UFC 130 is set to take place May 28th. On Thursday May 19th, the UFC media call took place with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Matt Hamill, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson. All four men were asked various questions about their respective bouts and different aspects of their games.
Mir was first asked why he thought he could beat Junior dos Santos. Mir said he thinks he matches up well with dos Santos because he feels Junior relies too heavily on his boxing and might forget about the ground game. Mir feels this will enable him to work on the feet until he can utilize his jiu jitsu game on JDS. Apparently, if Frank Mir beats Roy Nelson and Junior was to lose to Carwin, this would be a fight he would want.
Mir was asked the interesting question of whom did he think would have won the fight between Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos. Frank surprisingly said that he felt that Brock would have gotten Junior down with his wrestling and would have been successful. Many people would disagree with that assessment.
The next question he was asked was who he would want to fight after Roy Nelson. Frank was very noncommital on this topic, saying that was focused on the task at hand and could not worry about the next fight yet.
Frank was asked what it would be like to fight someone he likes such as Roy Nelson. “Some people I train with, eat dinner with afterwards and they hang out at my house,” Mir said. He and Roy admitted they are loyal to their friends but they know this is business and things have to be done to accomplish goals.
Mir was asked was about fighting in his hometown, what that means and how does to feel to have both himself and Roy Nelson fighting out of Las Vegas. Mir stated, “I love fighting in Vegas because it’s where I was born and raised. It makes it a lot easier with the kids and stuff to just be able to drive right down the road.”
Frank was then asked if looking back he could see any inconsistencies that could be to blame for his recent ups and downs. Frank said, “Well you are always trying to become a better martial artist and fighter, but at the end of the day there is always somebody in there in the ring who is trying to do everything the opposite of what I want to happen (he laughs).” He chuckles as he says, “If these guys would start cooperating more, ya know I’d look better.”
The long ago grappling match between Mir and Nelson that Roy won was brought up right at the end of the call. He asked if that would linger or if it was too long ago and they didn’t even think of it. Frank stated that, “The fans who saw that at that time probably believe Roy is at better at jiu jitsu grappling, but I wouldn’t use it as a measure anymore just because I know that he’s a different fighter now and I’m also improved and now there is punches.”
Frank was then asked about being a former champion and what he thinks about the criticism that Georges St-Pierre has received lately. Frank responded by saying, “Every time GSP steps into the Octagon it’s against a number one or two guy and expecting him to run everybody over is a tall order. The fact that he is still winning rounds and dominating, I don’t really have any criticism for him. He went out there and fought Jake Shields, a guy that hadn’t lost in six years. Shields has a win over Dan Henderson who outweighs him by I don’t know how much, so ya know I with the injury that we saw after the fight I was impressed with him.”
This fight matches up two heavyweight veterans, two former champions, from Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a rare event of two guys fighting in the main event in their home town. This will be an excellent fight and one that makes this card still very relevant. Although Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard’s trilogy bout has been forced off of the UFC 130 fight card, fights like Jackson-Hamill, Mir-Nelson and Alves-Story make this still a top notch MMA event for the UFC.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com