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Transcript of Frank Mir on radio saying he wants to murder Brock Lesnar in the Octagon

By Zach Arnold | February 23, 2010

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I spent some time transcribing Frank Mir’s comments and you can read the full transcript right here (will be posted shortly). Well worth your time doing so. The transcript contains all sorts of context to Mir’s quotes and Mark Madden’s background (he did the interview for 105.9 The X).

A couple of things. Take note of what Mir says early on the interview about THE CHILDREN and how his final quote in the interview can be juxtaposed to his previous interview thoughts. Also, I am very surprised UFC PR allowed this interview to remain online. Given the company’s prominent behavior in media relations (such as the CNBC special on Ultimate Fighting), I am surprised that this one slipped through the cracks. I know most of the company was in Australia for UFC 110, but this kind of PR situation is one that normally Zuffa jumps all over if it’s something that makes them look bad. (Saying you want to be the first to kill an opponent due to “Octagon-related injuries” is bad, let’s state that clearly.)

With that, here’s the money quote that Mir says to close out his interview with Mark Madden. Madden asks Mir why he is one of the most popular fighters in MMA and why his fan base is so big:

“I like to think that just for the reason that I’m pretty candid when I speak about things. A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct and you know a lot of fighters you know we’re all together I hear them, “Oh, don’t say that because you know the fans won’t like you!” I’m like you know what dude, I’ve realized a long time ago you’re going to have fans who love you and fans that hate you and I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC you know “Oh you know the guy’s a great fighter and I have a lot of respect of him!” And if I don’t mean it, then why is it even coming out of my mouth because whose interested in hearing that? You see the same cookie cutter responses. “Oh, who do you want to fight next? Well, whoever the UFC deems me, I just want to fight anybody!” I’m like man, I’ve heard that a thousand times! I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person, I want to break his neck in the ring, I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.”

Update: Dana White and UFC send out official response regarding Mir’s comments.

Jordan Breen completely whiffs here:

If you are even remotely piqued by Mir saying he wants to kill Lesnar, you’re are a mark, an idiot, or a crybaby. Or all three. Seriously.

At a time when UFC is spending big money on lobbyists to get the sport legislated in all the States, plus Melbourne (Australia) and Ontario, the last thing Dana White needs is for Frank Mir to play right into the stereotypes of the “barbaric” charges made by politicians. What Mir said was monumentally stupid. It’s one of those comments that will come back to haunt him later on, much like the ridiculous “human cockfighting” comment MMA fans have had to deal with for over a decade.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 44 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

44 Responses to “Transcript of Frank Mir on radio saying he wants to murder Brock Lesnar in the Octagon”

  1. edub says:

    You gotta wonder how a guy who is 6’3 280 gets a napoleon complex.

  2. Miller says:

    When the world knows the only reason you won the first fight is because the most stupid ref in MMA handed the fight to you. And you got owned in the rematch.

  3. Mike says:

    You know, Napoleon wasn’t actually that short – he was just drawn as short by British cartoonists. He was around 5 ‘8 I believe and actually taller than Nelson.

  4. Mr.Roadblock says:

    I think Mir is trying to ratchet up interest in a potential 3rd fight. As Miller correctly noted Mir got owned in both the first and second fights. I don’t think many people would be thrilled for Mir to be Lesnar’s next opponent. So Mir is trying to make people want to see him get his ass kicked. Classic heel tactic.

  5. David M says:

    Why are comments disabled in the Barnett thread?

  6. EJ says:

    “That’s what’s going through my mind.”

    Funny how that was missing from when the original quote was leaked, I guess context doesn’t matter if you just want to get people to listen to an interview.

    What’s even worse is that some mma fans are so bitter over anything Mir says or does that they will reach to bash or discredit him at everyturn but he just seems to become a bigger star and more succesfull after every fight.

    Whether people like it or not Mir/Lesnar 3 will be the biggest fight in UFC history and it will be thanks to Mir and his ability to get fanboys to act like a bunch of emotional little girls after he opens his mouth.

