As fans eagerly waited to hear who Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier would be fighting in the last fight on his contract, they were flabbergasted last month to hear former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia got the nod.
At the end of the day, the Sylvia vs. Cormier match up proved to be the rumor mill spinning out of control. UFC President Dana White shot down the rumors and eventually revealed that another former UFC light heavyweight champion, Frank Mir, would fight “DC” in either late October or early November.
This worked out great for everyone involved … of course with the exception of Tim Sylvia. He expressed his displeasure about the situation in a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour.”
“I don’t know, I think the UFC might have got ahead of themselves and they really couldn’t find anybody to fight Cormier, so they had asked us and we agreed to it and I think after we agreed to it, they were able to talk Frank into doing it and they probably thought Frank was a better fit for it than myself. I think they’d like to see Daniel win and I think he beats Frank, but he would lose to me.”
Interestingly, one of Mir’s signature wins was when he won the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 48 in June 2004. The submission specialist broke Sylvia’s arm with an armbar 50 seconds into the first round.
“The Maine-iac” had not fought on a big stage since February 2008, getting choked out by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81. While Sylvia has won seven of his past eight since September of 2009, he has not beaten anyone with name recognition in that time frame.
On the other hand, Mir has won three of his past five in the UFC, most recently losing a title fight to reigning heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. Mir, a highly decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, has submitted a high-level wrestler before in Brock Lesnar.
He submitted the former NCAA All-American wrestler with a kneebar at UFC 81, though was soundly defeated in the rematch at UFC 100. Will Mir’s high-level submission skills be able to overcome a former Olympian wrestler in Cormier?