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The Playground

Work is hard. Everybody needs recess.


July 12, 2009 · 11:32 AM

“Winning is not the only thing that creates a champion.”

By Allison Duck

Frank and Jennifer Mir on the red carpet at Rok Vegas.

Photo: Allison Duck

“This is just one of those things where it shows you that winning is not the only thing that creates a champion.” Jennifer Mir’s words about her husband’s UFC 100 loss to Brock Lesnar perfectly explain the dichotomy of a fighter. Victories and conduct are equally important. While Frank Mir’s UFC 100 performance wasn’t enough to best Brock Lesnar, the Las Vegas native proved once again why he is regarded as one the real class acts in the professional fighting world.

Mir’s wife sat by her bruised and swollen husband at the ESPN Zone at New York-New York as he spent hours signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans at a private meet and greet session following the fight.

“I haven’t seen the fight,” she said. “I was upstairs in the hotel room with the kids. I rode with them in the ambulance and the kids met us there. You know, they just wanted to see that he was ok. And he’s fine. They did a CAT scan, they did an x-ray and everything was fine. So that’s the most important thing.”

Frank Mir's after fight party

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Though she didn’t watch Brock Lesnar’s after fight antics, which included flipping off the crowd, slobbering for the cameras and saying he was going to “get on top of my wife,” Mir’s wife has heard all the details of the UFC 100 main event, and she has a simple message for Lesnar: “And that’s why, Brock, that’s why everyone was rooting for my husband still while they were putting the belt on you.”

Despite her husband’s Octagon loss, Jennifer Mir is obviously proud. “He’s a true champion and everybody sees that,” she explained. “In the sport, there’s kind of like a brotherhood that goes on amongst all the fighters. … Even the guys who have had the biggest feuds; afterwards, they still always respect each other.”

Frank Mir agreed. “After I broke Tim Silva’s arm, we were having drinks at the House of Blues. That’s just the way it is; we’re all trained martial artists, but we’re all brothers.”

Frank Mir leaves the arena after being defeated by Brock Lesnar in their heavyweight title fight at UFC 100. Lesnar won with stoppage in the second round.

Photo: Sam Morris

Frank Mir leaves the arena after being defeated by Brock Lesnar in their heavyweight title fight at UFC 100. Lesnar won with stoppage in the second round.

Jennifer Mir said having the fight behind them “is like instant relief.”

“This is just the business, another day at the office,” she added. “It didn’t really go that well for us tonight, but you always take the good and the bad things out of fights and tonight, thanks to Brock, there were a lot of good things actually for us. Frank came in shape and he trained really well and he showed that he had heart. It’s just back to the drawing board.”

In the post fight press conference, Lesnar attempted to apologize for his lack of sportsmanship, saying, “I come from a business that is purely entertainment.”

Alongside her bruised but not broken husband after the fight, Jennifer Mir was unmoved. “I wouldn’t want to be [Brock]. Even though we were the ones on the losing end, I still wouldn’t want to be him tonight.”

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