Heat Between Minotauro And Mir?
In a chat with Graciemag.com, UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira sounded off on all things TUF 8, most notably an alleged budding “rivalry†between himself and former champion and opposing coach Frank Mir:
“The mood of rivalry between us is getting strong. We see each other here all the time, and I’ve known his game for a while. Ever since he (Mir) submitted Roberto Traven at the UFC in 2001, he’s been known. But you’ll see: I’m going to be all over him standing, I’m better than him both standing and on the ground.
In the fight with Sylvia the way to the win was clearly on the ground, but against Mir I’m going to show more of what I’m capable of to the world and my fans. I’ll always respect him as an adversary, of course. Even more so since he’s trained with Demian Maia and Robert Drysdale,†says Nogueira from within the house, in between grueling eight-hour filming sessions, seven days a week.”
While many feel the approaching eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter will be nothing short of lackluster, I suppose it’s almost comforting to know that Mir and Nogueira just might be growing to hate each other. But really I can’t see either coach being that confrontational, unless Dana and company decide to force some “creative influence” which is something I wouldn’t put past them. We shall see.
Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter debuts September 17th on Spike TV.
Sept…wow that seems pretty quick.
Mir and Nog aren’t exactly Penn and Pulver or Hughes and Serra…
They have to do something to draw our attention, why not a rivalry…haha
I’m actually excited to have some new people in TUF house ….. I thought Rampage and Forrest would be extremely entertaining but I found them both to be pretty boring……….
Given Rampage and Forrest weren’t the most entertaining, the fights are what kept everyone watching ’cause they were actually good this year. holy ****, TUF 6? that was incredibly painful as all those fighters sucked ****. Nog and Mir sound like horrible coaches, especially since Mir can’t do much but take a punch and lay on people. Hell, he’s only had 3 fights since being back. Werdum would have made a far better coach since he can, at the very least, fight.
cant stand nog hope mir breaks his arm
Dirty I agree but I am not sure if Mir and Nog will be the best for that role. Honestly Rampage and Griffin were less comical than expected. A lot less.
I agree with the comments about Rampage and Forrest being quite boring compared to how I expected them to be. I wonder how much these guys get paid to coach and stay in Vegas for 6 weeks. I bet it’s a nice chuck of change.
Yea I would happily sign up for that one!
Personalities are great but I prefer better fighters and coaches. Despite Forrest and Rampage letting everyone down by not being reality TV entertainment monkeys, the season was very good. Forrest and Rampage have very likeable persoanlities but at the same time they stayed true to themselves. Niether one of them tried going out of their way to be funny. Nog and Mir both have about 4-5 other bad ass coaches between the two of them. That is why I am excited as hell for the next season. As long as there is a good crop of fighters the season should kick ass.
I thought the fights this season were terrible. There isn’t one fighter on TUF 7 that I’d care to watch fight again. At the very best a few might be WEC-worthy.
I think there were a few that will get a chance in the UFC, but like last season, they will be weeded out quickly, and/or have to be content fighting only other members of the same cast. This years cast had a lot of problems with cardio. It seemed that many of them did not get into the best shape before going on the show.
Mike
I found myself less and less interested as the season went along. None of the fighters jumped up and grabbed my attention as a fighter that I would root for.
Other than the last show I think it missed the normal action between fighters. The Chris Leben spritz and so on and so on.
The Matt Hughes and Joe Stevenson team challenge.
and so on…
I did like the fact that the fighters had to fight there way onto the show, but I felt that it was poorly executed.
I just want to see world class caliber instruction. Are the dvd’s any better than the TV show in that department?
I must have been watching the wrong show…..could have sworn there were some of the best KOs ut of all the TUFs…..I’ll have to catch the reruns.
KO,
There was, especially Riddle’s KO.
For me it just seemed like something was missing.
Curtis,
I got the feeling something was missing too. I think it was mostly because TUF has become a regular reality series but keeps changing every season. I think the UFC wants to focus more on the fights to keep fans happy. That is a risky route to take with a lot of unknowns who have few fights and little experience. You never know what you’re going to get. I was still pleased. I also felt midgets were missing…that’s just me.
I cant stand Nog either I … i hope Mir KOs him but i will take a submisson
You know I def agree with you guys on this one. Although I think there might have been arguably the most competitive and best fights of any season, I think all these guys are not UFC caliber fighters as of now anyway. That being said, amir and CB both have tremendous potential in this sport. CB has only been training for a year and he is very well rounded for only a year of training. And hell amir hasnt even had a pro fight. So I def think the best out of alot of these fighters is still yet to be seen. Keep in mind this is the first season that almost all of the fighters were from top camps originally. And although they focused more on the fights this season, I would def like to see more of the training to more accurately gage these fighters.
Sorry to be off topic’
I know that the UFC wanted to concentrate on the fights, and rightly so - this is the fight business - but I felt that some of the other seasons that I enjoyed more were more entertaining because of what went on in the house.
Matt Hughes says it best: “This sport is 50/50. 50% mental; 50% physical”. It’s only when you see them in a more relaxed environment that you see their mental well-being and how they react to situations and each other. I think that is a big part of the show and that wasn’t focused on this season. Especially as they had 12 episodes and 2 of those were “qualifiers” and they had to play catch-up half way through the season. Hence why it seemed more focused towards the fights and not the training and the stuff that went on in the house.
I would have liked to see more of Rampage and Forrest training as that would be a good lead up to their fight.
(Sorry for the rambling)
I’m just not intrested in Mir vs Nog nevermind TUF 8
TUF 1&2 had the majority of fighter talent. Since then the show seems to have taken a turn more into the clashing of personalities like every other reality TV show. I forget which fighter it was but one fighter did not make the show because he was too “quiet.” Makes sense because it is TV. In any case the guy is in the UFC now and I want to slam my head into a wall for forgetting his name. Kind of sucks when a better fighter is not accepeted to the show because a mediocre fighter has a funny personality….or annoying like Jeremy May. It is reality TV though.
Guys Mir is going to be an incredible coach. That guy knows more MMA moves than anyone i’ve ever heard talking about MMA. While it may not translate into the ring (I personally think it has) I KNOW it will translate well into coaching. We could have a TUF season that may go bad turn really good towards the end because of Mir’s coaching. Not sure on Nog…but he’s well rounded and should know quite a bit too.
You guys probably already figured this out but Dana is not only encouraging his fighters to drink and get drunk…he also encourages them to tear up the house.
Anything for ratings.
Mir is so much bigger in person than how he appears on TV. I think this will be a highlight reel fight for the winner. I can’t see pulling against either guy. Nogueira gave the HVWT a BJJ guy to pull for and Mir just is a technical fighter.Maybe it will be the start of a trilogy!