Frank Mir – Sticks And Stones

Since former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir said that he wants to essentially kill Brock Lesnar the media (this writer included) have been very vocal in airing their disgust that someone with his status would say something so, well, insensitive.

Mir has never been one to shirk away from saying what’s on his mind and in the past has delivered some pretty useful sound-bites that all headline writers at one time or another have been grateful for. Perhaps it’s a little harsh then that we all recoil in shock and anger when Mir delivers what amounted to a death threat, when at the end of the day, Mir has given us exactly what we want; something to write about.

I in no way condone what Mir said but as the days have passed and his words have lost some of their shock value I can see that Mir was only trying to stir up some controversy to get himself noticed.

And when I look back at this crazy sport I see that a lot of fighters say a lot of crazy things in the build up to big fights that always get washed away after the fights have been fought. After all; didn’t BJ Penn threaten the life of GSP ahead of their rematch, in a roundabout way?

No one really remembers that, or if they do, no one really talks about it anymore and why is that?

Because everyone knew it was just BJ either A; trying to psyche himself up for the biggest fight of his life or B: just trying to sell some more PPV’s

I guess what I’m saying is that perhaps I over-reacted when I read what Mir said about wanting Lesnar to die, perhaps I’m sensitive because I reside in the UK and in my formative years we had some very high profile boxing events where the losing fighters suffered appalling injuries (I’m thinking about Michael Watson and Gerald McClellan in particular) and my own countryman Johnny Owen died.

Perhaps it’s a little of all of the above or it could just as easily be down to the fact that I’m nothing more than a headline writer doing what a headline writer should do when a quote like Mir’s surfaces?

Either way, what Mir said isn’t the worst thing a fighter has ever said and I dare say to some fighters ahead of a grudge match, it’s what a few of them are secretly thinking during the build-up but are too afraid of saying the words in front of a microphone.

At the end of the day at least Frank Mir was being honest with us and yeah it got him some stick and yeah, it was insensitive but at least he said it out loud. Mir gives us all headlines on a regular basis and while we may not agree or condone with everything he says, he gives us work to do.

Instead of being offended perhaps we should all just lighten up a bit and remember that old phrase our parents taught us when we were kids that kind of applies to this very situation we find ourselves in right now…

“sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”