Frank Mir Apologizes for saying he wants to break Lesnar's Neck

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The promotion business in the UFC is a cutthroat business, but not in a literal way of course, unless a fighter happens to cross the line like Frank Mir did when discussing a possible matchup with Brock Lensar.

It seems as if Mr. Mir, the former UFC heavyweight champion who has split his two fights with the  current UFC champion and former WWE star Lesnar, got a little bit too caught up in the moment and trying to hype up the potential fight when he said recently that he wanted to kill Lesnar in the Octagon, which would of course be the UFC's first death in competition.

Mir said in the original interview that he wanted to “break his neck in the ring” and that he “hates who he is as a person.”

UFC President Dana White came out in response to say that he was “disappointed in Mir's comments,” and a firestorm of media coverage in the MMA world was part of what led to Mir's recent apology, which was posted on fiveouncesofpain.com.

“I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks,” said Mir. “I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts. I’m sorry that I stepped out of line.”

While Mir did the right thing stepping up and apologizing, he deserved every bit of the heat he got for his original comments.

If anyone should know about the seriousness of human mortality in the UFC it's Mir, who suffered a horrific high-speed accident on his motorcyle that ended with broken bones but could have easily been much worse.

In addition to the accident and the effect it should have had on Mir's attitude toward such feelings, Mir has been around long enough to see the UFC rise from a niche sport deemed too brutal to ever be consistently profitable by predictably uninformed observers like John McCain to the biggest league in perhaps the fastest-growing sport on the planet.

Such a remark about breaking Lesnar's neck can be so easily twisted out of context that just about anyone can use it as Exhibit A as to why MMA should not be regulated or why people under the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to watch it for example.

Then there's the personal effect this incident could have on Mir. Mir has a big fight with Shane Carwin coming up for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title and Carwin has to feel disrespected in a way because Mir's attention still seems focused on Lesnar even though Mir will probably only be a slight betting favorite when the UFC betting lines come out.

The Carwin fight is one of the most difficult and dangerous tests in Mir's career and that's saying something for a guy who has fought some of the best the sport has had to offer.

Then there's Lesnar, who is one of the last guys on the face of the earth that anyone would want to make angry.

Lesnar is usually an extremely motivated person but a third fight against Mir now takes on even more significance if it were to happen and should allow Lesnar to ratchet up the intensity for beating the resurgent Mir even moreso.

Mir has done well to put on tons of mass and strength with his new strength and conditioning program but now he has not just one, but two massive, angry fighters training in separate parts of the country with the sole purpose of taking his head off.

Of course, neither Carwin nor Lesnar, who would be an MMA betting line favorite over Mir should they meet again, will publicly say that literally taking Mir's head off is their goal.

But both the mild-mannered Carwin and the usually high-strung, outspoken, textbook MMA villain Lesnar know that it's not something you should ever say when the tape recorders are rolling and the whole world is listening.

Nevertheless, it makes for an interesting next few months in the UFC heavyweight division to say the least.