UFC 146: Junior dos Santos retains title, TKO's Frank Mir in Round 2
Posted on May 26, 2012, 11:47 PM by Anton GurevichJunior dos Santos promised Mixed Martial Arts fans around the world a second round TKO victory over Frank Mir, and he truly delivered. Dos Santos controlled the fight in stand up, picking Frank Mir apart, and defending every takedown attempt from the former two-time Heavyweight champ.
The fight opened with Frank Mir pressuring dos Santos to the fence. The Nevadan immediately went for the takedown, but dos Santos managed to find his way out of trouble. From there, JDS utilized his significant speed and accuracy advantage to control Frank Mir in stand-up. Mir answered with leg kicks, but those strikes were insignificant in comparison to the Brazilian's striking combination.
Dos Santos got Frank Mir in trouble towards the end of Round 1 with a perfectly-timed combination. Frank Mir was saved by the bell, but it was clearly a sign of things to come in Round 2. Despite surviving the onslaught in Round 1, Frank Mir believed his was fighting at Mandalay Bay Events Center, which gave a clear understanding of how hurt he was.
Mir recovered well after the break, and continued with his attempts to find an opening. However, Junior dos Santos' quickly re-gained momentum, and delivered a powerful right cross, which sent Frank Mir down on the canvas. Mir struggled to stand up, as the referee Herb Dean stopped the action at 3:04 minutes of Round 1.
Junior dos Santos is now 15-1 in his MMA career, with 7 KO/TKO victories inside the Octagon. JDS is now expected to face Cain Velasquez in a rematch from UFC on FOX 1.
Comments
Awesome performance Dos Santos! Mir never stood a chance.
Hope you and Cain can meet sooner than later since you both barely broke a sweat tonight.
MIR made a big mistake standing with him HE initially got caught with a hook trying to block with boxing style is a mistake in mma especially with hooks the first shot mir had his hand on the forehead which got pushed to the by the big haymaker
IN muay thai you block hooks with your elbows which is a very effective technique for mma due to the small gloves.
MIR should have went for the takedown but oh well
It sucks. I thought JDS would win but I wanted to see a competitive fight. :S Mir is much more better than than, he should have come lighter
The Champ is here to stay.
Well the only chance Mir had was if he hang on Junior for 3 rounds and JDS tripped over his own legs tired of carrying him. I mean would you really go for lowkicks without a follow up with someone with SUPERIOR boxing compering to you? Frank your a nice guy, but seriously?
Exposed. Maybe you should be a little quieter the next time you win fights you had no business winning frank. You can fight, but you're about the luckiest guy in professional fighting.
If Frank thought he was @ the Mandalay Bay earlier then he must think he's in Korea now. Thanks for showing up & proving me wrong Dumptruck.
Who are you talking to and what are you talking about? I mean it says you replied to my comment but you seem to be arguing with me even though you agree?
Yea, frank mir really had no business beating Nog in either bout imo, and beating Brock was due to his "turn to the back of his head" strategy.Could see him doing that against JR but it was soon displayed it wouldn't work.
He's so insanely self-gratifying after a win he barely got as well that this was just in the cards.
Wow, haters gonna hate I guess. Just my opinion here, but you don't punch Cheick Kongo across the cage or break Big Nog's arm due to luck. He's the only submission loss on six fighters' records. (Nogueira, Kongo, Lesnar, Hardonk, Williams and Traven) Boring fight or not, he outstruck Cro Cop, controlled the whole fight, and knocked him out. Did the same to Big Nog in their first fight, where he made him look like an amateur. Do you really feel this is all just luck?
As for insanely self gratifying... watch some of the after fight antics from Chael Sonnen, Brock Lesnar, and so forth. Mir doesn't display false humility, and he really only talks trash leading up to a fight, being respectful afterward. I'm personally glad that not everyone is trying to clone GSP's personality.
I forgot that an 80 year old Cro Cop was the p4p best. And don't make a case about the submission wins he got. Kongo doesn't know what the canvas is let alone what happens on there.
Oh yes, I forgot, someone has to be the p4p champ before doing anything to them counts as an achievement. Also, If Kongo has no ground game and is so easy to submit, how come no one else has done it? And can you name me one other person that even came CLOSE to submitting Nog, Lesnar, or Traven? You can make the case for Lesnar being lucky because of him having almost no submission knowledge at the time and being careless, but come on, Mir made Nog look like a blue belt and Traven look like a white belt. If you think Mir has no submission skills you are beyond deluded.
Frank should have kept shooting for the takedown since he knew that was his only real chance. He knew what would happen if he stood in front of him and he did anyway. "Not bad for a nice guy!" -JDS
Well done, Junior! How can you not like this guy.
The Odds on Frank dropped from 4.5 to 1 the day before, to 5.25 to 1 today. Huge jump!
My guess is the odds makers took one look at Mir's belly and went "nope".
It was kind of sad, If Mir had shown up in shape, it might have been a good fight. He danced around, look good for 30 seconds, and that was it. Slow, awkward and didn't smell a real takedown.
Mir has to make adjustments, maybe shed a few more pounds, otherwise, he won't even smell the belt again.
Mir looked gassed after his first take down attempt. Didn't help that his gut was an easy target either. Mark hunt is the only guy who hasn't lost to him yet.
Nice pick Anton!
i hope JDS now makes his top 10 P4P!! anton is to biazed to make picks... and to predict that mir was winning by TKO was crazy!!!
We'll see, Santos looked great. But no UFC HW champ has defended the title more than twice. Next defense will be crucial in breaking that record. Whats up with Frank? he just looked big, usually he comes in and looks in good shape, he did not look in shape for a title fight.
I agree, I'm wondering if Mir needs to change his diet or something. I'd like to see him come in like he did against Lesnar in their second fight. He was in really good shape then, he just got outmuscled and smothered the whole fight.
I thought Frank was doing well with his leg kicks at one point in the fight.
I was surprised he only shot for the first take down. I guess Jnr felt pretty strong against the cage
there it goes my money....thank you lavar!
tough fight to bet!! you should have bet that the fight didnt went to a 2nd round. that was easy money
Mir is past his best now and his jaw is shot to pieces.
Theres no way he beats Velasquez or JDS any day of the week, and is at serious risk against anyone who throws bombs.
Its unfortunate but his championship window has come and gone.
Besides JDS this division is still really lacking IMO. Hell, Mir who cant even box when hes bought a new house lasted longer than overrated Cain. This should be a clear message to all pro HW boxers who can learn some takedown defense. MMA in this division is losing.