By Patrick L. Stumberg on Jan 16, 6:00p 50
Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE
What happens to a UFC fighter when they beat Frank Mir? Bad things. Very bad things. See for yourself as we break down the "Frank Mir curse" below.
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Choosing Frank Mir as his first fight under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banner at UFC on FOX 7 on April 20, 2013 in San Jose, California, may have been the worst decision Daniel Cormier could have made.
It's not because of Mir's proficient submission game (see it here), nor is it because of his experience at the upper echelon (like this fight). Rather, it's because the former heavyweight champion is perhaps the most cursed man the UFC has ever seen.
Now, this statement may seem fallacious; nobody, you could argue, is more cursed than Brian Foster, a former UFC competitor who had his career stalled out by a burst testicle and brain hemorrhage in training. The difference between Mir and Foster is that while Foster is the subject of his curse, Mir is merely a carrier.
Except for one paradox-defying incident, nobody has ever won their next fight after beating Frank Mir.
I first heard about this phenomenon on that wretched hive of scum and villainy known as the mixed martial arts (MMA) forums, and decided to do some digging of my own.
What I found astounded me.
Ian Freeman knocked Mir out at UFC 38 at 4:35 of the first round. In his subsequent bout, "The Machine" was unplugged by Andrei Arlovski in just 85 seconds. Almost four years later, Marcio Cruz knocked Mir out at UFC 57, again in the first round. "Pe de Pano" proceeded to lose back-to-back bouts to Jeff Monson and Arlovski.
He then lost his UFC contract.
Brandon Vera, who stopped Mir at UFC 65, bucked the "Pitbull" trend of post-Mir defeats, instead losing consecutive bouts to Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum.
He later dropped to light heavyweight.
Now here's where the curse had to improvise. After Brock Lesnar pounded Mir into jam at UFC 100, the former was sidelined until UFC 116, where he faced Shane Carwin. The problem, was in that time, "The Engineer" had also committed a war crime on Mir's face.
See the pic here.
Since both men were coming off a win over Mir but couldn't lose in the same fight, as a draw implies they were even, the curse instead had Carwin deliver a TKO-worthy beating to Brock in the first round -- only to lose by submission in the second.
Best of both worlds!
It then picked up right where it left off, as Brock subsequently lost to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem. I, too, was skeptical of this fact going into UFC 155. I figured it was nonsense and cheerfully picked Junior dos Santos, who beat Mir in the UFC 146 main event last May, to blow Cain Velasquez out of the water and retain his division title.
I was so very wrong.
The curse is real. And Cormier is walking right into it.
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