It must be a bit awkward to have a nice sit-down chat with the man your going to be attempting to punch lumps out of in just a few days time, but nevertheless UFC 146 headliners Junior Dos Santos and Frank Mir did just that earlier this week for FOX Sports.
Check out the keynotes from their conversation below and scroll down to watch the full interview for yourselves.
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– Mir says he doesn’t get worked up about being this close to his opponent so near to the fight and understands that media obligations are just part of the job and they aren’t getting paid to fight until Saturday.
– Dos Santos doesn’t think his mentor Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be at the fight because he has obligations in Brazil, but he’s not concerned about it.
– Asked if he would have tapped if he’d been in the same kimura that he broke Nogueira’s arm with, Mir says he would have and JDS agrees that’s what he would have done too.
– Mir accepts that pre-fight talk of him having snapped both Nogueira and Tim Sylvia’s arms in the past is something he’s happy to amplify in order to remind his opponent of the danger he could be in on Saturday night, and at the same time he assumes that Dos Santos would be keen to remind him of the KO power he possesses. To Mir that’s just part of the strategy and mind games that happen before a fight.
When asked if the mind games are working, Dos Santos acknowledges, “a little bit”.
– Quizzed about a statement he made during the UFC Primetime series that Mir was “not a man”, JDS doesn’t back down from the statement and explains that what he meant was that while Mir is “a monster” when he has the upper hand in a fight, he feels he’s not the same fighter when he’s in a bad spot and “can’t escape the moment” and gives up to easily.
Mir believes he can see certain fights that he’s been in where someone could come to that conclusion, but he says that his definition of being a man and having heart is different in that he’s not given up, but rather has continued to fight for a living and continues to aspire to be a better fighter.
– Mir jokes that he hopes that JDS will try to take him down so he doesn’t have to fight him standing up, but being more serious he reveals he has gameplanned for striking with the champion.
– Asked what Mir’s biggest weakness is, JDS says he thinks it’s his cardio.
– Finally the two men were asked for their predictions for the fight. Mir sees himself getting a submission in the first round, while Dos Santos is anticipating knocking him out in the second round.
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