Ex-UFC champion was left ‘disturbed’ by what he needed to do to beat legend who wouldn’t tap

A UFC heavyweight showdown had a gruesome ending 14 years ago today.

Fans have witnessed some truly horrific injuries contained in the UFC Octagon over the past three a long time, and one in every of the worst took place on at the present time, December 10, in 2011.

UFC 140 was headlined by Jon Jones’ brutal choke against Lyoto Machida to successfully defend his light heavyweight title, but that was not probably the most gruesome moment of the night at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

While Machida was dropped to the canvas after being put unconscious by a standing guillotine, a fellow UFC legend fell to a distinct sort of submission fate within the co-main event…

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Frank Mir needed to snap Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm at UFC 140

UFC 140 was co-headlined by a clash of former titleholders, as ex-heavyweight king Frank Mir shared the cage with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who once held an interim belt.

Mir had already change into the primary man to knock ‘Minotauro’ out three years prior at UFC 92, and of their redo, he also added the accolade of becoming the primary to submit the Brazilian legend to his résumé.

The result was probably the most memorable submissions for a lot of reasons, including the indisputable fact that it got here after Mir had appeared seconds away from being knocked out. The American turned things around suddenly and locked in a kimura to complete the fight lower than 4 minutes in.

Mir’s submission win over Nogueira got here after the Brazilian’s arm brutally snapped, and the previous champ admitted that breaking the legend’s arm “disturbed him” while recounting the ending sequence on the MMA TRUFAN podcast in 2020.

“At that moment I’m like, ‘S—, he’s not going to tap.’ And that was just an quick sensation that I had,” Mir recalled. “So I knew that I needed to put enough pressure to where the referee would jump in and get entangled.

“I knew that if I kept twisting, that they’re not going to let me completely destroy his arm. The referee will jump in — it was Herb (Dean) — and stop the fight, sort of like a TKO-type situation.

“And so after I began applying pressure, that’s why you really see me look up at Herb. I’m just waiting because I’m not even really waiting for Nogueira to tap. In my mind, I knew that was never going to occur. I’m just attempting to look up at Herb in order that as soon as he says, ‘Done!’ I’m going to let go.

“I’m looking up at (Dean), the arm let out and it obviously snapped, and it actually disturbed me to interrupt his arm,” he continued. “In the event you watch the fight again, you may see as I’m doing the interview, I sort of look over my shoulder at him because I’m taking a look at him on the bottom.

“It’s since it’s someone I’ve admired and someone I’ve looked as much as and studied. How I do certain moves are due to him. That was a weird place to be. It was almost akin to beating up your big brother.”

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Alexandre Pantoja had the newest gruesome injury at UFC 323

Nogueira’s arm break was removed from being the last brutal injury to occur contained in the Octagon, and the newest took place just this past weekend in Las Vegas.

An injury to Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 brought his dominant flyweight title reign to a disappointing end at T-Mobile Arena, as an apparent dislocated elbow stopped his showdown with Joshua Van after just 26 seconds.

The result ended the Brazilian’s probabilities of reaching Demetrious Johnson’s record-breaking tally of title defenses, a feat that ‘Mighty Mouse’ believed was under threat as Pantoja continued to reel off wins.

‘The Cannibal’ will now be focused on his recovery before getting back to motion in pursuit of a right away return to the flyweight throne in 2026.