Frank Mir once said that he wanted Brock Lesnar “to be the first person that dies to Octagon-related injuries.”
Despite that fact, he is still picking the former UFC heavyweight champion to defeat Alistair Overeem in his Octagon debut.
While speaking to ESPN.com, Mir surprisingly endorsed his rival pretty decisively when speaking about the headlining fight at UFC 141.
“Honestly, I think Brock will win pretty easily,” Mir indicated. He explained that Lesnar’s wrestling pedigree will simply be too much for “The Demolition Man” to overcome.
“I think we’re going to see the closest thing to a grappler versus striker match you’ll see nowadays. Brock is going to cover up; maybe throw one jab. He’ll rush Overeem to the cage, reach down for a leg and rip him down.”
Despite a pretty solid grappling resume winning 19 of his 35 fights by way of submission, Mir more or less said the most recent Strikeforce heavyweight champion will be helpless once he gets taken down.
“I don’t think he’s going to get off his back,” Mir said. “I’d be very shocked—I’d applaud Overeem if he got off his back.”
Mir also said that he no longer has any problems with Lesnar, mentioning that their real life vendetta was not as big of a deal as they made it out to be.
“Time heals all wounds,” Mir reflected. “And in reality, I played that up because at that time in my life I thought being loud and saying those things would be good marketing for a third fight.”
“In the last couple years I’ve realized, if people are going to dislike me, I want it to be because of my personality and not because of something I did for marketing a fight.”
Mir handed Lesnar his first professional loss when he submitted him with a kneebar back at UFC 81. However, Brock got his revenge at UFC 100 when he finished Mir with some vicious ground and pound in the second round.
Mir is riding a two-fight win streak after being knocked out by Shane Carwin at UFC 111 and is set to have a part two with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 140. Mir won their first meeting by TKO at UFC 92.
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