UFC 92 Heavy Weight Title Breakdown

UFC 92 Betting: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Frank Mir

Even standing on it’s own, Frank Mir vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is an interesting fight. Add in a season's worth of Ultimate Fighter drama and a heavyweight tournament involving Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, and you now have a match for the ages. If you don't know the story, let me fill you in: With Randy Couture out of the UFC due to contractual issues, the UFC set up a fight between Tim Syvlia and Nogueira for an interim belt. Big Nog submitted Sylvia for the title, only to have Randy Couture return to the UFC a few months later.

In a perfect world, Nog and Couture would have faced off immediately to merge the heavyweight belts. But Nogueira was already halfway through filming on a new season of the Ultimate Fighter alongside Frank Mir. So a tournament of sorts was set up: the Ultimate Fighter coaches would fight as planned on one side, and Couture would face Brock Lesnar on the other. The winners of both fights would then face each other to determine a sole champion. We all know what happened between Brock and Randy, and now it's time to see who gets to face Brock in the ‘finals’.

Breaking down the skills of these guys, here's where we stand: both men are phenomenal jiu jitsu players, with Nogueira using his ground skills to control his opponents while Mir is better known for pulling all sorts of cool submissions out of thin air. Nogueira holds an advantage in the standup department with some very respectable boxing skills. But the biggest difference between these two is in how they take punishment.

Nogueira is a legend in the sport, and part of that is thanks to his ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. I could cite numerous examples of this, but let's stick with his two most recent fights against Heath Herring and Tim Sylvia. In both bouts he weathered serious damage, only to come back and win the fight.

On the other hand, Frank Mir hasn't shown the same resilience. In his last two losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera, he was bullied with strikes and buckled under the pressure. In his fight against Brock Lesnar he was saved from another similar loss when Lesnar hit him on the back of the head after he turtled up on the ground. Still, credit must be given to the fact that after the fight was restarted, Mir managed to catch Lesnar in another nifty submission.

Unfortunately for Mir, it's not going to be easy doing the same thing to Nogueira. While Nog's submission game isn't as slick as Mir's, his defence is just as strong if not stronger. Mir has never faced an opponent who's jiu jitsu is at this high of a level. It's unclear if Nog will be able to completely neutralize Frank on the ground, but the fact that it's even a possibility is not a good sign for Mir.

To add to Mir's troubles, he's never been known for his cardio. While you can attribute his gassed out performance against Dan Christison back in 2006 to his troubled post-accident state, you can't give him the edge in cardio against Nogueira. Nogueira has ample experience going the distance, having done it 13 times in his career. Mir on the other hand has only gone to decision twice.