Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir was thoroughly dominated by Junior dos Santos when he held the title, but he still had some choice words about the Brazilian’s recent loss to Cain Velasquez.
In an interview with Studio MMA, Mir ripped “Cigano” for getting controlled and ground-and-pounded by Velasquez for five rounds and not attempting a single submission (via MMA Mania).
Everybody says Junior has submissions on the ground, I think after now we can go close the book on that, after 25-minutes he went for zero attempts, so.
Even losing he didn’t jump for nothing, so. I think that after the second or third round of being taken down, I expected him to do something else besides stand up again. I think that, you know, knowing, you know, on the feet he’s obviously looking for the knockout, then why on the ground aren’t you looking for the knockout submission?
While dos Santos did manage to get back to his feet and land some clean shots on a few occasions, it is impossible to argue that he tried to make anything happen on the ground.
This was at least a little surprising for most fans, as the Team Nogueira fighter—who recently received his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt—said he was “ready to submit someone” just a couple of weeks prior to his UFC 155 showdown with Velasquez (via MMA Mania).
Mir went on to blame dos Santos’ struggles in the fight on a lack of emphasis on jiu-jitsu in his everyday practice schedule
If you’re taken down why aren’t you still moving your hips to go and move for things? But obviously just things he probably doesn’t do very well because I think he’s a victim of his own success. He’s so successful at boxing and avoiding the ground, he probably honestly I mean how much training does the guy do on the ground? It was pretty evident in the fight not a lot.
Prior to losing his belt, dos Santos had won 10 in a row, including eight finishes (seven knockouts).
In his career, he only has two submission victories, though only one was a submission hold (a victory via guillotine choke back in Dec. 2006). The other was when Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic verbally submitted due to a fractured orbital bone in their UFC 103 showdown in Sept. 2009.
Mir’s comments are a bit shocking considering how easily dos Santos put him away at their UFC 146 meeting in May, with the submission specialist having no luck in getting the fight to the ground.
Does Mir bring up some valid points here or is he just bitter over his most recent lop-sided loss?
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