Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir - Tale of the Tape

On Saturday night, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will be making his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut. His opponent is former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir.

Brock Lesnar
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 265 lbs.
Age: 30
Mixed Martial Arts Record: 1-0
Notable Facts: Prior to entering the WWE, Brock won the NCAA Wrestling Heavyweight Championship in 2000. He entered the WWE in 2002. The highlights of his wrestling career include winning the WWE Championship three times and being part of the main event of WrestleMania XIX. Since leaving the WWE in 2004, Brock participated in a training camp with the Minnesota Vikings and married former WWE Diva Sable. He made his MMA debut in June and beat Min Soo Kim via submission (strikes) in 69 seconds.

Frank Mir
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 240 lbs.
Age: 29
Mixed Martial Arts Record: 10-3
Notable Facts: Mir won the UFC Heavyweight Championship in 2004 when he broke Tim Sylvia's arm. Mir was stripped of the title because of injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident. He returned to the octagon in 2006 but has not been able to reclaim the championship form he had prior to the accident. Since his return to the octagon in 2006, he is 2-2 in UFC competition. His last UFC match was against Antoni Hardonk in August. Mir won that match in a little over a minute.

What does this match mean for wrestling and mixed martial arts?
A successful UFC career for Brock Lesnar will give pro wrestling an air of credibility that it rarely gets. It will make people respect the wrestlers as legitimate athletes instead of viewing them as clowns dressed in spandex. A humiliating loss for Lesnar does not have any impact for the industry.

From the UFC perspective, Lesnar brings a lot of attention to the sport due to Lesnar's fan base. If Lesnar gets destroyed, they will always have that footage to knock wrestling, one of their key PPV rivals. If Lesnar goes on to a huge UFC career, their other PPV rival, boxing, will joke that a former "fake" wrestler is a champion of an organization that is a step up from human cockfighting. In that scenario, I think that the UFC will just be laughing all the way to the bank because Lesnar has the ability to make that company more money than any other fighter.

In my opinion, it would be better for both professional wrestling and the UFC to see Lesnar win and go onto a successful career. As far as boxing goes, it would be better for them to see Lesnar lose. That way, the sport could continue to knock pro wrestling and their PPV rival UFC will see the loss of a personality with the potential to become the next great PPV attraction.

_{Photo of Brock Lesnar: Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Photo of the bloodied Frank Mir: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images}