It turns out, however, that Roy Nelson -- the man who Mir battered for three rounds en route to a unanimous decision at UFC 130 on May 28, 2011 -- wasn't the only one who was ill prior to the co main event fight.
Mir, it seems, battled a bad case of bronchitis, right around the same time that his portly counterpart contracted walking pneumonia. In addition, Mir sustained a knee injury, according to ESPN.com, which forced him to miss a fortnight of his 12-week training camp.
It's no wonder both heavyweights were heaving with exhaustion after just one round of action. In fact, Mir's trainer, Jimmy Gifford, says that the plan was to take out Nelson early because they knew Mir might not last 15 minutes.
Check out what he had to say:
"The Sunday before the event, he ended up with Bronchitis. His whole family was sick. The game plan in the fight was to go for it early, try and land some big shots and then pull off the gas pedal. We were worried about his breathing. Five days before the fight we had to stop practice because he had a panic attack and couldn't breathe. First time that's ever happened to him."White eventually admitted that his kneejerk post-event reaction to the lackluster co-featured fight of the night was perhaps a little "harsh." Mir did score a sick knockout of Mirko Cro Cop in an otherwise horrible fight, as well as beat up on "Big Country" despite being far from 100 percent.
Mir has apparently set the bar high for himself in the eyes of White and Co.
Nonetheless, for an event that lost its marquee match up -- Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard 3 -- just weeks before showtime, the fact that Mir and Nelson sucked it up, literally, despite their sicknesses is admirable.
However, Mir will still have to do more, even by White's own admission, if he plans to challenge for another world title. Unless, of course, something happens to the winner of the fight between Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin.
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