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Mystery UFC PPV event in Memphis featuring Frank Mir in semi-main event
By Zach Arnold | December 9, 2009
I’m not sure that Alan Belcher belly-aching about not getting enough love constitutes as great PR for this weekend’s event, which features a good main event of BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez and… Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo as the semi-main event.
Brett Okamoto in The Las Vegas Sun has an interesting article on Frank Mir in the paper today. It’s an amusing article because of the quotes from Frank Mir’s father, like this one:
“He’s always been a quiet kid, never one to boast about his ability,” says his father, Frank Sr. “He was content to be who he was. He wasn’t out there saying, ‘Look who I am, I can hurt you if I wanted to.’ He was just the opposite.”
So, with Mir vs. Kongo coming up as the semi-main event this weekend that you will have to pay $55 USD to watch, here’s what the two men have to say about each going into the Memphis event:
Frank Mir on his fight against Brock Lesnar at UFC 100: “I expected the fight to be a little more of a wild pace. I thought Brock would stand up with me a little bit more, he didn’t which you know I can’t fault him for, he has to do what it takes to win the fight. He took me down and then on the ground he was nowhere near as wild as he had been in the past. I thought there would be a lot of opportunities on my part to take advantage of and there really wasn’t, he did a great job in out-positioning me on the ground and then his then just added on top of the fact his superior size and strength was the you know icing on the cake.”
Mir on his upcoming fight against Cheick Kongo: “Great reach, good right hand, he has sound stand-up with some great knees, obviously his wrestling is not probably the best wrestling. I think his strength and athleticism helps out a lot in those areas.
I think his ground and pound is actually pretty dangerous, I think that it”s not given enough credit. I think he’s pretty well-conditioned, you know, even when he takes a bad beating he seems like he still stays in there. You know in the fight with Cain Velasquez, you know he was getting mauled for 15 minutes and he didn’t really look like he threw in the towel, you know he just threw very poor technique, had no answer.”
“I don’t really have anything to prove by standing up with him, but that’s where he could do the most damage in the fight, that’s where he’s going to feel the most comfortable, that’s where his heartbeat is most relaxed, that’s what he does best. No one is shocked by the fact that his ground game is amongst some of the worst ground game we have in the Heavyweight division. Um, you know, I hope to take advantage of that, I feel that I’m pretty decent on the ground and I’m looking to make myself even better. If I grab him and get him to the ground I think that’s definitely plays into my advantage to winning the fight more so than trying to stand up and have a boxing match with him.”
“When I want to take someone down in the UFC, who do I look to as the best takedown artist? It’s Georges St. Pierre, by far, has the best takedowns in the UFC. How does he do it? Does he shoot from halfway across the ring, do you ever see the shot? Never. He strikes with you and just enough for you to think you’re in a striking match and then the minute you forget that oh yeah there’s takedowns too, he takes you down. It’s not that his takedowns are the most intricate crazy takedowns in the world, they’re very sharp, very sound, technically perfect but basic. He just has phenomenal, phenomenal timing and that’s what I look to do in this fight with Cheick Kongo, go out there and strike with him and look for my opportunity and when it comes, take advantage of it.
Every time he goes to throw a kick if I catch it and it doesn’t knock me out, well he’s going down. That’s going to limit a lot of his techniques you know and so that’s what I look to take advantage of in the fight, you know, eventually you know from in the clinch you know we’ll get the takedown.
Am I going to get it in the first 30 seconds? Probably not. You know, but if I force it that’s when I’m going to get hurt but you know it’s a 15 minute fight and I hope to have only to take him down one time and then that will be the end of the fight.”
—
Cheick Kongo on his fight against Cain Velasquez: “Between two or three weeks training to just to prepare for the (Cain Velasquez) fight wasn’t enough. I was weak and busy so, but whatever, it’s all right, it’s the past. I have to turn the page.
