In front of a wild cheering crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos dealt former two-time UFC heavyweight title holder a beat down to retain his belt. Frank Mir, a submission expert, failed to capitalize on his expertise against the heavy-handed Brazilian. Instead, Mir elected to play into dos Santos' gameplan and paid the price.
Frank Mir failed to take the fight to the ground, a milieu where dos Santos was untested wherein he has a greater shot of upsetting the champion. After a failed takedown attempt right at the start of the fight, he elected to trade blows with Junior dos Santos, a decision that proved costly to his cause.
The defending champion Junior dos Santos, an excellent stand up striker, also has a very good takedown defense and put his weapons to good use. He peppered Mir with shots coming from all angles and shot him down with a variety of punches: hooks, straights, and uppercuts that took their toll on the challenger.
The first round was all Junior dos Santos as he stood his ground, and potshot Mir with deadly accuracy. He varied his shots well and timed Mir with good counters every time the challenger would attempt to unleash his own shots. His snipings were so effective that he would land a hard one to the body and then follow it up with a shot to the head time and time again. Then with less than 30 seconds left in the round, he clipped Mir's temple with a huge right hook that sent him sprawling to the canvas. The challenger struggled to get up and barely survived the round.
It was the same old story in the second round, even though Frank Mir tried to use his kicks this time to ward off the attacks to no avail. Junior dos Santos unleashed and landed a bomb, bringing Mir down. The champion then asked his challenger to get up and continue fighting. Mir got up and obliged but is tagged again with another bomb -- a right straight that landed on the cheekbones. This time, Mir remained on the ground for good as dos Santos swarmed over him and bludgeoned him with everything in his arsenal, including one last hammer fist landing on Mir's cheeks, before referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.
With the win, Junior dos Santos improves his record to 15-1 while Frank Mir falls to 16-6. Official time of the stoppage was 3:04.
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