Ahead of his Octagon return against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July, Brock Lesnar finds himself the focus of his UFC 100 foe Frank Mir’s latest pre-fight analysis.
According to the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, who handed Lesnar his first defeat inside the Octagon before losing to him in their highly-viewed rematch at UFC 100 in 2009, Hunt should be the favorite going into UFC 200 because of the fact that Lesnar doesn’t like to get hit.
During a recent episode of his Phone Booth Fighting podcast, Mir spoke about the Lesnar-Hunt fight at UFC 200.
“He doesn’t like to be hit,” Mir said of Lesnar. “Not that anybody likes to be hit, but Brock for whatever reason has shown much more of a dramatic response to the negativity of those shots. To the point where he’s not asleep, it isn’t like he got knocked out, he’s not getting dropped, but he just turns his face away from adversity. That’s a bad thing when fighting Mark Hunt, who again I think is one of the hardest punchers in the division.”
Mir continued, however, explaining that if he implements the right game plan, which because of the tools he has he very well could do, Lesnar does have a chance of pulling off the victory.
“If he is able to take Hunt down and control him, Hunt has been known to get tired on the ground and get fatigued,” Mir said. … “It really comes down to who is able to get their game plan.”
Regarding a potential third fight between he and Lesnar, Mir admits that Lesnar would probably accept the fight due to his competitive nature, and pointed out that it would still be a huge draw if the two were to meet again inside the Octagon.
“I think that’s he’s a competitive guy,” Mir said. “If he’s going to step in the Octagon, he’s gonna want to get paid as much as he can for that appearance. I mean, he’s closing in on 40. So why not a fight with me? A fight with me is going to be a much bigger payday, the two of us together is going to make much more of an impact than him versus anybody else. The storyline just isn’t going to be the same. The interest is not gonna be the same.”
“I think even two years from now when I come out of the suspension, a fight with Lesnar is still — if he still wants to come back again — is still a huge fight,” Mir said. “It’s massive because of what he brings to the table, what I bring to the table and the history we have together.”
When asked to give his official prediction on the Lesnar-Hunt fight at UFC 200, Frank Mir ended up going with the “Super Samoan.”
“I’m betting on Mark,” Mir said. “He’s been in there more consistently the last couple of years against really game opponents. I think that once their strengths match up against each other, it’s a hard takedown. You’ve never really seen anybody come through and just blast Mark onto his butt in the first minute or two of a match.”
UFC 200 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 9, 2016 from the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Join us here at MMANews.com on 7/9 for live coverage of the UFC 200 pay-per-view.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Frank Mir quotes.