UFC 146 on May 26, 2012, will be headlining Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir for the UFC Heavyweight Title. This matchup between the iron-swinging Brazilian and the bone-shattering American has an underlying story which has been brooding in all epic martial arts tales since the beginning of time.
This will be a story of the protege looking to defend the honor of his mentor, another tale of the apprentice fighting to avenge the loss of his master.
At one point in time, perhaps even still today, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was considered the greatest heavyweight jiu-jitsu practitioner in mixed martial arts. Nogueira would allow himself to be slammed on his head, take lethal kicks to the ribs and punch after punch to the grill, while patiently waiting to compress his opponents’ carotid arteries with his anaconda like forearms.
This fighting style has made him a hero to his country and has given him the respect to act as leader to such champions as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and of course Junior dos Santos.
However, lurking from the shadows and across the globe, a new submission specialist was rising up from the ashes. Frank Mir, who can boast submission victories over champions like Brock Lesnar and Tim Sylvia, has been looking to take the crown as the greatest heavyweight submission fighter of all time. Frank Mir took that crown by force when he broke Nogueira’s arm with a Kimura at UFC 140.
So before we watch to see if Junior dos Santos can avenge the loss of the man who has mentored him since the beginning of his career, I want to take you back down memory lane to look at my top mixed martial arts tales of vengeance, where gladiators fought to avenge their mentor and friend.