What Frank Mir Must Do To Meet Brock Lesnar a Third Time

A few weeks ago, Frank Mir mused about the idea of dropping down to light heavyweight. Being manhandled by bigger heavyweights in Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin seems to have forced Mir's mind into a corner.

More recently, Mir tweeted that he wants to hold off on dropping to 205 pounds to stay at heavyweight in hopes of fighting Lesnar again.

While some may feel that Mir's quest to beat Lesnar is an exercise in futility, his quest for a third fight is at least attainable. Looking at the UFC heavyweight rankings, Mir is likely just two wins from a title fight with Lesnar.

At UFC 119, Mir faces Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a rematch of their interim heavyweight title fight from December of 2008. The result of that fight should never be assumed, but it should be stated that Mir will be a heavy betting favorite. If Mir could win there and then get a win over any of the top five heavyweights, which is by no means an easy task, he would have earned his spot as the next challenger for Brock.

That is assuming Lesnar keeps winning. If Brock were to say, lose to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121, and Mir win against Nogueira at UFC 119, the fight could be made immediately.

Not only would the matchup make sense, but the UFC has made it clear that they are interested in making the rubber match between the two. The fight would be a major event with enough lead up material to fill a dozen countdown shows. The bad blood between both fighters is well documented and neither fighter is ever at a loss for words.

It is not often that the UFC has a trilogy to advertise. That alone would make the fight a monumental event, especially if it was for the heavyweight championship.

In the case that Mir were to lose to Nogueira at UFC 119, he could kiss any chance of a third meeting with Lesnar goodbye. Mir's relevance near the top of the heavyweight division is depending on his next performance. He is 1-2 in his last three fights with both losses coming by knockout. Another loss would certainly take the luster out of a possible future main event appearance by Mir.

Mir's option to drop down to 205 pounds is not realistic. He is a heavyweight, and a very large one at that. He was out-muscled by the two strongest heavyweights the UFC has likely ever seen, but that doesn't mean he is in the wrong weight class. And if I'm not mistaken, Mir had to cut a few pounds to get to 265 in his fight with Carwin. How he plans to drop over 60 pounds of muscle is beyond me.

Mir needs to get real and find ways to counter the strength of the giant wrestlers at the top of the division, rather than take the easy way out by pondering half-baked plans to avoid them. Mir fought an awful fight against Lesnar in their second meeting. He practically laid on his back for the one-dimensional Lesnar, and now blames the loss on genetics.

In his fight with Carwin, he was pushed against the cage and did nothing about the punches Carwin began to unload on him. Instead of running to a different division, Mir should figure out how not to just freeze up every time he gets punched in the face.

Even if Mir can't handle Lesnar or Carwin, he is still a top heavyweight and a tough fight for anyone. His business is at heavyweight, and he should not lose sight of his goal to redeem himself against Lesnar, especially when it really is within his reach.