MMAConvert.com

Frank Mir talks to RawVegas.tv about his upcoming fight with Shane Carwin. He says the Brock comments got away from him a little — he was just trying to promote the potential fight — but he wants everyone to know he is focused on Shane Carwin. Mir also talks about who he would fight if he got the opportunity to choose between Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko.

UFC 111 ‘St. Pierre vs Hardy’ takes place Saturday, March 27, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and will air live on pay-per-view at 10PM ET/7PM PT. The official UFC 111 fight card can be found in our fight cards section.

Tickets for UFC 111 are set to go on sale later this week.

UFC 111 is scheduled to take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Saturday, March 27. The card will be headlined by a welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy. In the co-main event, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin will battle it out for the interim heavyweight championship.

Ticket info below.

• UFC Fight Club Presale: Thursday, January 7
• UFC Newsletter Presale: Friday, January 8
• Public On-Sale Date: Saturday, January 9

Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster and Stubhub (who actually has tickets available now). Stubhub is a secondary ticket market where you can find the hard-to-find seats even when the event is “sold-out.”

The latest UFC 111 fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

So much for Dana’s six weeks to figure out what to do with the top of the heavyweight division.

According to Fanhouse, the UFC has decided to put together Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 111.

With UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar still indefinitely on the shelf, the organization is moving swiftly to create an interim championship.

And fresh off his spectacular win at UFC 107, Frank Mir is being tabbed to face No. 1 contender Shane Carwin to fill the interim title matchup, FanHouse has learned.

The bout, which has not been officially signed but has been verbally agreed to by at least one side, will be featured as the co-main event at UFC 111 on March 27, 2010 in Newark, N.J.

With an unfortunate string of weak cards transitioning from 2009 into 2010, UFC 111 is shaping up to be a major event. While not officially announced, Georges St. Pierre is expected to defend his welterweight title in the main event against Dan Hardy. Thiago Alves is also reportedly making his return in New Jersey, possibly against Ricardo Almeida. Mir vs. Carwin would certainly put it over the top as a must-see event.

That said, one win over Cheick Kongo, as impressive as it was, gets Frank Mir a title shot even if it’s only for a meaningless interim title? That doesn’t seem right.

Update: If Frank Mir is getting an interim title shot against Shane Carwin, he doesn’t know it yet.

“Nothing is official yet, I’m reading the Internet too and trying to call the UFC. I will agree to it if it comes up. I just think people were talking and it made sense but nothing is official. They haven’t talked to me yet but I don’t know if somebody with the UFC has leaked it out…The only part that was a surprise to me was that it could be for an interim belt. Last I heard, I was sitting next to Dana at the (UFC 107) post-fight press conference when he said we’re going to wait for 4-to-6 weeks to find out whether or not Brock’s going to be able to return or not.”

A win like Frank had last night surely propels him to share the top of the division with Nog, Cain and myself. If beating Kongo was enough to propel Cain to number two contender status, destroying Kongo might edge Cain out. What is more compelling is that Mir made it our of that fight injury free so not only is he at the top of the division he is likely ready to fight sooner then later…The main question I am getting is would I fight Frank? The answer is easy YES. I am not a fighter who decides who he fights, I fight who I am told to fight. I like it that way, I am not trying to build a legacy I am trying to fight the best fighters in the World and determine where I fit in. Mir is a Multiple time Champion, who has been counted out more then Mike Tyson to only find himself right back at the top. He is a LEGEND of the sport and I would be honored to fight him.

—Shane Carwin via his official website confirming he would fight Frank Mir if asked

Such a class act that Shane Carwin is, but I wonder if his admiration for Frank Mir will diminish once Mir starts questioning his chin and whatever other weaknesses he happens to find. Oh wait, he already did.

In all seriousness though, this would make for an excellent fight and both are up for it. In fact, some people are suggesting the Nogueira-Velasquez winner face the Mir-Carwin winner for an interim title if Brock’s return is too far off. It sounds good, but what if Frank Mir wins both fights? Surely he would deserve another title shot if he were to win out, but then you have Lesnar fighting Mir again in his very first fight back since destroying him. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too crazy about that potential scenario. The UFC might like it though. It would probably sell more pay-per-views than any of other three match-ups.

With maybe the exception of BJ Penn, no one made a statement last night quite like Frank Mir. He obliterated Cheick Kongo with a left hand and choked him out in 1:12. It was a message sent loud and clear that he wants Brock Lesnar and he’s willing do whatever it takes to get the rubber match.

Quick rundown of fight and scheduling announcements and notes.

The biggest news coming out the UFC 105 post-fight press conference have nothing at all to do with UFC 105.

News broke earlier this week that a heavyweight fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez was in the process of being booked to replace Lesnar-Carwin at UFC 108. Shortly thereafter though, we found out that Cain’s camp wasn’t particularly interested in the fight and as Cain tells RawVegas.tv’s Dave Farra, he’d prefer to fight Shane Carwin than Big Nog. That said, he says he’s open to fighting Nogueira, but needs to sit down with his managers before they make a final decision.

Looks like we can rule out UFC 109 and UFC 110 as possible cards for the Lesnar-Carwin UFC heavyweight title fight. Dave Meltzer is reporting that Lesnar will likely be out of commission until early March.

It has been confirmed that Brock Lesnar is suffering from mononucleosis.  He informed Dana White earlier today of the diagnosis that he received this week.  He was ordered not to do any training for at least one month and the Jan. 2 date is out of the question.

No date has been set for Lesnar vs. Carwin, if that is the direction the company goes.  Lesnar would probably be available to fight again in early March according to those close to him.

With Lesnar on the bench, Shane Carwin is apparently taking the opportunity to take care of a nagging knee injury.

His management told Fighters Only tonight that his knee had been “an issue” and Carwin himself says he is “going to get an MRI to see how bad my leg is. Might as well heal up and get a full check up.”

Let’s just hope Shane’s doc doesn’t find anything too seriously wrong with his knee. No one wants to see this fight pushed even further back than it already has been.