Frank Mir says Conor McGregor is no Lesnar, settled for Todd Duffee on cable TV when Lesnar didn't sign
After winning the UFC 189 pay-per-view main event Featherweight match against Chad Mendes, Conor McGregor has been the most talked MMA fighter this past month and has been trending on social media. McGregor-Mendes is expected to have made $7.2 million at the gate and huge pay-per-view numbers.
But for the former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir the Irishman is no Brock Lesnar. “The Beast Incarnate” was one of the best box-office grossers during his MMA days. The UFC 100 fight between Mir and Lesnar still marks the biggest show the UFC has ever as it had a total 1.6 million PPV buys as well as large attendance.
Mir told FoxSports:
"Everybody talks right now about Conor McGregor, how big Conor McGregor is -- I don't think any of Conor McGregor's pay-per-views have outsold what Brock Lesnar's pay-per-views were up to this point. This past weekend might do so, but as of now every time Brock stepped into the arena, he's a fan favorite. People just go nuts over the guy. It's always better to be remembered than forgotten and that just goes to show you the power that Brock Lesnar has. People still talk about UFC 100 to this day. That's still the bar that everybody compares events to. Even this last weekend with Conor McGregor, who has a whole country behind him and I don't think anybody's had foreigners travel to a fight like he does, and still we compare it to UFC 100."
On the other hand Frank Mir will be facing Todd Duffee today at the UFC Fight Night 71 in the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California. But he said MMA Fighting said that he was expecting an opponent like Brock Lesnar, after defeating knocking out Antonio Silva in less than two minutes at the UFC Fight Night 61 this past February.
His words:
"I didn't want Todd at first when I found out that he was calling me out and stuff. There was the talk, I mean the UFC powers that be, they told me, I was under the impression that Brock was getting ready to sign and that if that happens, I'd be the guy, as long as I did what I had to do with Bigfoot, that could be a good fight to build up, you know. 'He's had a layoff, you're coming off the win, let's make this trilogy.' I was hearing rumors of Madison Square Garden. So it caught me by surprise when they told me that he announced his retirement. I was like, 'Well, that's kind of crazy, because there was some pretty high level people that I was speaking to, that told me that it was all but a done deal, that it was a signed contract.'"
Mir also commented about Lesnar staying back with WWE for the big bucks and that Brock was scared of him after what he did to BigFoot.
"I just think financially, you know, the guy that goes to two different car dealerships? I think, maybe he just took advantage of the instant attention that he got by bringing up the UFC's name, and so probably got a bigger contract with the professional wrestling organization. And that being said, maybe watching the Bigfoot fight, he decided maybe that (I) wasn't the best for him coming off a layoff."
(Source: mmamania)