  7. Mark says:

    Miller is correct. I know they will do it because it will be a huge draw, but honestly this fight is pretty pointless outside of the Lesnar-recovery factor. Brock got screwed out of the first win and beat him the 2nd time. Just because Mir knocked out Kongo doesn’t show this is going to go any different. I would have to see proof Mir discovered a new masterful takedown defense to give a crap about them fighting again.

  8. David M says:

    LOL at the Brock apologists acting like Brock got hosed in their first fight. Get a grip, he clearly hit him in the back of the head, and soon after was tapping out.

    I think Mir has a decent shot against Brock given how much better he is on the feet and his newfound strength.

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    Any fight that goes to the ground typically has at least one verbal warning about hitting to the back of the head….

    This was the first fight I can recall where the fight was stood up so quickly like that.

    It was crappy reffing….

  10. Mr.Roadblock says:

    “Brock apologists” where did you even come up with that term/idea? That is outlandish. People on this site get chastised for saying anything anti-SF or Fedor but attacks like that on Brock and UFC are fine.

    Mir got hit in the back of the head when he turtled up and turned his face away from Brock’s hammerfists. That has always been a warning, not a restart. If Herb Dean were reffing that fight there is little doubt Brock would have won. After the restart Brock dropped Frank again and made a dumb, rookie mistake that allowed him to get caught with a sub he should have easily gotten out of.

    Minus that one mistake, Brock and Frank fought for what 8 minutes total and Brock dominated about 7 and a half minutes of the fighting. A third fight is a tough sell and needs some good mic work.

  11. joe says:

    are you kidding me? i’ve never seen a single fight stood up from ONE hit to the back of the head. Brock destroyed him and got carried away with that caveman brain of his so he got caught, chalk it up to inexperience; but he’s got way better jiu jitsu defense now. and better on the feet? where have you seen that? he’s better on the feet than big nog yeah, but big nog just got KO’d by a man considered one of HW’s slowest strikers. Mir puts up no takedown defense and on the ground he just sits there and waits for a submission to pop out of the blue when he’s getting controlled like that…it won’t happen again.

    mir/lesnar 3 will not be the greatest fight in UFC history…not even close.
    but yes this was taken largely out of context, seriously Mir wouldn’t really want to kill lesnar, obviously it was exaggeration. he’s just saying lesnar is the man he wants to fight.

  12. 45 Huddle says:

    What shocks me is how mental Mir is. Forget about his interviews.

    Does the guy have such an inflated view of his skills that he actually thinks he can beat Lesnar in a 3rd fight? Did he not learn his lesson?

  13. EJ says:

    “Any fight that goes to the ground typically has at least one verbal warning about hitting to the back of the head….

    This was the first fight I can recall where the fight was stood up so quickly like that.

    It was crappy reffing.”

    Brock did get a warning and crappy reffing would have been allowing him to repeatedly pound Mir with illegal shots to the back of the head.

  14. edub says:

    “Brock did get a warning and crappy reffing would have been allowing him to repeatedly pound Mir with illegal shots to the back of the head.”

    No crappy reffing is what happened. If it is a direct shot to the back of the head it warrants an immediate point and restart. Almost all of the shots he hit Mir with were to the side. Bottom line is Mir was on his way to being stopped like he was stopped against Vera and Cruz, and Mazzagati saved his ass.

  15. David M says:

    Brock huggers: Get over it.

    LOL at disputing that Mir has better striking than Brock. Brock wasn’t even outstriking Couture most of their fight, and Randy is 60 and has no reflexes. Mir crushed a guy in Kongo who outstruck Mirko and killed Cain on the feet, the same Cain who just massacred Nog with punches. Bunch of idiots.

