Frank Mir: Future Champ or Current Chump?

Frank Mir is a monster of a man. He stands at 6'3" and weighs 253 lbs. He is a mixture of superb boxing and stand-up skills and even has a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu background. Some people say that his prime has passed, but I believe with the right training and motivation, he could be back on top of the stacked Heavyweight Division in the UFC.

The talented Mir made his UFC debut at UFC 34 High Voltage against another new comer Roberto Travern. Mir won his debut at 1:05 of the very first round with an impressive armbar submission win. He split his next two fights, winning via submission against Pete Williams, and then losing to Ian "The Machine" Freeman via doctor's stoppage from a huge cut over Mir's eye. His first loss in the UFC seemed to be a controversial one. Then came Mir's biggest test, a fight against UFC legend David "Tank" Abbott at UFC 41: Onslaught. Frank Mir pulled off the upset and beat "Tank" via submission just 0:46 seconds in the first round. This win launched Mir into title contention. In order to fight for the title, which was now vacant and not being held by anyone, Mir had to fight Wes Sims, and in a controversial win, Mir won by disqualification, when Sims attempted to stomp down on Mir's face while he was on the ground. Dana White saw this fight as too controversial to give Mir the title shot, so a rematch was set up between Mir and Sims. Mir dominated the rematch winning via knockout in the second round.

This set up the much awaited fight between Tim Sylvia and Frank Mir. That night a champion would be crowned and that champion was Frank Mir. Mir defeated Sylvia just 0:50 seconds into the first round when Mir broke Sylvia's arm with an arm bar forcing Herb Dean to stop the fight.

Frank had made a quick ascent to the top when tragedy struck. In 2004, Frank Mir was in a motorcycle accident in which he was thrown 60 feet off of his motorcycle after striking a car. Mir broke his femur in 2 places and needed major surgery to repair it. During that time, an Interim Heavyweight Title was made and held by Andrei Arlovski. 14 months later, it was decided that Mir was not ready to fight, so Arlovski was promoted as the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion.

Some have said that Frank Mir was the best up and comer in the history of the UFC before his accident. He was an impressive submission artist (rare for a heavyweight) and an exciting fan favorite. The question is remains: Can Frank Mir once again reign supreme in the new and more challenging Heavyweight Division? The answer: He is certainly trying. After his less than impressive comeback (losing two of his last three fights by TKO), he is training at Randy Couture's new gym and getting back to his old, dominating self. Keep an eye on Frank Mir in the coming months as he may emerge as a top contender in the UFC Heavyweight Division.

Read More...

UFC Heavyweight Division Heats Up!

The Ultimate Fighter 5, Chuck Liddell's next title defense at UFC 71 , the new Lightweight division, UFC buying Pride. With all of these things going on in the Mixed Martial Arts world, what I believe to be the most important is the emergence of the Heavyweight division as the powerhouse division in the UFC. With new fighters and amazing upsets, it is easily the most exciting division in all of Mixed Martial Arts.

The UFC has never been known for its strength at the Heavyweight Division. Pride has always had the most dominant Heavyweight Division in the world, with Fedor Emelienenko leading the pack. Now, the UFC owns 6 of the 10 top rated Heavyweight fighters in the world. With Randy Couture, Mirko " Cro-Cop", Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, and two new recent acquisitions from Pride, Fabricio Werdum ( who will fight Arlovski at UFC 70) and arguably the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artist in the Heavyweight Division Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

There are many questions to be answered in this division. Can Arlovski battle his way back to the top? Can Couture hang onto the title with the dominant Cro-Cop ready to fight him? Will Fedor sign with the UFC? Where does Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira fit into this mix? All of these questions will make for an interesting next few months in the UFC Heavyweight Division.

Read More...

Backlash promo suggests a Cena loss

Other than the fact that the picture of Edge peering through broken boards like Jack Nicholson in The Shining is probably the coolest idea for a promo I've seen in years, it may just tell us something about the outcome of the main event as well.

See, the WWE forgets that I spend hours checking out the wealth of information on wikipedia. They also forget that before I post, I do my homework. This post's homework led me to look at the most recent promos and the eventual outcome of the event, seeing if there was any correlation. Most featured all the wrestlers in the main event for that night, but a few did not. Let's take a look:

New Year's Revolution 07: DX is in the poster but loses the match to Team Rated RKO due to a legit quadricep injury. I call this one a wash as I feel that DX was supposed to win this match. After seeing the awful finish to the Summerslam 1997 match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Owen Hart (after a botched Hart Driver broke Stone Cold Steve Austin's neck), I'd much rather just stop the match than have them finish as they did at SS 1997.

Armageddon: Kane and The Undertaker are featured in the front of the poster with MVP and Kennedy behind them. The winners? Both 7 footers.





Cyber Sunday: The promo featured all three champs (Cena, Booker, Big Show) holding their respective belts. By the time the night was over, all three were...still holding their respective belts.




No Mercy: King Booker is placed in the very front of the poster with the technically-impressive trio of Finlay, Lashley, and Batista behind him. Booker retains the title.





Unforgiven: The promo features a sole picture of John Cena, who of course, would go on later that night to defeat Edge for the WWE title.






This analysis would seem to suggest that Edge is in line for another title run. Fortunately, my research is consistent with everything I've been hearing about current backstage politics. Apparently, Cena has been getting heat from other wrestlers in response to his streak of beating veteran opponents much more talented than he. Combined with the fact that Edge has been well documented as unhappy with the length of his previous title run, the storms seem to be aligning for a Rated R championship in the WWE. I'm sure Drew will have some interesting ideas regarding how this will all transpire in less than two weeks. Stay tuned for his predictions!

Read More...

Upcoming UFC cards

Unlike my announcement to hold the Wanderlei Silva-Chuck Liddell fight at UFC 78, the following fights on the following cards are either confirmed or heavily rumored from company sources.



UFC 70
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Ryoto Machida vs. David Heath
Michael Bisping vs. Elvis Sinosic
Andrei Arlovski vs. Fabricio Werdum
Assuerio Silva vs. Cheick Kongo

UFC 71
Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton Jackson (Light Heavyweight title)
Karo Parisyan vs. Josh Burkman
Sean Salmon vs. Eric Schafer
Chris Leben vs. Kalib Starnes
Ivan Salaverry vs. Terry Martin

UFC 72
Rich Franklin vs. Martin Kampmann
Forrest Griffin vs. TBA
Jorge Gurgel vs. TBA
Tyson Griffin vs. Clay Guida

UFC 73
Anderson Silva vs. Nate Marquardt (Middleweight title)
Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans
Jorge Gurgel vs. Jamie Varner

UFC 74
Randy Couture vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic/Gabriel Gonzaga (Heavyweight title)
Sean Sherk vs. Hermes Franca (Lightweight title)

UFC 75
Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes (Welterweight title)

UFC 76
Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin (Middleweight title)

Some notes on these UFC cards: First, it's obvious that UFC 72 is going to be a piece of crap. They should just move it to SpikeTV at this point. It was supposed to feature the Ortiz-Evans fight, but that got bumped to UFC 73. Second, I found it interesting how far the Serra title fight has been pushed. I suppose that this is a testament to the level of talent in the UFC, but it also means that Georges St. Pierre may have to wait until 2008 for his rematch. Finally, I hope that some classic talent is added to these later cards in the form of Arlovski, Sylvia, etc. The new guys are fun, but being able to examine a fighters long history is just as enjoyable.

Read More...