Frank Mir vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, UFC 140
For a long time Mir and Nogueria were considered at the top of the food-chain in terms of submission specialists in the UFC’s heavyweight division, and at UFC 140 we finally got to see what would happen if a fight between them hit the mat. What transpired left the entire MMA community with their collective jaws hanging open in amazement and disbelief.
It had all being going so well for ‘Big Nog’ early in the fight as he dropped Mir with punches on the feet and then looked to finish him with ground and pound. Then came a decision he would live to regret – opting instead to choke Mir out with a guillotine.
Until that moment Mir had looked completely spent, but suddenly his survival instincts kicked in and he managed to roll and get on top. The two battled for position and Mir cleverly past into side control and seized Nogueira’s arm looking for a kimura. It’s a tough submission to pull off, especially against an elite grappler like ‘Big Nog’, yet Mir mustered up the strength, technique and perseverance to make it work despite his opponent’s best efforts to escape, pushing the limb past the point of no return until it snapped.
It’s as brutal a submission as you’ll see, and arguably in the running for the best ever when you consider that for many years people believed that Nogueira was unsubmittable.
