The big man turned his head slowly to look at me as I gave him the news. Naively, I’d assumed he already knew. It was all over the internet by then, or at least the little MMA quadrant of it. Word had spread quickly that Frank Mir was officially out of his planned heavyweight title fight main event against Brock Lesnar at UFC 98.
But somehow no one had thought to tell Lesnar yet, so when I asked what he thought of this new development I was inadvertently breaking the news to him. Lesnar and his wife, Rena (better known to pro wrestling fans at the time as Sable), both turned to look at me like I was a bug who’d just landed in their soup.