THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS — Technique trumped power at UFC 81 as Frank Mir submitted former WWE star Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira choked out Tim Sylvia.
The heavyweight co-main events at the Mandalay Bay Events Center made for compelling viewing Saturday night, albeit unfolding at different speeds. Mir-Lesnar was full throttle — 90 seconds of frantic violence before Lesnar tapped out to a kneebar. Nogueira-Sylvia was a more drawn-out striking battle that ended after 11 minutes 28 seconds with Nogueira, who had decisively lost the first two rounds, somehow rallying to submit Sylvia via guillotine choke.
Both Lesnar and Sylvia said they spent hours in the gym, preparing to resist those exact submissions. But when push came to shove, they could not execute and paid for it.
"I hate jiu-jitsu," said the six-foot-eight, 255-pound Sylvia, drawing laughs at the post-fight news conference.
With both bouts ending in submission — with limbs on the line — the card lived up to its name of Breaking Point.
The six-foot-three, 265-pound Lesnar lost the fight but won over critics in his UFC debut, showing the kind of brute power and agility that will take its toll on opponents as he continues his mixed martial arts education. In just his second MMA outing, Lesnar (1-1) threw a scare into a former champion and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.
"The question surrounding this event was can Brock Lesnar fight and I think the answer is yes, he can," said UFC president Dana White.
Lesnar’s UFC debut drew the likes of wrestlers (Stone Cold) Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and the Undertaker to Sin City on the eve of the Super Bowl. Fighters in the crowd of 10,583 included Montreal’s Georges St. Pierre, Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell, Quinton (Rampage) Jackson, B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes and Dan Henderson. Baseball was represented by slugger Barry Bonds, who was roundly booed when he was shown on the big screens.
Lesnar, 30, earned US$250,000, missing out on an additional $200,000 win bonus, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Mir earned $140,000, including a $40,000 win bonus and $60,000 bonus for submission of the night.
Nogueira collected $260,000, including a $100,000 win bonus, while Sylvia earned $160,000. That included $60,000 for each for being part of what the UFC judged was fight of the night.
Lesnar, a former NCAA wrestling champion, looked cool and businesslike as he came out to Motley Crue’s "Shout at the Devil." His loud reception included boos.
Mir (11-3) thought Lesnar might try to use his wrestling skills to avoid being taken to the ground, where Mir could use his jiu-jitsu. The Mir camp thought Lesnar would stand and strike.
Instead Lesnar came out at 100 miles an hour, bowled him over and started pounding from above as Mir tried to execute submissions. To Mir’s amazement, Lesnar escaped a couple of solid armbar attempts before he was finally caught.
Mir, who moonlights at director of security at the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club in Las Vegas, said he was he was ready for Lesnar’s power but not for his quickness. "I almost kind of chuckled a little bit. It was like `Oh shit, and he’s fast?’ What the hell."
Referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the bout early on to take a point away from Lesnar for hitting Mir in the back of the head while he was on the ground. That gave Mir a chance to recover, but he said he never feared the fight being stopped while he was on the ground.
"Constant motion was the key to not having the fight stopped," he explained, adding with a laugh: "I was not winning that fight the first minute and 20 seconds.
"I just kept moving around, looking for the opportunity for submission."
Nogueira, a human tree trunk at 6-1 and 240 pounds, took a beating from the fists of Sylvia for more than two rounds before showing the submission master that he is. The Brazilian’s craggy face, swollen and bloodied as he sat with the shiny belt, looked worse for wear than Sylvia’s after the fight.
"He’s got heavy hands," the Brazilian said. "A really, really true heavyweight… . I just waited for my chance to go to the ground. But his standup is amazing."
Sylvia (26-4) used that power to batter Nogueira in the first round, flooring him and cutting him near the eye. The Brazilian was stymied in his attempt to get the fight on the ground, with Sylvia content to back away and fight on his feet.
But in the third, Nogueira (31-4-1) reversed a takedown and ended up in side control, setting the stage for the submission. Sylvia escaped an armbar but could not slip out of the choke.
.In his previous fight, Nogueira also rose from the dead, surviving a wicked kick to the head from Heath Herring to win by decision.
"He takes a beating and keeps on ticking," said Sylvia. "I thought I had him in the first round. And I was really confident in the second round I was going to able to finish him."
Nogueira, a former Pride title-holder, and Sylvia, a former two-time UFC champion, were fighting for the interim title because the real thing is tied up before the courts. The UFC is suing champion Randy (The Natural) Couture over the Hall of Famer’s decision to walk away from his contract.
"I expect Captain America to step up to the plate and give Nogueira the opportunity to win the title," said White, when asked who Nogueira would meet next.
Couture was on hand to corner lightweight Tyson Griffin after flying in from Calgary where he spent Friday night working with several fighters on a Hardcore Championship Fighting card whose main event was won by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira — Rodrigo’s twin brother.
Couture came out of retirement to beat Sylvia to win the title at UFC 68 last March. That came by unanimous decision but Sylvia’s three other losses — to Mir, Nogueira and Andre Arlovski — were all by submission.
"In my defence, Nogueira’s the best in the world," said Sylvia. "No doubt in my mind, I’ve been saying it for a long time. He’s the best jiu-jitsu heavyweight in the world. And I’m probably pretty safe to say that Frank Mir is the second. They both got me and you all know what Frank did to me."
Mir broke Sylvia’s arm at UFC 48 in June 2004 to win the vacant title. He had to give it up the championship after suffering serious injuries later that year in a motorcycle crash.
In a pre-fight publicity interview with the UFC prior to this fight, Lesnar dismissed Mir breaking Sylvia’s arm by saying "Who cares."
Sylvia gave it back to him jokingly at the post-fight news conference. "He almost broke your leg."
Lesnar, a Minnesota native, said he planned to take a week off to go ice fishing and take his family up north. "And then come back, get back on the horse. I’ve got no excuses. I’m here to fight."
An avid outdoorsman like Lesnar, Sylvia said he was going to Texas to "kill some pigs."
"(Then) I’ll go back to the gym and work on my damn jiu-jitsu."
Sylvia, long seen as a villain by many fans, finally earned some cheers at UFC 81.
"Maybe people are just starting to get to know me a little better now," he said. "And maybe I’m just getting older, mature and I’m starting not to spout off at the mouth like I did in the past. Maybe just being respectful, what I should have been doing at the beginning."
Earlier, middleweight Nate Marquardt looked impressive in submitting veteran Jeremy Horn at 1:37 of the second round.
Veteran welterweight Chris (Lights Out) Lytle needed just 33 seconds to knock out an overmatched Kyle Bradley. It was a short but savage beating administered by the Indianapolis firefighter, who was rewarded with the UFC’s $60,000 knockout of the night bonus.
Light-heavyweight Tim (The Barbarian) Boetsch made a splash in his UFC debut by hammering David Heath with a string of knees to the head before flinging Heath down like a rag doll at the edge of the cage until the fight was stopped at 4:52 of the first round.
. Notes — Saturday’s gate was US$2.4 million … White said Chuck Liddell will take on Shogun Rua next, possibly in London. He also said the UFC is hoping to have Wanderlei Silva fight in May. White heads to Montreal next for a news conference Monday to promote the UFC’s April 19 debut in Canada.
