Frank Mir submitted Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on Saturday night with a textbook kimura arm lock that showed people the extreme dangers of jiu-jitsu in the process.
After being rocked with an early right to the temple, Mir calmly gathered his wits and grabbed hold of a leg for survival. He then defended a choke from Big Nog and the two landed right in a beautiful jiu-jitsu battle.
Many people love seeing to men swing for the fences toward a knockout. For the pure martial arts fan, though, watching these two experts roll was certainly no different.
Mir ended up in dominant position and went for Nog’s arm without hesitation, locking in the beginnings of a kimura. Nog defended and the two rolled for the Canadian crowd which roared as two of the best heavyweight jiu-jitsu players were in a chess battle.
It became clear quickly that Mir’s hold was pretty much locked in. My eyes shifted from the lock to Nog’s other hand, waiting for him to tap. The lock was getting deeper and Mir was relentless, but the Brazilian refused to give.
What happened next is the very real extreme of mixed martial arts, as Mir locked it in even harder and Nog’s arm ripped from the socket to the gasp and the horror of the crowd.
The room was stunned as the referee grabbed Mir off and Nog’s arm went limp. People have to understand that nobody inside or outside that cage wants to see an injury like that—no way no how. Rodrigo knows that he has to tap out in that situation or risk suffering the ultimate consequences.
Mir is now on a three-fight winning streak and must be considered in the top five of the heavyweight division. There were rumours swirling after the fight that Alistair Overeem may have to pull out against Brock Lesnar and Mir made it clear what he thought of that in the post-fight interview.
“If the rumours you are hearing happen to be true I wouldn’t mind stepping in for Overeem and taking on Brock,” Mir said. “I’m pretty healthy, three weeks isn’t a bad turnaround.”
“I only fought a three minute fight so I’m feeling pretty good.”
Check out the full video for Mir’s post-fight comments
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