Dana White Had Frank Mir On Standby To Fill In For Overeem

Source: MMAFighting

Alistair Overeem is fighting former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar tonight in the main event of UFC 141, but because of the bungling of his pre-fight drug tests, it looked for awhile as though the blockbuster match would fall through.

Always ready with an ace in the hole, UFC president Dana White recently told MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani that he had a backup plan should Overeem had failed to obtain a license to fight: Frank Mir.

"We started talking to Mir, told Mir to get in shape and to get ready, and he was," White said. "There's never been a situation in almost ten years of being in business with Frank Mir where we called Frank Mir and Frank Mir was like 'Yeah, you know what? I'm really not interested in taking this fight. Yeah, you know what I don't think I'm gonna be ready, yeah I got Christmas coming…' There's never been a case where Frank Mir turned down a fight in ten years."

Mir just fought on December 10, taking out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their rematch with a spectacular kimura finish.

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