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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
During last week's debut episode of UFC Primetime for the UFC 146 main event between Junior dos Santos and Frank Mir, the UFC Heavyweight Champion made one of the harshest comments he's ever directed towards any fighter.
Speaking to a friend over dinner in Portuguese, a conversation picked up by the Primetime cameras, dos Santos attacked Mir's ability to handle adversity in fights.
"He's not a man, he gives up," the Champ said. "Against Shane Carwin he pretended he was hurt, he's full of it."
Those were pointed comments indeed, but during a media teleconference on Thursday, Mir said he wasn't all that bothered by them.
"No one likes to hear anything negative said about them," Mir said. "But I just broke down why he said what he said when he backed it up on certain fights and I looked at it. I have no issues with my [fights] so I just took it as him trying to sell the fight, and trying to stir the pot... I think [he's] done better as a fighter in the Octagon than he has trying to sell the fights. It's something he's new at and maybe not very successful with."
Of course, dos Santos countered that none of it was simply trying to sell a fight, and if it's something he's said out loud it's something he believes to be true.
"I don't promote fights by talking trash," dos Santos said. "What I say, I say because I believe it. I confirm and I stand by what I said; and what I meant by that remark is that I feel Frank Mir lacks heart and lacks the ability to [survive] through tough spots in a fight."
"That's my personal opinion, that's what I truly believe. I don't say things just to sell fights. I'm not a trash talker, I never will be. If I said it, that's my true opinion."
Penick's Analysis: That's dos Santos' assessment of Mir, but I'm not sure it's an accurate one. This is a fighter who made his way back to the top despite suffering several near career-ending injuries in a motorcycle accident while Champion. Yes, he's had some bad losses, and got beat up by a couple of bigger, stronger wrestlers in Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. However, in the first Lesnar fight he did survive the onslaught to latch on a kneebar submission. And against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in December, he survived through a few really hard strikes that hurt him badly, yet he still came back to submit him. Dos Santos may very well beat Mir easily still on May 26, but if he thinks Mir's just going to fold up quickly I think he's got the wrong idea.
[Frank Mir art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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