Wow, so apparently Mir is the 2nd best heavyweight grappler... wonder what Werdum has to say about that
as would gonzaga and barnett and fedor
Well, hopefully he meant in the UFC, but either way its quite a whopper
"Wow, so apparently Mir is the 2nd best heavyweight grappler... wonder what Werdum has to say about that"
"as would gonzaga and barnett and fedor "
They'd probably all be able to honestly say they feel they are the best on the ground. And they'd all have more than enough to hang their hats on. I certainly don't think it's crazy to include Mir in that category. Among heavyweights that have won world titles he's absolutely up there with the very best in terms of submission ability.
And even among others who have not gotten to that level (championship), he's obviously up there with BJJ for MMA skills. Here's one basic way to look at it: percentage of career wins that have come by way of submission -
(not including KO or TKO stoppages that occured on the ground)
Mir 63% of wins by sub
Werdum 45%
Gonzaga 66%
Barnett 60%
Fedor 53%
Nog 61%
Of those, who has probably won against the best opposition? Fedor, Nog, Barnett and Mir, imo.
Just because Dana White said it, doesn't make it not true. Sometimes the promotion is still true:)