Frank Mir vs. Brendan Schaub expected early 2011

Brendan Schaub doesn't qualify to make Frank Mir a sandwich!

Nice one Chael!

I think Mir is a bit overrated but this is still a big step up in competition for Schaub he could beat Mir but I think Mir should take this one

Yeah. I don't see how Mir can lose this but he lost to Vera so who knows.

Schaub feels froggy let him jump see if he can be a elite HW .. he might have a chance to beat Mir

Mir by submission in Round 3

Schaub hasn't really beaten anybody, so this will be a big test for him to see if he can compete for the HW strap.

gonzaga' s a nobody?

i'm biased but...mir ftw :D

agreed Mir will be focused and hungry with a new game plan, dont think this will end well for Schuab

maybe a little harsh to throw him in against mir! lol, what about kongo?

Schaub called Mir out so I dont think this a bad match up

roy nelson rematch instead haha

mir wil tap him out

Thank God we won't have to see Lesnar Mir 3 for no reason like they were thinking about doing.

I know I'm biased, I'm a big Mir fan, but regardless, I think Mir is too much for Schaub. I have no idea what happened to Gabe Gonzaga, but beating him (these days) isn't saying much. Can Brendan beat him? If he gets lucky, but he'll have nothing for FM on the ground and I don't see him intimidating him (at all) and walking Mir down and Frank's cardio is pretty good; so, I'm not sure what Schaub is bringing to the table, in this one.



I know Mir is a favorite whipping boy around here and doesn't get a lot of credit for being a great fighter and tough guy, but he took two beating (Lesnar / Carwin) that few could and he (certainly) doesn't get the credit that he deserves for both his power and his stand-up. The knee he threw on Lesnar nearly put Brock out, his KO of Cro Crop was beautiful and he was the first guy to put Big Nog down; handily. He has really grown and improved as a stand-up fighter and he's also packed on some decent size; he's a "big" boy.



I know this, where FM may never beat Carwin or Lesnar (again), I'd give him a better then even chance of beating The Champ. Mir would not be an easy fight for Cain; not by a long shot.



I'll call it Mir by KO, in the Schaub fight.

Dos Santos and Mir are the only two guys that I think would stand a chance against Cain Velasquez. BTW, long time not chat, WingChun. Mir is a very diverse and well-rounded mixed martial artist. The KO of CC may have been a beaut', but the fight was not only boring, it showed that Mir still has areas in his game that need a lot of improving. I think had the KO not happened, CC may have decisioned him.

Moots! My intellectually well rounded friend. How are you? Haven't seen you on here, lately.



Yes - Mir & Dos Santos, wouldn't be / won't be easy. However of the two, I think Mir is the deadlier opponent. JD failed to impress me in his fight with Big Country; he should have been able to finish him.



In regard to Mir's KO of CC and CC winning a decision had that not happened...unfortunately Moots, it did. :-) And it was one beautiful KO, my friend; well worth the boring 3 rounds I sat through, watching it.



Cheers, hope all is well on the Ilse.



Wing Chun

Good to chat with you again, WC. I have been focusing on other things for a while now and haven't had the time to devote to debating MMA. I figured I would find the time when I saw a post as poignant as yours ;)



I agree in some respect about Dos Santos - he showed great stand up, cardio, and td defense, but also a lack of versatility. He could use more variety in his strikes, including overhands and kicks. If Cain gets the win I imagine it may be slightly due to the somewhat 1-dimensional nature of Dos Santos. The rest will be wrestling.



I concede that the KO of CC was amazing, and had CC gotten a KO of Mir in that fashion, I may have been blind to the lackluster two and a half rounds preceding it. We have debated on this topic in the past though, which is no surprise considering my favorite fighter, CC, fought a favorite of yours in Mir, in a fight of that nature.



On a slightly unrelated note, I'm curious - did GSP impress you in the GSP/Kos fight?



-Moots (dubbed 'the point')

@ Moots



Yes - life! Has a nasty tendency of taking us away from our true passions and pursuits. I would say this of your time away, however, your opinion(s), analysis and commentary are some of the more profound and salient comments to be found on LowKick; we are a lesser thread, sans your hefty opine.



In regard to the fight, we are in agreement. It was a bore. And I was thoroughly disappointed with Mir, until the KO. I was expecting much, much more from him; given his rhetoric leading up to it (the fight). However, there it is, he got the "big" KO and that's that, on that. And to be honest, it's the only part of the fight I remember. :-)



GSP - I believe you know he's my favorite fighter and not all of that is based on his Octagon skill(s). I just like the way he carries himself, both in-and-out of the ring. With that said, I walked away from the fight with my first criticisms of him; strangely enough.



