2. Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir UFC 111
It had been less than 9 months since Lesnar destroyed Frank Mir at UFC 100, but somehow Mir found himself fighting for the interim belt.
Not long after UFC 100, Lesnar went down with a bout of diverticulitis, and would be unable to fight again for almost a year. While generally a champion being out for a year is grounds for an interim title fight, it doesn’t mean the fans were buying it as such.
This was before Lesnar lost convincingly to Velasquez and Overeem (and his 1st round against Carwin at UFC 116), so he still had an aura of invincibility to him at the time. Even Mir’s earlier win over him was considered a fluke, and only because Lesnar was not yet trained on how to fend off submissions.
Carwin also felt that Lesnar was the real champion, and agreed with Brock when he said his belt was “imaginary”. Lesnar would defeat Carwin in controversial fashion at UFC 116, with many feeling the fight should have been stopped and awarded to Carwin in the 1st round.
