UFC 92 Preview: Frank Mir Vs. Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

You saw them on season eight of The Ultimate Fighter and in just a few hours, interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will defend his piece of the title against former champion Frank Mir in the co-main event of UFC 92: The Ultimate.

Nogueira's team won both competitions, but will that luck correlate on Saturday? Read on, true believers!

>About Frank Mir (11-3)

Mir is perhaps one of the more under-appreciated heavyweights in the game today. A former UFC heavyweight titleholder that people seem to forget about. All of the 29-year-old's fights (except for his first two) have come in the octagon, essentially making him a UFC lifer and someone that has seen the business rise like few others, almost on the same path as his career.

He began in November 2001 at UFC 34 with a submission win over Roberto Traven and would win four of his next five fights, earning a title shot at then 16-0 Tim Sylvia. He would go on to win the belt in convincing fashion, breaking Sylvia's arm with an first-round armbar in less than a minute.

Things took a bad turn from there, as Mir got into a serious motorcycle accident that broke his femur and tore all the ligaments in one of his knees, putting him out for nearly two years.

He returned at UFC 57 with a first-round TKO loss to Marcio Cruz, but won two of his next three fights before being thrown to the lion known as first-time UFC combatant Brock Lesnar.

However, Mir was the caged animal, submitting Lesnar with a first-round kneebar to improve his record to 11-3 (seen left).

(Side note: For a great article on Mir, check out December's FIGHT! Magazine cover story.)
> About Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira (31-4-1)

The classification of the word "veteran," Nogueira has been a professional fighter since 1999 and has taken on a who's who of top guys like Bob Sapp, Mark Coleman, Dan Henderson, Mirko Cro Cop, Josh Barnett, and some guy named Fedor Emelianenko.

Cutting his teeth in Japan, "Big Nog" spent his formative years in RINGS and PRIDE putting together a 29-4-1 record. During that time, he became the first PRIDE Heavyweight Champion with a win over Heath Herring.

The black belt in judo and BJJ was signed to the UFC in April 2007 and debuted at UFC 73 with a unanimous decision victory over Herring. Then, in February, Nogueira caught Tim Sylvia with a guillotine choke in the third round at UFC 81 to win the interim Heavyweight title, putting Sylvia in a rare category having lost the belt to both guys involved in this match, both via submission.

>Breakdown

Both men are black belts in BJJ and both men obviously know how to submit people. Out of the three headlining matches, Mir/Nogueira will be a nice change of pace: two heavyweights that are more likely to look for an armbar than a knockout.

Both are listed at 6'1" and after weigh-ins, Mir will probably come in slightly heavier than the 240 pounds UFC lists him at.

In looking at trends, Nogueira has won seven of his last eight and three in a row, while Mir has won two in a row and three of his last five. All but one of those Mir fights have ended in the first round, while Nogueira hasn't seen a fight end prior to the third round in his last five.

Conditioning will be an issue, and while Mir is such a compelling comeback story, Team Nogueira will see a clean sweep in the month of December.

> RRC Prediction

"Minotauro" Nogueira via second-round submission

>Other Previews

- UFC 92 Preview: Rampage Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!