You’ve got to love grudge matches. And we’ve had more than a few great ones in the UFC lately, haven’t we?
Take these major fights since December:
UFC 99: Dan Hardy vs. Marcus Davis
UFC 98: Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra
UFC 94: Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn
UFC 92: Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
Saturday, we’re going to be treated to a main event that is already stellar and only made more enticing with some needling banter between the two combatants.
The intriguing components to UFC 100’s headlining bout between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir are aplenty:
- It’s a rematch, and we love rematches. Will Mir, who won the first meeting, be able to repeat? Or will Lesnar learn his mistakes and correct them?
- It’s a title fight, and not just any title fight. Both are coming in with belts (albeit, Lesnar’s is the one both want). This will unify the titles and determine the undisputed champion.
- It’s a clash of styles. Lesnar the overpowering striker and accomplished wrestler. Mir the jiu-jitsu expert with an array of martial arts and attacking skills.
- It’s a clash of career approaches. Lesnar is a natural born entertainer who happens to be good at MMA. Mir is a martial artist by nature, who happens to be good at entertaining.
But when these two meet in the Octagon (or at the weigh-ins for that matter) we won’t just be talking about the fighters. We’ll be talking about what they’ve been talking about; specifically, what they’ve been saying about each other.
While I’m not sure we will actually call it a grudge match -- they certainly wouldn’t. But they’ve definitely been launching trash each other’s way.
Lesnar started it off by suggesting that Mir was lucky to beat him the first time out because of what he thought was a questionable decision by referee Steve Mazzagatti to halt the bout when he was in a dominant position. While you could make that argument, it’s not exactly giving your opponent respect, now is it?
Later, he dismissed Mir’s interim belt as "fake." And then, after their rematch had to be postponed because of an injury, Lesnar wondered:
"Is Frank really hurt, or is he just scared?"
Most recently, Lesnar discredited Mir’s impressive accomplishment of stopping the previously unstoppable Antonio Rodgrio Nogueira:
"Anybody's standup looks good when you're standing in front of a zombie," Lesnar said.
Mir has not been flattering either. Early on he compared Lesnar to the foolheardy Junie Browning from The Ultimate Fighter. He suggested there’s more hype than substance, and diminished the effectiveness of Lesnar’s seemingly punishing assaults:
"Lesnar's ground-and-pound is just annoying."
Most recently, Mir said he’d love to "coach" Lesnar, suggesting the former WWE fighter has a lot to learn and that he could teach him. And last week he said he didn’t think Lesnar was "physically capable of going five rounds of hard fighting."
This is good stuff. But one wonders how much of it is real and how much of it is for the sake of the build-up, or to get into the other’s head? Hardy admitted his whole pre-fight smack talk with Davis was strictly to gain "any edge he possibly could" -- basically he didn’t mean any of it and felt no ill-will toward his opponent. Don’t know if Davis felt the same way, but it certainly seemed to work.
On last week’s conference call, both Lesnar and Mir said there was no animosity between them and they respected each other. Whether their harsh words are how they truly feel or are part of the "gamesmanship" that has become so important in MMA lately, I don’t think it really matters. It’s not going to affect either of these guys.
Why? Because each has his own motivation for winning this bout that has nothing to do with shutting the other up.
Mir, a former champion whose career was derailed in 2004 by a motorcycle accident, has come a long way since his return in 2006, especially considering his first three post-rehab fights weren’t inspiring (two of them losses). He’s now on a three-fight win streak and on the verge of holding the title all to himself again.
His motivation now is simple.
"I feel like I'm as good as I should be and I want to have that recognized," Mir said.
Lesnar meanwhile still has the stigma of not being considered an deserving champion, at least in the eyes of some.
As much as he calls Mir’s belt fake, Lesnar sort of snuck in there to get his title shot. He deserves to be called champion, earning the win over Randy Couture fair and square. But it’s just hard to say he’s "paid his dues." If he beats Mir Saturday, that should silence those critics.
"I don't dislike Frank in any way other than he's got a win over me," Lesnar said last week. "Revenge is the only motivation for me."
But I believe it’s a revenge that’s not personal.
And I have a feeling that when the fight is all over, we’ll see the two shaking hands (And maybe even embracing!).
At least I hope so.