Yes - it was a great performance and I loved the addition of the jab. He looked looser than I've seen him, although still a "little" stiff - IMO.



Here are my criticisms - I walked away thinking that JK was probably the better wrestler and his whole game plan, post 1rst round jabbing, should have been to take GSP down. I was left with the impression that JK was stronger than GSP. Put the two together and GSP needs to improve his wrestling a little and hit the weights. I say this not so much as a concern about 170, but rather for the anticipated move (up) to 185; and it might be a concern in his upcoming fight with Shields, should JS be able to get it to the ground.



Disappointed - in an inability to finish a fighter that he damaged that much. He didn't circle at all or very little. He nearly got caught a couple of times, once in the first that I thought was going to be a replay of the Serra fight. I was disappointed that he didn't throw a single elbow to to that eye, when up against the cage. I was disappointed he didn't throw a spinning back-fist to "that" eye; when clearly Koscheck wouldn't have been able to see it coming.



Was it dominating? Yes. Am I happy with the victory? Absolutely. Do I think it was a Jose Aldo or John Jones decimation of an opponent? No.What I saw was him handle, what seemed to me to be, a much stronger, more powerful, but less skilled technician, tactician and fighter.



GSP had a game plan. Koscheck had no game plane. He said he would just wing it and GSP made him pay for it, for 25 minutes and 1 broken orbital bone. Although, I'll say this in GSP's defense - maybe he did stop him and the doc just failed at his job. One thing is for sure, he ####ed him up and probably knocked Koscheck out of the fight game for the better part of a year.



What are your thoughts? My gut tells me you probably have similar thoughts.



Cheers Moots, ever so nice to hear from you again.



Wing Chun

And a Merry Christmas or other relevant holiday greeting, to you.

In general I agree with your assessment of the GSP/Kos fight. While you reiterated our observations, I will give my conclusion: GSP fought safe, with very little risk-taking, to decision Koscheck. I thought he did excellent in the first few rounds, but I must say with all things both fighters said about finishing each other, bringing all they had to the fight, etc., I was disappointed with both of their performances.



Both claimed they were going to go for the finish. I saw nothing of the sort. Koscheck looked like he had never sparred before, and any acclaim given to Kos' striking by Joe Rogan or anyone else was admonished. All he did was throw his right hand in sloppy counter combos, which were too slow and loopy for GSP's jab. There was no sense of urgency by Koscheck as if he was fine with simply losing the decision. While some would say he has big heart to stay in the fight when the doc asked him if he was o.k., I say he did give up. He didn't verbally, but physically and mentally. He simply did not fight.



That being said, I feel underwhelmed by GSP at this point, where others have more praise for him than ever. After the first few rounds, the fight was firmly in the grasp of GSP, yet he yielded, and played it safe in order to win a decision. There were multiple opportunities for GSP to finish the fight, by taking Kos down followed by sub/gnp, throwing a right hand/high kick, etc., but he was content with the jab to decision. With all of GSP's talk and supposed fervor to finish Koscheck, I feel slightly cheated. In addition, if he cannot finish a guy who basically gave up and had no right eye, what chance will he have against Anderson Silva, who took 4.5 rounds of ass-kicking from Sonnen to pull off a finish?



That was my conclusion from the fight. The result that follows then, is that I think GSP is clearly under Anderson Silva in the p4p list. GSP is a great mixed-martial artist no doubt, and I also respect the way he carries himself as you do, but I now think that there is a very clear level difference between Anderson Silva and GSP. I'm of the attitude that, if you want to claim to be the best mixed martial artist, you need to finish fights. Not every time obviously, but with such a dominating performance it sort of leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.



I remember telling my friends before the PPV that GSP was very passionate about finishing Kos and that it should be a good fight. Unfortunately, it was just a 1-sided beating that GSP administered but he didn't cross the finish line.

@ Moots (My Esteemed Friend)



You are a blast to read, Point; I must say. You are the first person off of this site, that I would like to meet and buy you dinner; you're a very cool fellow and a blast to discuss MMA with. Hats off to you; few have your acumen, knowledge or the ability to express themselves in a cogent manner. You are a LowKick blessing or a blessing to LowKick; I'm not sure which.



