Frank Mir Injured, Possibly Out of Title Fight With Brock Lesnar

[SinCitysmallGUY]

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Chris Nelson.


Sam Caplan at Five Ounces of Pain has the breaking news that UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir has injured his back, and will be forced to pull out of his title unification bout with Brock Lesnar at UFC 98:

A planned rematch between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir for UFC 98 on May 23 that would have unified Lesnar’s UFC heavyweight title and Mir’s interim UFC heavyweight has been canceled.

Multiple sources have confirmed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that the UFC was recently informed by Mir’s camp that he has been unable to train recently due to a back injury that could require surgery.

There is no word as to whether Lesnar will remain on the card against a new opponent or if he will be taken off the card entirely.

This is a huge bummer, as Lesnar-Mir II had a lot of hype and important implications behind it.  It will be interesting to see if the UFC finds a replacement for Mir, or simply decides to reschedule the bout after Mir recovers.  If the UFC does decide to find a replacement, will they make it a non-title affair, since the the Mir-Lesnar matchup was set up to declare the undisputed heavyweight champion.

UPDATE: MMA Mania is reporting that Mir suffered a knee injury, not a back injury at Sam Caplan originally mentioned.

Mir will require time to heal after recently undergoing minor knee surgery to repair the damage. He is expected to make a full recovery. There is no timetable for a return; however, the good news is that it could be as soon as this summer.

[SinCitysmallGUY]

Kevin Iole is reporting that per Dana White the fight has not yet been canceled or postponed:

Fiveouncesofpain.com initially reported Friday that the bout was off because of a back injury sustained by Mir. It later corrected that to say it was a knee injury. And then  MMAWeekly.com reported Mir had knee surgery.

....

“I don’t know anything about it, so I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about it,” White said of Mir’s injury and the report that the fight was off. “I’m not too worried about it now. If that were the situation, I’d know about it. I honestly don’t know right now. I haven’t talked to Frank and I haven’t talked to Lesnar and if that’s the situation, I’m not going to make any statements until I talk to everybody.”

But a source in Las Vegas close to Mir said his knee began swelling excessively last week after a workout. After an examination, Mir had arthroscopic surgery to “clean up” the knee.

If it was just a "clean up" it won't take excessive time for recovery and it is still very realistic that the fight takes place as scheduled.  I think at this point the ball is firmly in Frank's court as he has to rest it and then see if he is able to train normally and determine if he can have a productive enough training camp for a fight of this magnitude.

[big L dawg]

that sucks....would like to see gonzaga,carwin winner fight Brock then.but if Brock stays on the UFC 98 card throw Congo in there with him.

[George Whorewell]

if Mir cant fight, who the hell is going to step up? The winner of this Gonzaga ( and I forget the other guys name whose fighting tommorow) fight? Dana White has to be shitting a brick. Even though 205 is deep as hell, he needs a credible opponent to fight his cash cow. Even though this wont happen, could you imagine Fedor decides to fill in? lol the fight would be over in 2 minutes, but I'd order it!

[gracie bjj]

its gonna be rampage vs rashad for the title instead

[gracie bjj]

its gonna be rampage vs rashad for the title instead

[big L dawg]

you can say that again....

[chixlegs]

I think Mir hurt his back when he realized he was fighting Brock Lesnar pretty soon and he took the biggest shit of his life directly into his shorts, thus dislocating his lumbar and requiring surgery.  I know he won the first time around and I like Mir, but I think Lesnar is going to hurt him this time.