For a little over a minute, former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar looked like he was going to have his way with former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in his Octagon debut tonight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. But at this level of the game, it only takes one mistake to end up on the losing end of the equation, and Mir proved it, submitting Lesnar 90 seconds into the opening round.
“No excuses, he’s a top-notch jiu-jitsu guy and he got me tonight. He’s the better fighter,” said Lesnar, a former NCAA wrestling champion who drops to 1-1 in pro mixed martial arts.
Within seconds of the opening bell, Lesnar had dumped Mir on the canvas and started reigning down blows. An inadvertent shot to the back of the head by Lesnar forced a stoppage of the action and a deduction of a point by referee Steve Mazzagatti though, and gave Mir a chance to clear his head.
And while he would be put on the mat a second time, now by a right hand from Lesnar, this time Mir would weather the storm while fighting to sink in an armbar, and as Lesnar looked to finish, Mir grabbed his leg and sunk in the fight-ending kneebar.
“I went for a couple of armbar attempts, but look at the guy’s arms,” said Mir. “His legs were a little leaner, so I attack the neck or the legs on a big guy because they’re always vulnerable.”
It was the Las Vegan’s biggest win since a motorcycle accident sidelined him in 2004.
“I had Brock Lesnar dropping elbows on my head and I still pulled through and grabbed a submission,” said Mir, now 11-3.
As for Lesnar, his 90 seconds of work did show promise, and in turn, he promises to return to the Octagon to chase after the heavyweight crown.
“You win some and you lose some,” said Lesnar. “I’d like to win them all, but you can’t.”
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