{"id":907205,"date":"2026-09-24T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907205\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T00:22:09","slug":"ufc-legends-cain-velasquez-frank-mir-face-off-before-wrestling-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907205\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC legends Cain Velasquez, Frank Mir Face Off Before Wrestling Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champions Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir are reportedly scheduled to finally collide more than 14 years after their original Octagon showdown fell apart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">According to Red Corner MMA, Velasquez and Mir will compete in a wrestling match at an AIGA Global event in California sometime in Nov. 2026. The two Heavyweight legends even came face-to-face for a staredown, although an exact date, venue and ruleset have yet to be announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Before anyone gets too excited, it is probably wise to pump the brakes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The faceoff could simply be a promotional stunt designed to bring more eyeballs to AIGA, particularly since neither Velasquez nor Mir is in an ideal position to compete. Until the promotion provides official event details, there is no guarantee the wrestling match actually happens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Mir\u2019s physical condition may be the bigger concern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The 47-year-old former champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/3\/10\/24382358\/former-ufc-champ-rushed-into-emergency-surgery-comeback-fight-canceled-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">underwent an emergency nine-hour spinal procedure in early 2025<\/a> after temporarily losing feeling in his legs. Mir later revealed that doctors performed a spinal fusion and laminectomy across his entire thoracic spine, forcing him to relearn basic movements such as walking, sitting and getting into a car. The operation also canceled his planned MMA comeback against Fabricio Werdum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Mir has always been a remarkably durable lunatic, but after an injury that severe, should he really be wrestling a former NCAA Division I All-American who built his entire fighting career around relentless takedowns and suffocating top pressure?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Interestingly, Velasquez and Mir were originally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2012\/4\/7\/2932426\/dana-white-frank-mir-vs-cain-velasquez-ufc-146-alistair-overeem-replacement-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">booked to fight in a No. 1 contender matchup at UFC 146<\/a> in May 2012. The fight disappeared after Alistair Overeem failed a pre-fight drug test, prompting UFC to move Mir into a title fight against Junior dos Santos. Velasquez remained on the card and demolished Antonio \u201cBigfoot\u201d Silva instead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Fourteen years later, AIGA may finally bring them together \u2014 assuming this is more than a well-timed photo opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champions Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir are reportedly scheduled to finally collide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,128793,82,702,264568,3194],"class_list":["post-907205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-ncaa-wrestling-news-and-results","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}