife could be undefeated in 50 bars fights, typically most guys here aren’t in shape and can’t fight for more than 15 seconds and I’ve seen men who think they know how to fight you know the first they do is grab t-shirts, they lower their head and it looks like a hockey fight. Give me a break, man! I think people you know get a couple of drinks in them and the other thing is too you have that where they couldn’t fight to begin with and now they’re drunk, so yeah fighting in a Octagon against a guy who’s a trained athlete who is dangerous and prepared to do battle, a little bit more intimidating than a guy who’s just you know got spurned by some dancer and he’s angry and he’s been drinking a bunch of drinks and you know couldn’t jog a mile let alone fight for more than 5 seconds you know he gets gassed by just getting mad.”

Despite the fame and the fortune Mir has accrued in a short amount of time, he told Madden that there is simply nothing like the rush of fighting in the cage.

“Yeah, there’s no sensation like it. I mean, obviously I mean we watch movies like Gladiator and Troy and they sit there and you see a guy going into battle and they pan out to the screen and I think people can get a feeling for what it’s like and just imagine that, it’s only a small percentage of the sensation that’s going through a fighter because we are actually living that, it’s actually like a movie come to life, I’m walking out to battle against a tough, tough warrior with thousands of fans sitting there watching you in the middle of an Octagon, it’s very yeah it’s a rush, you know, it’s hard to describe it in any other aspect of my life. I’ve been into motorcycles and you know I like to go shooting and you know there are different sports that I’m into that are a little more extreme and none of them match up to what it’s like to walk out to the Octagon.”

At this point of the interview, it was winding down and Madden had done a great job of getting Mir to answer some very open-ended questions. Unfortunately, the closing to the interview took a turn for the worse. Madden asked Mir to explain his popularity amongst Mixed Martial Arts fans and why he’s more popular than other fighters. It seemed to be a safe enough question, but the answer went incredibly overboard.

“I like to think that just for the reason that I’m pretty candid when I speak about things. A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct and you know a lot of fighters you know we’re all together I hear them, “Oh, don’t say that because you know the fans won’t like you!” I’m like you know what dude, I’ve realized a long time ago you’re going to have fans who love you and fans that hate you and I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC you know “Oh you know the guy’s a great fighter and I have a lot of respect of him!” And if I don’t mean it, then why is it even coming out of my mouth because whose interested in hearing that? You see the same cookie cutter responses. “Oh, who do you want to fight next? Well, whoever the UFC deems me, I just want to fight anybody!” I’m like man, I’ve heard that a thousand times! I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person, I want to break his neck in the ring, I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.”

Which prompted Madden to close out the segment by saying, “Don’t forget, Octagon-related injuries… LOVE THAT!”

Except for the parents whose children Frank Mir said earlier in the interview that Brock Lesnar shouldn’t be a role model to.