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Frank Mir talking about fight with Cheick Kongo (Fedor and Brock Lesnar)

I will tell you one thing about this fight, Cheick Kongo  sucks at grappling. Yes he can strike but his grappling is so bad it is not even funny. About 6 months ago Kongo made a visit to Vancouver Canada and he stopped and rolled with some of my teammates at Dynamic MMA and some Marcus Soares BJJ fighters. Adam Ryan runs Dynamic MMA and he was putting on a show on Kongo. Yes Ryan has MMA experience and is a black belt in jujitsu under 7th degree BJJ black belt Marcus Soares but he was playing with Kongo on the ground and many guys ranging from blues, purple, brown belts in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu were also dominating Kongo on the ground. Cheick Kongo was basically being pimped on the ground. Kongo was only able to survive just on the fact that he was bigger and had freak strength.

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If Kongo was getting dominated by some guys that don’t ever fight no gi, than what chance does he have with Frank Mir? Frank Mir is a legitimate black belt that will come into this fight heavier at 245 pounds than Kongo (230) and one inch shorter. There is no way that Kongo will be able to keep this fight standing and no way will he be able to defend Mir’s submission attempts.

Mir received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after only 5 years of training from Ricardo Pires who is a forth degree black belt under Professor Marcus Soares, from Carlson Gracie. Mir is a legitimate black belt with real skills while Kongo is barely a blue belt at best. Mir has the size and power to attack and submit Kongo in this fight.

It is not a matter if but when this fight hits the ground in this heavyweight fight. Just look at Kongo’s last MMA fight. He fought Cain Velasquez and in all 15 minutes of that fight he was on the ground for 12 of them. Velasquez was able to take him to the ground and basically control him and beat him down for 12 minutes. I would have personally scored each of those round 10 to 8 in favor of Velasquez. It was embarrassing how apparent his lack of skills were on the ground.

Now detractors of this article will say that Velasquez was a NCAA division 1 fighter and that it was his wrestling skills that were able to hold him down on the ground. Well first Mir has considerable wrestling skills where he went to Bonanza High School in Las Vegas where he had a record of 44–1. He started wrestling during his junior year and lost his first nine matches but won the state championship as a senior in 1998.

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Yes Kongo has the advantage in the striking department but Mir has enough skills to bide his time before he will be able to take him down. Yes Kongo was the former Muay Thai World champion and can knock out Mir but Mir has fought top level strikers in the past. Mir fought Antoni Hardonk (who has a similar fighting style to Kongo) at UFC 74 and won via kimura in 1:17 of the first round. I predict a similar fate in the fight. Mir will take Kongo down and either attack the legs or the win this fight by kimura.

Bottom Line: If you think Kongo will win this fight you really don’t know mixed martial arts. The sports book odds makers opened the UFC betting lines with Mir as a -185 betting favorite. I would have opened up at -250 so this UFC sports bet is a steal on the money line. I would lay a lot of money on Mir to submit Kongo.

Kongo is no where near a top level fighter. He is the best example of a one dimensional fighter. He has great striking but no grappling whatsoever. He has used his size and strength in the past but Mir is a bigger fighter and will impose his skill on an unskilled fighter. This is the best UFC bet of the night. I would lay a huge amount of money on the money line and if there is a UFC prop bet I would bet on a submission victory in this fight.

Fans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship can place their bets and look forward in the near future to the scheduled bout between fighters Antonio Nogueira and Cheick Kongo at the upcoming UFC 79. The names of the two combatants have been added to a list of other mixed martial arts veterans who are expected to pit their strength against each other on the 29th of December. Brian Knapp of The Fight Network revealed this information last October 1 on Monday, and he added that whoever came out triumphant in their match would most likely go on to challenge the dominance of present UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture.

Considered to be an expert of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has often claimed victory with the use of powerful submission techniques, and he has trained together previously with the National Boxing Team of Cuba. By September 26, the website MMAWeekly.com raised Nogueira’s position in the rankings to the number two strongest heavyweight fighter in the whole world. He also holds the honor of being a former champion of the Japanese PRIDE fighting tournament, and one of his more recent UFC triumphs was earned in a bout with the fighter Heath Herring during the previous UFC 73.

On the other hand, his opponent Cheick Kongo is no pushover, either. A French kickboxer, his MMA record consists of 11 wins, three losses, and one draw. Kongo’s official UFC record also consists of four wins and one loss. His most recent victory during the UFC came in a match against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic during UFC 75, where Kongo was judged the winner by a unanimous decision. The kickboxer’s one UFC career loss so far has only been during UFC 64, where he was beaten by Carmelo Marrero in a split-decision defeat. Kongo’s win at UFC 75 propelled him into a spot on the top 10 heavyweight fighter ranks.

For more resources about UFC: Cheick Kongo and Antonio Nogueira to Face Off at UFC 79 or for the full story of UFC please review this link http://www.buddytv.com

Frank Mir talks about his upcoming fight against Cheick Kongo Date: December 12, 2009 Place: Memphis, TN Fight card: (main card) BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez (LW championship fight) Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo Jon Fitch vs. Mike Pierce Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida Paul Buentello vs. Stefan Struve (undercard) Alan Belcher vs. Wilson Gouveia Matt Wiman vs. Shane Nelson Johny Hendricks vs.Ricardo Funch Rousimar Palhares vs. Lucio Linhares DaMarques Johnson vs. Edgar Garcia Kevin Burns vs. TJ Grant…