#4 – Frank Mir
Surprise!
I thought I’d break from tradition and include some non-wrestling material in this week’s column, given that Brock Lesnar gave some real fighters some very real beat downs after taking a break from the sports entertainment world.
Brock Lesnar was brought into UFC with a ton of media coverage and fanfare in 2008. He was immediately thrown into a fight against one of the baddest men on the planet – former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. At UFC 81, Lesnar took Mir to the mat five seconds into the fight, and started delivering devastating shots, one after another. If one of those blows hadn’t glanced Mir in the back of the head, costing Brock a point and forcing a time-out, it’s very possible he could have secured the win; a decision could have changed the course of Lesnar’s career in ways we’ll obviously never know.
After losing his first UFC fight, most fans began to doubt the former “fake wrestling” champion in a legitimate sports. However, after a rebound victory over Heath Herring and downing the legendary Randy Couture to capture the UFC Heavyweight Championship, the rematch was set for UFC 100, live in Las Vegas. This time, Brock avoided Mir’s dangerous defense and scored the win by TKO after a dangerous, bloody assault to prove the doubters wrong.
