Frank Mir Blasts Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman Defends The UFC Champion

Brock Lesnar's decision to pull out of his November 21st UFC Heavyweight Title defense against undefeated Shane Carwin is still the center of a huge controversy surrounding the Ultimate Fighting Championship's top prize.

In a video posted by Yahoo!Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Mir-interview-It-s-a-tough-call-on-Lesnar-s-ill?urn=mma,199637), former UFC Champion (and Lesnar's greatest foe) Frank Mir said "It happens to a lot of us. You're training so hard that your immune system takes a sap. I don't think I've ever not gotten sick for three or four days. You have to be disciplined enough to take time off."

However, in an exclusive blog posted today on his Heyman Hustle website, Lesnar's former WWE on-air agent and behind-the-scenes writer/producer Paul Heyman went to town on those who think Lesnar is ducking the undefeated Carwin.

It was about three and a half weeks ago, when I was on the phone with Brock, and he sounded just so tired. I asked him if this training camp was harder than the others. He shocked me with his answer. "I'm just exhausted," he admitted, "I train, I come home, and I crash. I'm going to take a day or two off and just try to shake this thing."

That was hint number one. Something was wrong.

About a week later, Brock told me he was behind in his training camp. "I'm still going to beat Shane Carwin's ass," Brock stated, "then let's go ice fishing or something. Whatever I have, it's throwing me off my game."

Uh oh. Hint number two. NOTHING throws Brock Lesnar off his game. Not injury, as I've seen him work through those. Not personal turmoil. I've seen his home life get turned upside down. He works through that as well. Not financial issues. Brock's had his battles with divorce, audits, being grounded by the WWE lawsuit. He likes to work. He likes to train. He likes to fight. He likes to compete. Whatever it takes to throw Brock off his game must be pretty ugly.

Then came the inevitable. Brock pulled out of the fight. He really had no choice. He's worked so hard, for so long, to find his passion in life. And now that he's found it, he's not going to half-ass a fight, whether Shane Carwin is the man to take the title from Brock, or whether Brock could whip Shane Carwin's ass even if he's battling pneumonia, swine flu, diarrhea, gonorrhea, syphilis, and sickle cell. The point is that Brock Lesnar could not train properly for a fight that would most likely be purchased by upwards of 1,000,000 people. To put it in perspective, the estimated number of people expected to pay a premium dollar for Brock Lesnar's next UFC Title defense matches the number of PPV buys scored by Floyd Mayweather's return to the ring against a Hall of Fame opponent like Juan Manuel Marquez.

More people are expected to pay to see Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin on pay per view than this year's WWE Wrestlemania. Just think about the responsibility of being that main event fighter.

Over the years, we've seen fighters pull out of contests because of a hurt pinky, a stubbed toe, a bad cold, all sorts of reasons. Brock Lesnar does not have swine flu. But I can assure you, he's sick. And he's tired. And he's sick and tired ... of being sick and tired.

You can read Heyman's entire, insightful look at Lesnar here: http://heymanhustle.craveonline.com/articles/news/22516-paul-heyman-qbrock-lesnar-is-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tiredq

As for my take on the situation, I can't tell you that Brock Lesnar isn't sick. As Heyman pointed out in his blog, I don't see the end game for Lesnar in delaying the fight. He doesn't have any commercials or movies or tv specials or merchandise opportunities coming up that are dependent on him staying champion. So why delay the fight?

Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin is going to happen, probably on January 2nd, 2010.

Whether Frank Mir or Paul Heyman have the inside track on what really happened with the November 21st date, depends on which man you find more convincing.

Both articles are highly recommended.