“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.”
These were Frank Mir's chosen words during an interview on a Pittsburgh-based Mark Madden radio show. I was initially stunned and somewhat disgusted at his comments towards another fellow athlete, that has been battling illness for quite sometime, and is just recuperating. But then again, being beaten in the face probably leaves a bitter emotional scar. Frank Mir has always considers himself a martial artist as opposed to a MMA fighter. His mantras always include those about respect, and being a role model of kids, which obviously goes against the prior statement. We're human, we hate, we get upset, it happens. My thought is, Frank Mir is one of the biggest trash talkers around, so respect and his choice of words don't always follow suit.
It is very clear he is still very emotional about his loss; causing Frank Mir to shoot comments from the hip. Comments like these potentially give the anti-mma people of the world plenty of ammunition to paint the athletes and the sport off MMA as barbaric, which is far from the truth. We hear football players say all the time "I'm gonna rip his head off" or "we're going to war", and never make a big deal out of it, but when Frank Mir made his comment, the whole world exploded. I think what added to the uproar was that the comment directed towards someone that was nearly on their deathbed.
KHTK's suggested that a time may come where the UFC reigns the fighters in and exerts more control over their contact with the media.
I believe that this would be very bad for MMA, seeing as the fighters do their own interviews and say what's on their mind; instead of sounding scripted. When we hear other interviews from other MMA fighters, it's nice to hear real quotes that come from a bunch of PR reps.
I don't think the UFC will do anything more than to tell Frank Mirt to STFU! Fans always love bad blood, but Frank realizes he has gone overboard with his comment. If this is the price tag for honesty, so be it.