  16. Shane says:

    Brock was warned about hitting the back of the head if this interview with Mazzagatti is to be believed:

    MMAJUNKIE.COM: Did you issue Lesnar a warning? That’s a big part of this whole thing, you know? Some fans think you didn’t issue a warning.
    STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Yeah, I did. Brock’s excited. It’s a big, big opportunity for him, and — in my opinion — he looked down and saw the head there, and he took three shots at him and caught him. I jump in and say, “Don’t hit at the back of the head.” A few more seconds go by, Mir tucks up under there again, and Brock comes down with the second couple hits to the back of the head. That’s when I jumped in and had to do my job. That’s what I saw.

    MMAJUNKIE.COM: So, just to be perfectly clear, you did issue Lesner a warning before you stopped the fight and deducted a point?
    STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Oh yeah, I did. But can you imagine the decibels in there? That was one of the fights everyone came to see. Of course, I came home and did my homework, watched the tape, and I can’t hear myself give the warning. I couldn’t hear myself say, “Bring it on!” on that beginning (either). [laughs] That’s my thing. I always shout that. If you watch the tape, you can barely even hear that.

    http://mmajunkie.com/news/3684/referee-steve-mazzagatti-discusses-lesnar-mir-fight-an-mmajunkiecom-interview.mma

  17. edub says:

    Shane just go back and watch the fight. The video is the evidence.

  18. edub says:

    David M:

    Nog out struck Heath. And Heath outstruck Kongo who outstruck Cro Cop who outstruck Herring who outstruck Kerr who got outstruck Vovchanchin who got outstruck by Mirko who got outstruck by Fedor who got outstruck by… Fujita.

    Mir landed one punch and grabbed a guillotine on Kongo, and outstruck a grossly out of shape Nog. Cain has gotten better with every fight so I’m sure he would do a hell of a lot better against Kongo standing now. MMAmath doesn’t work.

    Idiot.

  19. David M says:

    Besides the fact that some of your mmath doesnt add up (you are incorrect about Kerr v Igor, Fedor v Fujita–if you recall Fedor, after being stunned, came back and fucked Fujita up with punches and a body kick which destroyed Kazuyuki and led to the choke, and if I recall correctly Herring beat Kongo more with his wrestling), the biggest hole in your argument is that everyone here has seen Brock strike and seen Mir strike, and they are not even close.

    Brock is a horrid striker; herky jerky, no any head movement, doesn’t know angles or how to put his punches together–he is just a huge motherfucker. Mir on the other hand was throwing crisp combo after combo at Nog, using angles and head movement to make Nog look horrible. Granted, Nog had staph, but Mir’s boxing skill is evident. Then, dropping Kongo with one perfectly placed overhand left again demonstrated how skilled he has become on his feet.

    Also your logic is fairly disjointed, you say Nog was out of shape when he fought Mir, but someone because Cain beat down an even more reflex-less and shot Nog than the one Mir beat, that means Cain would do better against Kongo this time. Great circular logic. How much do you think Cain has improved in the 8 months since Kongo crumpled him 3 times? Has it occurred to you that maybe Cain just looked better against Nog because Nogueira has no reflexes or speed or power left, and Kongo does?

    The saddest part of your post is that you are trying to refute my assertion that Mir is a better striker than Lesnar, and yet you didn’t even mention Brock. Well played.

  20. EJ says:

    “No crappy reffing is what happened. If it is a direct shot to the back of the head it warrants an immediate point and restart. Almost all of the shots he hit Mir with were to the side. Bottom line is Mir was on his way to being stopped like he was stopped against Vera and Cruz, and Mazzagati saved his ass.”

    Your either blind or you’re Mir hate is clouding your recolection of the fight. Brock blatantly hit Mir 4 to 5 times in the back of the head it’s clear as day, the ref did his job and stopped the fight to give Mir time to recover from the illegal blows.

    Maz did his job, the thing is if that was Nog that Brock was landing illegal blows on you’d be losing your mind and crying about it till the end of time funny how that works.

  21. Rob Maysey says:

    Nice article Zach–fully agree. Even if done in spirit of hype, you just can’t do that.

