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2.03.2008

Mir Upsets Lesnar

This image is one that will haunt many members of O Show nation for a long time to come.

Brock Lesnar, who entered the world of MMA with a blitzkrieg of publicity and the confidence vote of practically everybody who knew who Brock Lesnar was, won his first career fight over 7 months ago. Last night, at UFC 81, he did not fare so well, submitting to Frank Mir at 1:30 in the first round.

This defeat is undoubtedly viewed as an upset by many UFC fans, who thought that the younger, stronger Lesnar would score a dominating win over the former Heavyweight Champion. Unfortunately, Mir used his quickness to get the better of Lesnar, trapping him in the leg submission that ultimately sealed the Minnesota native's fate.

The aftermath of this loss does lead to an interesting question. With all the publicity that has gone into the MMA career of Lesnar, losing his first major fight is certainly a strong blow to his credibility. Many people thought that Lesnar would boost ratings and cause an economic boom for UFC. Others even went so far as to say that Lesnar would revolutionize the sport and take it to a new plateau. Right now, it doesn't look like either is the case.

However, this does bring up an interesting point for debate. What should Dana White do in response to this? It'd be a tempting idea to abort this experiment and get rid of Lesnar, but after the recent Randy Couture fiasco, as well as the dwindling draw power of Chuck Liddell, that may serve to only hurt the company more.

Is it time to do some damage control? Should Dana just smile, say to himself "Well, he did lose to a former champion" and hope for the best the next time he puts Lesnar out on stage? Should he keep him, but use him lower in the card to build up his skills? Or should he take the hit in pay and terminate Lesnar's contract?

O-sters, make your voices heard. Tell us how you would react to Lesnar's loss if you were in Dana White's shoes.


30 comments: on "Mir Upsets Lesnar"

Unknown said...

If you watched the fight Lesner was kicking the shit out of Mir but made some rookie mistake and got over confident. They wont give up on him this early. He is a beast. I thought the ref was about to stop the fight and when Brock was just pounding on him.

I look forward to see him fight again.

fallen0ne said...

It seems you just wanted to quickly get this article out instead of actually looking at the match. Lesnar was punching the shit out of Mir till he got caught, and actually aided Mir into the leglock by spinning his body. Like Larry said; some rookie mistakes. Also I don't think the point deduction was merited. Mir turned his head and I think a warning should have been given first.

fallen0ne said...

Also Brock isn't younger, Mir is by two years.

Anonymous said...

who cares ufc fuckin sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the first two posters. If you really watched that fight you saw that Lesnar over power and dominated Mir and had the ref almost stop the fight after all the blows he hit.

I was at Boston Pizza watching the fight with a bunch of people, the place was packed. And me long with a lot of other people when Mir was on his back and Lesnar was standing up and trying to jump his guard, I just saw the ending when Lesnar started to make rookie mistakes by sticking his arms and legs in the middle of Mir's legs.

If Lesnar didn't get to confident he would have let Mir get up and just lay some more bombs and I would have to believe we would have had a different outcome.

If you watched Mir's pass fights you will see that majority of his wins came by submission. So if Lesnar was to stand up with him, Lesnar would have dominated him.

We all knew that Lesnar's ground game wasn't sounded that submission defence he didn't have. If you look back at the fight when Mir got Lesnar's leg he tried to jump out, it just happened to late and the expression on his face says he knew he made a mistake.

I saw throw this guy in the ring with Sylvia next and have him knock this guy out, and get him to develop his ground game and submission defence.

Even though many people have already hopped of the Lesnar train, I don't think it's time to give up yet. He is just getting started.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Larry, Lesnar was beating the crap out of Mir and lloked good with his striking but Mir is one toogh SOB.
I was just surprised how quick Brock tapped to the leg/ankle lock cause it didn't look like a great one either unless he felt pain in his knee.
I just know this UFC ppv is going ot haunt me cause it's the first one I ever ordered cause of the Lesnar fight and he lost so their is $45 out the window,lol. I would have wnet to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch it but I worked till 10:30.

Tim Haught said...

What do they do in response?

Mir/Lesnar II

Anonymous said...

I wasn't too shocked by what happened in the Lesnar fight. Mir is an experienced MMA fighter. Mir isn't a complete joke. I think TID mentioned on the 'Pit-Stop' about how Mir went against another "Big Man" and took the guy down with a takedown leg-lock. GO FIGURE! he did the same to Brock. Brock did pound the hell out of Mir, no doubt! but Mir found a way to win the bout, plain and simple.

I don't think Brock is done by a longshot. He didn't deliver a win, but was impressive nonetheless.

Christopher Casúr said...

Larry and fallen0ne-
I am aware that Brock came out guns blazing in this fight. But, unfortunately, he still lost very early. Losing that early in a match is never good, even if you were dominating beforehand. Also, my bad on the age thing.

Anonymous-
I don't think Lesnar is done either, but I think the talk of him being the next big thing in MMA is on the back burner now.

Tim-
I honestly think that that's the best way to go. If Lesnar can beat Mir in the rematch, the first loss will be forgotten (as people will blow it off as Mir getting a fluke win).

D.J.B. said...

As I said to Hammer last night, it was simply too much too soon.

I don't think beginning Lesnar as a curtain jerker would have been the right approach, but having him begin in UFC in his second career fight against a former WORLD Champ was too damn much too damn soon.

Lesnar may not revolutionized UFC, but he will be a factor and a force sooner than later.

My feelings weren't really hurt, well hell, yeah they were. It was my first time giving a shit about a UFC event. Lesnar on the PPV's will be the only thing in the future that sparks my interest.

He should have just came out during one of the earlier fights and started F5in bitches. Heyman should have been with him, and he should have brought a chair.

Big Daddy Donnie said...

Lesnar dominated early.