Kongo on his upcoming fight against Frank Mir: “The end of the reign of the big mouth, Frank Mir, that’s it. He talk too much, too much, too much. He’s not a pretty person, just talking good. To have the right word. But I’m going to show him the way to be positive and respectful.
I train very hard for this victory so it’s not a game, it’s not personal, it’s just business and for me, UFC, that’s big business.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I think it’s a pretty good card, though I wouldn’t pay for it.
Frank has a wingdad
This is actually one of the best cards of the year, it should be action packed from start to finish if you’re an mma there is no reason to bitch about this one.
I really hope they cut Kongo if Mir beats him, as he’s completely useless with his outdated 1-D game. It’s funny that when he first came in in 2006 some people said he was going to be the UFC’s Cro Cop. It turned out that they were right, but not for the reasons they intended. I’m just glad this fight didn’t happen in 2006 when Kongo originally started calling out Mir during the “Fat Frank” years. That fight would have been excruciating to sit through then. Although Kongo might have won that one when Mir was bent over gasping for air in round 2 and going through Cheetos withdraw.
Great main event. Mir is going to get blasted though and never touch the top 10 again.
Frenzied fanboy cheerleading from EJ, right on cue.
This is actually a better card than many are giving it credit for being, though. After Penn dismantled the artificially built-up “Top 5” Lightweight hypte train of Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez is the best lightweight fighting in the US. His style should prove an entertaining (if over-matched) oppostion for Penn.
Kongo vs. Mir? Eh, whatever.
Saving money and will be streaming this one, 108, and most likely 109.
Looking forward to catching Strikeforce Dec. 19th event and Jan 30th events on Showtime instead.
I find that quote from Frank Sr. interesting because the vain smirk thats always Mirs face is the reason I could never really like him too much.
“Frenzied fanboy cheerleading from EJ, right on cue.”
Emotional response to giving the UFC credit for a great card right after one of my post right on cue.
Love how it hurt people like you get whenever someone on here actually gives the UFC props says all you need to say about this place really.
I am very much looking forward to B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez. I think that it’s worthy of being a PPV main event, which is more than I can say about Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz, or Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva, or certainly Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman. Mir vs. Kongo is just a squash match if Mir can get Kongo to the ground.
“Mir vs. Kongo is just a squash match if Mir can get Kongo to the ground.”
I dunno.
If Frank Mir had a complete ground game I would agree with you, but he lacks defensive guard skills (or sub hunts so much he doesn’t use the skills he has).
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a repeat of Freeman-Mir. Kongo’s ground and pound is nasty and he is such a powerful athlete I could see him reversing a throw and winding up on top. If that happens, Kongo might pound him out before Frank can latch onto a submission.
The only thing that makes Penn vs Sanchez deserving is that it’s for a belt.
A belt I don’t consider either of them worthy of holding, but that’s a different can full of worms.
It’s definitely over-sub hunting. But the fact remains that Kongo knows next to nothing on the ground. It’s just common sense that unless he magically learned the best takedown defense ever he’s going down and will have nothing, whereas while Mir isn’t a world class striker by any means he at least knows enough not to get quickly KOed. So you have to give the advantage to Mir.
I agree the majority of the great Lightweights are in Japan, but you don’t know Penn would beat them all? I think he’s undeniably the best Lightweight in the world.
Mir vs. Kongo is just a squash match if Mir can get Kongo to the ground.
Its also just a squash match if Mir’s wrestling fails him and he’s forced to stand with Kongo. Kongo has shrugged off guys that aren’t bad wrestlers (Al-Turk) with relative ease in recent fights. He might do it again with Mir. I think Frank pulls guard in this, to be honest.
Kongo should get a little more credit – he almost shut Cain’s lights out multiple times and had taken that fight on short notice. Even though he took one of the most lopsided beatings you’ll ever see, he was fighting back until the very end even while mounted.
Is his ground game rudimentary? Yes. But his game isn’t about being an all-around fighter. It’s about keeping the fight upright, playing it safe and landing heavy punches with his 82″ reach.