  22. Ivan Trembow says:

    I guess we’ll find out whether the UFC’s condemnation of Mir’s comments is sincere when it comes time to eventually promote Lesnar vs. Mir III (whether it’s this year or somewhere down the road). We’ll be able to determine a lot by whether or not they ever use Mir’s “death” comments as part of the Lesnar vs. Mir III hype.

    Also, I don’t think it’s the least bit of a stretch to question the sincerity of the UFC’s “Frank Mir is an idiot” outrage.

    As Michael David Smith documents in this article, there have been plenty of cases in which UFC fighters have invoked death to hype a fight.

    http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/02/23/frank-mir-not-the-only-one-to-talk-death-in-ufc/

    One of them was featured prominently on UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs. Penn… so prominently that it was actually in the opening seconds of the series and was part of the very first statement that was ever made on the series, as Penn said, “Georges, I’m going to go to the death. I’m going to try to kill you and I’m not joking about this.”

  23. klown says:

    The MDS article is a bright spot of sensible reaction to this non-scandal.

  24. Dave says:

    Jordan Breen misses a point? Whooooa.

    He should stick to being a snot about obscure Japanese MMA shows that happen in front of 20 people.

  25. Dave says:

    That was kind of mean, yet I’m still kind of laughing about it. Oh well.

    Mir is still a jackass.

  26. Miller says:

    No offense and this isn’t defending Breen, but considering your site is the only one who reported “Fedor pulls out of CBS fight according to Cindy Ortiz” I’d not mock people for being wrong right now, Dave.

  27. ultmma says:

    I appreciate MDS points and examples but context is key.

    In most of his examples the fighters tongues were firmly planted in their cheeks and many sounded like they were reading from a script out of a bad Kung Fu movie.

    Mir’s comments came across as more real(break neck= first death inside the world famous Zuffa copyrighted Octagon)

    and when taken out of context by let’s say a politician or anti-MMA activist really hurt MMA as a whole.

    I get Mir’s gimmick but that method of hyping a fight does not belong in MMA in 2010.

  28. Bundt says:

    This whole controversy is a complete joke. Chuck just said he wanted to kill Tito.

    The only reason this required an apology is because Brock Lesnar is a meat-head primadonna with a phallic tattoo on his chest. He has more juice than Frank, so Frank has to say I’m so sorry X*(.

    Everyone defending Lesnar take a step back and realize your defending a homophobic drama queen with a giant weiner on his chest he likes to rub against other fighters while in the octagon. This is the guy who said he was gonna “ride his wife” after he won a fight. He’s a sexist bigot.

    BJ didn’t make Kenny apologize for saying he was gonna kill him. Sherk didn’t make BJ apologize for saying he’s dead. Cuz these guys are not whining babies who feel a need to project their phallus into other men’s affairs.

  29. Zack says:

    Breen is great when it comes to breaking down who the next Mongolian or Latvian prospects are going to be, but when he tries to be edgy he’s really annoying.

  30. smoogy says:

    Dave’s comments about Breen must be tongue-in-cheek, considering Head Kick Legend covers all the same obscure Japanese MMA events. The only difference is that people actually read Sherdog and listen to Jordan’s show.

    Like with Aoki, I’m disappointed that Mir decided he had to backtrack and offer a weak apology. These guys obviously want to get some attention with their goofball heel routines, but when they finally do attract serious heat, they can’t handle the scrutiny. Either stick with it or don’t bother, there is no such thing as a politically correct heel.

  31. klown says:

    Smoogy, I believe Mir did not apologize of his own accord, but was ordered to do so by his boss because of the manufactured media/blogosphere controversy about Mir’s remarks.

  32. smoogy says:

    If he was a real heel, he would run his boss down in the parking garage for trying to make him apologize. Preferrably while Mike Goldberg screams “No! No! This is carnage! Frank Mir has lost his mind!”

  33. Dave says:

    Miller — Yeah, never ‘reported’ that Fedor pulled out according to Cindy O., nor do I even really read Sherdog. I used the word ‘speculation’ for a reason. There is a difference between speculation and reporting. So I don’t know, reading comprehension or putting words in my mouth, either way it is a game attempt. I did actually have a source, legitimate at that, inside of M-1, who only wanted to say that Fedor was negotiating an upcoming fight with no mention of when and where.

