UFC 100: notes from conference call with heavyweights Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir

July 1, 1:57 PMMixed Martial Arts ExaminerEddie Graveline

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The UFC held a media conference call with Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir this morning. The call lasted a full hour and covered a variety of topics, but among other things, the two UFC 100 main event fighters discussed their game plans for each other, as well as the differences in their backgrounds. I thought it might be interesting for fans to read summaries of a few things the two fighters talked about.

Frank Mir

Mir said that in the training camp for this fight, he focused on the areas that he's seen Lesnar improve in since he last fought him. He said that there has been noticeable improvement in Lesnar's various techniques, as displayed in his wins over Heath Herring and Randy Couture. He also stated that Lesnar's wrestling is an obvious strong point that has to be trained for.

In response to another question along the same lines, Mir said that, because Lesnar has shown so much improvement in each of his fights, it's impossible to know how much more he will have improved for this one. Because of that, he has trained for the worst case scenario, which in his words is, "Brock knowing everything I know about Jiu Jitsu and submissions, plus having an advantage in size and speed."

Mir said that he thinks both he and Lesnar are fighting with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders, because they feel that they aren't getting the proper amount of respect from the MMA world as to their standings in the Heavyweight division as a whole.

As for his recent return to top form, Mir gave a lot of credit to coach Ken Hunt. He said that Hunt not only helped him with the striking that was such a big factor in his win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but was really the guy responsible for helping him find his love of martial arts and training again.

Brock Lesnar

When asked if there is genuine dislike between Frank Mir and him, Lesnar said that the only hard feelings are based on the fact that they are about to fight each other and that Mir dealt him his only loss as a professional thus far.

Lesnar was asked what he felt about some comments that Mir made previously, basically stating that he was a professional fighter while Mir was a true martial artist. In other words, Mir was insinuating that Lesnar is only in it for the money. Lesnar said that he left professional wrestling, because he wasn't happy. He loves his job now and loves going to work every day, but he just happens to make a lot more money doing it than Frank Mir.

Another subject of conversation was the 265-pound weight limit in the Heavyweight division. Mir had stated at one point during the call that he currently weighs 262 pounds. Lesnar was asked what he currently weighs and whether or not cutting to 265 is a big issue for him. He said that he weighs 275 today, but that the cut to 265 is not a difficult thing for him. He said he's already made weight a few times during his training camp and, while it requires some thought and planning on his part, it's not a difficult task for him.

Keep checking back as UFC 100 (July 11th) approaches. I will be covering the event on-site in Las Vegas starting with the official weigh-ins and UFC 100 Fan Fest on Friday, plus live at the fight on Saturday night. I'll have more preview features as well as predictions for the main card bouts in the days to come.