I agree with a great deal of what you have sated, in particular, in regard to your comments about GSP and the fight, but alas not about Anderson. However and thread allowing, we could do this at infinitum, but alas we would, I'm sure, conclude nothing. The only thing I can say would be this...a fight is a fight and we need one; it is the only way to resolve our debate; hopefully in a year or two.



Cheers, as always Point. You are a pleasure to read.





Wing Chun

Thank you for the kind words - and I agree, I do want to see that fight as I believe it is very important for MMA to have the best fight the best, and to make the fights that everyone wants to see.



I will continue to scour the confines of this site for posts as erudite and intriguing as yours - and attempt to conjoin with them to produce meaningful and entertaining colloquy.



p.s., I enjoy a good seafood pasta ;)

I'd be prepared to go as high as a pasta dinner, Moots. I would not call that unreasonable or a some kind of a "cash grab' on your behalf, at my expense, in an effort to hit me up for a steak & lobster dinner. Although, I would have been prepared to go that high; your company would be worth the expenditure.



I would append my previous remark about you being the only one off of this site; I spoke in haste. I'd also extend the invite to Jamie Kennedy, Japangro23 and even bluntsandbeers, who, strangely enough, actually posted on this thread (directly below). I would imagine that five of us would have a great dinner and great conversation about MMA. If I win the lottery, I shall make it happen; preferable in Vegas, for UFC XXX.



In regard to seafood - Have you ever tried seafood risotto? Made right; it's unbelievable.



Cheers to you Point,



Wing Chun

for the most apart i agree. Mir is alot more of a threat to cain then JDS because Mir can deal with the smaller HWs.



But in regards to your comment about JDS i was pleased with his performance, he dominated a very tough opponent his only problem was he was only using his hands and his stand up is only 1 demensonal but he didnt need to finish big country because he already dominated him. dont forget every other one of his UFC victories have been via TKO. we cant expect to much as fans

@ blunts



Don't get me wrong, my friend; it was an impressive performance, he owned him. I just couldn't figure out why he couldn't finish a gassed Big Country; BC looked bad in that fight, man. And yes, I know JDS's stand-up is very crisp and solid and he's had some beautiful fights, he would be a serious challenge for Cain; although I would take Cain, for sure. One big knock on JDS is that we haven't seen him or at least I haven't seen him, tested on the ground; we both know MIr is a moose on the ground; unless he has a 280 lb Mule Deer killer on his back or a big engineer, for that matter. Everyone else, should stay clear of Mir on the ground.



To be honest, I'd like to see them all match-up. All three fighters, Mir, JDS and The Champ, would be great fights.



Cheers and a Merry Christmas or other relevant holiday greeting, to you.



Wing Chun

frank mirs cardio is good are you kidding me

Wow, am I the only one here that thinks Mir has NO chance against Schaub ? I mean Mir's got a much bigger name but if you forget about that and look at skills, speed, who's more well rounded etc... i'm much more impressed by Schaub. Mark my words, Schaub by Unanimous decision.

Schaub is more well rounded? Yeah right..... oO

agree! i think Schaub will out box him, his cardio is also way better than mirs, mirs takedowns are one of the worst i have ever seen, Schaub win dis by Unanimous decision or tko

Yup ;-)

Schaub is faster and is the better boxer. On the ground he is good enough to stay out of submissions if the fight even goes there. He will keep the fight standing and will either tko Mir or win by UD.

good fight but im picking Schaub for the upset round 2 tko i doubted him against Gonzaga but he did good and i think Mir is too ****y even tho he is pretty good

^^^

****y=c0cky

this is a good fight. if u say bendan schaub dont hav a chance u r stupid. hes got fast hands much better boxer then frank. but on the ground frank will shine. either frank gonna get tkoed or schaub gonna get subbed. dont see this 1 go 2 distance I HOPE SCHAUB WIN

I think Schaub will swarm Mir in the 1st round & ko him.

If Mir gives a performance like the one with Crocop , then it's safe to say "Goodnight Frank" !

I think Schaub wil win if Mir has not inproved his takedowns

Frank Mir should just crash his motorcycle again, Since it made him a shitty fighter from a good fighter, maybe it works in reverse.



Then again, probably not because this isn't Gilligan's Island.

Should be interesting. Still I feel like that is an easier win for Frank Mir.

mir will knock this ****y out in 2nd round

damn, to be honest i didnt want this matchup. I think it should be Lesnar-Mir III as a part of first show in toronto, UFC 131. just my opinion.

schaub is a heavyweight i like, if he can compete with mir, i really dont think so, never smart to write a guy off tho.