And then he showed a complete lack of toughness. A lack of knowledge (re: UFC rules and punches to the back of the head) and a lack of experience.

Anonymous said...

It sucks that Lesnar lost but it is by no means his only fight. There will be more. On some sites people have this "Hahaha! Silly wrestler!" mentality towards Lesnar. Its foolish. People dont see that dude is a great athlete.

I would not survive one hour of his training, let alone having my first fight be against a former world champion. None of us will ever know how painful that hold was. Yeah, some look more painful than others but we can never know how much that shit hurt. It just wasnt Lesnar's night, plain and simple.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he should try golf next.

Brian G said...

Oh my fucking god.

1: Lesnar is 2 years older than Mir.
2: Lesnar dominated Mir for most of the 90 seconds that the fight went.
3: Lesnar had 18 months of training to Mir's several years.
4: Mir was one of the scariest fighters in the world 3 years ago before his motorcycle accident, and is one of my favourite fighters in the world. He is not a washed up pushover, he was on the road to recovery, and is now a legitimate #1 contender to Nogueira.
5: Donnie, smarten up. Mir was stupid to give up the back of his head like that, and that call to stand Lesnar and Mir up was pretty much bullshit. Mir then got taken down by Lesnar immediately after the stand up. Lesnar got out of an armbar attempt, and made a stupid rookie mistake.
6: Legs ain't supposed to bend the way that Lesnar's was. There was no way he was getting out of that heel hook, Mir had it cinched IN, and it wasn't going anywhere, the knee was an added bonus, but I guarantee that Lesnar was going to lose that ankle (ask Sylvia how a Mir submission attempt works).
7: Lesnar is money in the bank. You give him some seasoning, and put him in the ring against most of the roster, and you've got lightning in a bottle, he will dominate Sylvia if they make that matchup (and they should).

Mir got the better of Lesnar last night, but if you actually watched the match, you'll realize that the fight was way closer than the result indicates, and more importantly Lesnar and Mir put on an exciting 90 seconds. I'd rather watch a quick exciting fight where either guy can win, than a Jeff Monson / Tim Sylvia snore fest.

Bottom line. Don't write a column about a fight you obviously didn't see. If you DID see the fight, then my criticism is don't write about something that you obviously have no fucking clue about.

Anonymous said...

Shoooooot

Christopher Casúr said...

Broqq, put down the Lesnar-aid. The bottom line is, not only did he lose, but he lost early in the first round. You're reading way too much into the fact that he was dominating for a grand total of 90 seconds. Make all the excuses you want for Lesnar, but he was overmatched and this hurts his drawing power.

Big Daddy Donnie said...

Christopher...

DON'T try getting into an MMA debate with Broqq. You're already DEAD wrong with your article. Don't embarrass yourself.

D.J.B. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
D.J.B. said...

Well damn...this got ugly in a hurry.

Patriots lost though.

Christopher Casúr said...

Dead wrong? How? I said in my article that people thought Lesnar was going to win. I can back that statement up. I also said that Mir used his quickness to trap Lesnar in a submission. I can back that up as well. If people want to nitpick over the wording, that's their issue.

The point of my article was to try and get some debate going as to how people would respond if they were Dana White given that his big investment lost his first match in an industry where someone can quickly lose credibility with only a handful of losses. Personally, I still think that Lesnar can be successful in UFC, but he's not going to be the UFC's Messiah and terrorizer wrapped into one, and he absolutely has to win his next fight.

Anonymous said...

so- does this mean that sable is leaving brock and changing her name to rena miro?

Brian G said...

The answer to your article is no. The fight actually IMPROVES his drawing ability, and Dana will use this as proof that "with a little seasoning this kid will be a force to be reckoned with".

After the fight Mir said "I lost that fight for a minute and twenty-eight seconds, it was two seconds that I managed to capitalize on". He also praised the HELL out of Brock's quickness, and said of the arm bar "99% of the time that works and the fight's over, but one second he was on my left, and the next second he was on my right."

MY point was that you painted it as if this was the end of Brock Lesnar and he'd be running back to Vince with his tail between his legs.

My point is that UFC made two stars during that fight. Star one was Mir, who is now a legit #1 contender in a division that doesn't have a lot. Star two was Brock who showed that with a little more experience, he will be a force.

The fact that Brock got beat by the guy who I legitimately feel will be the heavyweight champion this time next year is icing on the cake.

Make no mistake about this, I am pro Mir, I put money on Mir Saturday night, and I said that I thought he'd win. I was shocked to hell that Mir came so close to losing, and in the first 30 seconds I thought he was gone. There aren't a hell of a lot of fighters who could have withstood Lesnar's pummelling and not given up the back or made some other weak assed excuse to allow for a tap-out.

D.J.B. said...

So could, at some point down the road, Frank Mir defend the Heavyweight Championship against, *gulp*Brock Lesnar?

Anonymous said...

A guy with one fight under his belt lost to a former heavyweight champ, and it was clearly due to inexperience. That's the story.

Let's look at the PPV buyrate numbers then the buyrates for his next fight, then decide if it was a bust.

Frank Mir to be "next heavyweight champ"? laugh. How big is a win over a guy with 1 fight under his belt?

Brian G said...

Read my comment again son, "Who I feel will be the heavyweight champ this time next year" is not necessarily the same as "next heavyweight champ".

And THIS is how you write an MMA article on Tha O Show.

Anonymous said...

Lesnar closed the deal like the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Oh wait...

Anonymous said...

Casur's articles are still better than Brian Plunkett and DJB's...

Anonymous said...

Casur and Plunkett are the same person.

Brian Plunkett said...

Thank you, Dude Johnson, that may have been the most entertaining comment that I have ever read.

Anonymous said...

Dude Johnson is a moron, don't be hating man.