On December 27th Frank Mir will have his hands full in trying to stop Minotauro. As the American himself recognized (click here for the first part of the interview), finishing off the Brazilian is a tough task. More than representing an obstacle in Mir’s march to the UFC heavyweight title, Minotauro is also a reference as a fighter, and more, he represents an art Mir is in love with: Jiu-Jitsu.
The second part of the conversation with Frank Mir was due to the collaboration of Nalty Jr., and you can see here all the admiration Minotauro’s next opponent has for the martial art. What’s more, he also touches on controversies from the The Ultimate Fighter reality show, in which he starred alongside his upcoming opponent.
You broke Tim Sylvia’s arm, submitted Brock Lesnar, do you see your strength as being your Jiu-Jitsu? These days we are seeing many fighters making a special effort in their Jiu-Jitsu, what do you think of that?
Maybe I’m one of the best Americans at it, but Jiu-Jitsu continues to be a sport completely dominated by Brazilians. In competitions like the ADCC and the Worlds, you can see how the sport is dominated by Brazilians. There are many more Brazilians who are good at Jiu-Jitsu than there are Americans. Brazil has the most dangerous guys and finishers. We’re trying to get there. I love Jiu-Jitsu, I think the best way to finish a fight is with a submission. Knockouts happen, but you run a lot of risk, like breaking your hand or trying to get the knockout and getting knocked out. A lot of guys ending up getting lucky wins with a knockout and others are accidentally knocked out. Jiu-Jitsu is 100% technique and skill. There’s no luck involved. It’s really rare someone getting accidentally submitted in a triangle.
Which Jiu-Jitsu fighter do you admire most?
I think Roger Gracie is great. I’m a fan of his Jiu-Jitsu.
This season of the UFC reality show is being considered one of the best. What can you say about the situations taking place in the house and the time you spent with Minotauro before the fight?
They tried to make me into the “bad guy”, but the truth is I have more respect for Minotauro than it seems. Sometimes it seems I’m not paying attention to what he says, but that’s not so. When he would come talk to me, I would think about what I should or shouldn’t say, and that was misinterpreted. There’s so much going on, everyone waiting to hear what you’ll say, cameras everywhere. There are so many things in the contract that we can or cannot say. Some folks ask me why I acted like a brat and disrespected Minotauro. But the truth is there was nothing like that. For example, on the pranks going on in the house, the production crew themselves provided incentive for this attitude. Production provided all the material for the pranks. When Minotauro came to talk to me about it, they made me out to not care, but the truth was I couldn’t do anything about it. The guys, the owners of the show, who pay the bills, they were doing all that, who am I to stop everything or say something about it? That wouldn’t be right, the guys give the orders. Minotauro told the guys to stop it, but Minotauro is Minotauro, he’s a legend, he can say what he wants to. I’m not a legend yet, so I have to listen to what other people tell me to do.
Everyone was talking about a situation that took place in The Ultimate Fighter between Minotauro and Vinicius Magalhaes. Minotauro was very bothered by that. Can you clear up what really happened?
All that was a big misunderstanding. We were talking about who the best in Jiu-Jitsu is, speaking about competition Jiu-Jitsu. Not MMA. Vinny didn’t say he’s better than Minotauro or vice versa. He said he had won more Jiu-Jitsu competitions than Minotauro. And that’s the truth, Vinny has more competition Jiu-Jitsu titles than Minotauro. Minotauro took that the wrong way and ended up seeing it as an act of disrespect. Vinny knows Minotauro is better at Jiu-Jitsu in MMA. In my opinion it was all just a big misunderstanding.
Frank, excuse me, but I watched the program and saw you and Vinny saying Minotauro had basic Jiu-Jitsu…
No, what we wanted to say was that his Jiu-Jitsu is basic but awesome, there are no holes in it. Basic Jiu-Jitsu is what works. Minotauro is perfect at everything, what we said is that Minotauro doesn’t use crazy moves like gogoplatas, he finished with triangles, guillotines, armbars. That’s what we were trying to say.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m going to keep participating in the sport, helping my partners train, keep on winning. Everyone wants to win, I want to beat Minotauro this next fight and after that fight whoever I need to. I want to keep working as an MMA commentator. I just want to keep being a part of making the sport grow.
You’ve been doing MMA a long time. What do you think of the evolution of the sport around the world?
I think it’s great! The sport is finally where it deserves to be. The fighters who want to be professionals dedicate their lives to the sport. There are a lot of examples of dedication to this career. Minotauro is a great example of what I’m trying to say. There’s also Anderson Silva, who doesn’t want to grow and become a fighter like him? Who doesn’t want to be a champion like these guys and be a great MMA fighter?
