Mir’s Comments Blown Out of Proportion

Coming out of a weekend featuring the UFC’s first event in Australia, many headlines were stolen by Frank Mir’s comments on a radio show about his former opponent and current fixation, Brock Lesnar.  If you somehow have not hear what Mir said, or if you really want to read it again, here goes.

Mir was talking about the difference between his open and honest approach to interviews and what he feels we normally see out of most fighters.  He said, “I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC ‘Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him.’ If I don’t mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth?  I want to fight Lesnar.  I hate who he is as a person.  I want to break his neck in the ring.  I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries.  That’s what’s going through my mind.”

Now, most stories about the comments only covered the specific remarks about Lesnar.  I think that, while it’s still obviously pretty extreme, looking at the entire quote in context helps everything make a little more sense.  I don’t personally look at it as if Mir is actually saying those things literally, but instead saying what’s going through his mind (as evidenced by him, you know, actually saying “that’s what’s going through my mind.”)  In that case, what fighter hasn’t thought along such extreme lines before a fight?  The difference is that they would know not to say it.

That’s besides my point, though.  My real point is that people are looking at this whole fiasco in the wrong way.  The first thing that nearly everybody thought after hearing/reading Mir’s quote is, “that’s not good for the sport.”  I’m 100% sure that the first thing Dana White thought was that this could hurt his company; that this is exactly the kind of publicity he doesn’t need when still trying to get sanctioned in all 50 states.

I can understand his point of view, I guess, but I still think everyone is overreacting in regards to the quote.  A lot of the problem is this dated attitude that our sport is lucky to be getting the attention that it is, and one slip-up can “set the sport back” or get it all taken away by The Man.  As if some senator is going to hear Mir’s comments, and within six months MMA will be banned everywhere but Iowa and off pay-per-view and cable TV again.

We don’t need to have that mentality, anymore.  I think that, while it’s great to encourage people to learn more about the sport, fighting is fighting.  If you don’t like the idea of two people beating the crap out of each other in a cage, you probably never will.  For most people who are vehemently against MMA, it can be safely said that their position won’t change, whether they are taught what a triangle choke is or not.  All the statistics on safety and comparisons to boxing in the world won’t help if someone simply does not like the sight of one person on top of another, punching him or her in the face.

I think that the Mir fiasco shines a light on the fact that we need to change our respective mentalities as fans, promoters and fighters.  MMA is here to stay, and while it is good to be a great “ambassador for the sport”, we need not to have this outdated fear that every misstep will cost our sport mainstream acceptance or blast it back to the proverbial stone age.  Other sports do not worry about having one overly talkative athlete ruin it for everybody; why should we?

Should Dana White, as Mir’s employer, be angry at him?  Possibly.  Of course, I wouldn’t be the first to notice that White’s incredulous response is very much at odds with his own past behavior, which has usually garnered much more mainstream attention that what Mir said on a largely unknown radio show.  The rest of us, though, should chill out.  Mir is just one participant in the UFC and in MMA, and just as people don’t hold the NFL responsible when an egotistical wide receiver says or does something stupid, people should be able to separate Mir from the sport itself.

The UFC makes way too much money everywhere it goes (and for a lot of powerful people) to have this constant paranoia about somehow turning off the wrong people and being kicked out of the party.  In fact, I think that the sport could afford to throw its weight around a little more.  Why can’t White go to the athletic commissions that have approved the sport and say, “hey, we make you guys a lot of money, and we want knees to the head on the ground?”  That’s just one example, but I believe it’s all an extension of the mentality that all of us have to have:

Like it or not, MMA is here to stay.

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Tags: Brock Lesnar, Dana White, Frank Mir, UFC