    Being vague leads to speculation, period.

    smoogy — As for tongue-in-cheek, I don’t take much seriously, and as for “nobody reads your site” stuff? Eh. It is a relatively new (Oct.) site and I still get paid, do you see me caring if I don’t have a forum full of fanboys?

  34. Dave says:

    Also I try to be a good sport about stuff, if somebody doesn’t know so-and-so from ZST undercards I don’t really care, nor will I toss my weight around (lol) as if I am an expert in stuff that doesn’t need expertise.

    Does anybody care to be called an expert in entry-level pro MMA in the States? Would it even matter?

  35. edub says:

    “Everyone defending Lesnar take a step back and realize your defending a homophobic drama queen with a giant weiner on his chest he likes to rub against other fighters while in the octagon. This is the guy who said he was gonna “ride his wife” after he won a fight. He’s a sexist bigot.

    BJ didn’t make Kenny apologize for saying he was gonna kill him. Sherk didn’t make BJ apologize for saying he’s dead. Cuz these guys are not whining babies who feel a need to project their phallus into other men’s affairs.”
    What a terrible post. Absolutely no common sense involved. They said you dead or Im gonna kill him.

    Frank said: I want to brake his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person to die from octagon related injuries. How you guys miss the difference is beyond me.

  36. Bundt says:

    I haven’t missed the difference. The difference is Mir specifically said he wanted to try and kill Lesnar in the octagon, whereas Chuck, BJ and Kenny were more vague, possibly implying they meant to come to the home of their threat-ee and slit his throat.

  37. edub says:

    Yea you’ve definately missed it.

  38. Zheroen says:

    I remember when the comments section of FightOpinion was devoid of such eloquent Sherdog lexicon mainstays as “butthurt” and “nuthugger”, and accusations of homosexual desires or whether or not someone is based solely on the notion (often incorrect) that someone happens to be a fan of a certain fighter who may have lost a fight or whatever.

    It was apparently too much to ask for an MMA discussion forum/comments section that didn’t eventually devolve into mindless insult slinging over a fucking sport. I guess nothing lasts forever. Thanks for bringing the class, EJ!

  39. David M says:

    edub: I misread your post because you left a word out.

    ” Cro Cop who outstruck Herring who outstruck Kerr who got outstruck Vovchanchin”

    Anyways, on a more interesting topic, it seems that Rampage hates the UFC again and claims to be done with them after his contract is up: http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/interviews/viewarticle.php?id=4008&offset=0

  40. Zach Arnold says:

    I remember when the comments section of FightOpinion was devoid of such eloquent Sherdog lexicon mainstays as “butthurt” and “nuthugger”, and accusations of homosexual desires or whether or not someone is based solely on the notion (often incorrect) that someone happens to be a fan of a certain fighter who may have lost a fight or whatever.

    It was apparently too much to ask for an MMA discussion forum/comments section that didn’t eventually devolve into mindless insult slinging over a fucking sport. I guess nothing lasts forever. Thanks for bringing the class, EJ!

    Zheroen is 100% correct.

    Time for a ban.

    And apparently a timeout for site commenting as well.

  41. […] Elliott displayed and read the quote Frank Mir said on Mark Madden’s radio show about wanting Lesnar to die in the Octagon. Lesnar’s response? “I know as a fighter, my […]

  42. […] when I’ve watched the fight, it did seem that. I know things were leading up to the fight, things that had gone on, and you know I think really, honestly, it was just a mental mistake as far as when I was up […]

  43. […] casual fans want to see the fight. One thing that should be noted is that after all the trouble Frank Mir got in for telling Mark Madden that he wanted Brock Lesnar to be the first fighter in UFC to die due to “Octagon related […]

  44. […] The last time someone affiliated with the WEC said something about wanting to kill his opponent in the Octagon, that really didn’t work out so well for Frank Mir. […]