It’s been 13 years since Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar had their highly anticipated rematch in the main event of UFC 100.

While Mir went on to have a very full career post-Lesnar, his old rival only fought three times afterward before heading back to the squared circle as a professional wrestler in the WWE. Having not fought since a four-fight skid halting unanimous decision victory in his 2019 Roy Nelson rematch, Mir has been training his daughter, Bella, and also playing with the idea of becoming a pro wrestler himself.

As seen already with Cain Velasquez, the WWE isn’t shy to jump on real fight-like opportunities involving stars such as Lesnar. For the 43-year-old Mir, however, nothing ever came nearly as close as it did for Velasquez who at least enjoyed a very brief stint in the sports entertainment world.

“I wanted to put myself in a position by going out there and being successful at it, but it was one of those things where it wasn’t even in the talks,” Mir said on Insight with Chris Van Vliet regarding a Lesnar trilogy spectacle in pro wrestling.

“I would be game [for a third MMA fight]. No [it was never close to happening]. Not on his radar, I guess. Just not that he wanted to do it. When you’re the A-side, he’s a draw money-wise, he gets to make more of the calls. From what I was told, because of the way I responded after the second fight, he truly felt that I was a little off. I think in Lesnar’s mind, how could you want to fight me again? People don’t [want to see it], so there’s something wrong with [me] that I think made him uneasy.”

Only competing nine times as a mixed martial artist, Lesnar won just one fight after his second-round TKO of Mir at UFC 100. Retiring in early 2012 after back-to-back losses to the aforementioned Velasquez, and Alistair Overeem, Lesnar eventually returned for a controversial one-off against Mark Hunt at UFC 200. Lesnar originally defeated the “Super Samoan” via unanimous decision before the result was overturned to a no-contest after he tested positive for clomiphene.

Lesnar, 45, has since remained a mainstay atop the WWE roster — when it best suits him, anyway. Meanwhile, Mir’s most recent combat appearances came this past year in boxing matches where he suffered losses to Steve Cunningham and Kubrat Pulev.

Mir is currently continuing to recover from an atrophied right arm that occurred as a result of a recent neck infusion, leaving his athletic future up in the air.

“I don’t know much about his pro wrestling, I don’t watch that often so I don’t know how bad he is at [promos],” Mir said of Lesnar. “But I think he’s definitely a guy, from what I understand and talking to other people in the industry, he does the bare minimum of what he has to do to cash a check and I don’t fault him for that. We all gotta make money and I think he’s more naturally a fighter than he is a pro wrestler and so I think it’s not his first love but financially it pays better and obviously, he can continue to do it for a lot longer.”

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VIDEO STEW

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Indeed.

Nate.

Uh-oh.

Wild times.

Hmm.

History.

What a Ham.

Birthday.

Soon.

Art.

Unimpressed.

A bigger fight.

Solid.

Big yikes.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nate Landwehr (15-4) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (20-5-1); UFC Vegas 59, Aug. 6

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FINAL THOUGHTS

If Brock would have stuck around for longer than he did, that trilogy 1000 percent would have happened.

Thanks for reading!

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POLL POSITION

Last Week’s Results:

Friday: 79% of 446 total votes answered “No” when asked, “Will Sean Strickland ever fight for a UFC title?” Strickland lost to Alex Pereira via first-round knockout at UFC 276.

Tuesday: 59% of 639 total votes answered “Rafael Fiziev” when asked, “Who wins this weekend?” Fiziev defeated Rafael dos Anjos via fifth-round TKO in the UFC Vegas 58 main event.

Today’s exit poll:

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