UFC 146's Junior dos Santos: When Frank Mir gets in a rough spot, his courage goes out the window

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos has issued the latest scouting report on Frank Mir, who fights the Brazilian bomber in the main event of UFC 146: "Dos Santos vs. Mir" on May 26, 2012 from the MGM Grand Garden Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And I wouldn't call it flattering.

"Cigano," who was asked to switch up his training camp when his original opponent, Alistair Overeem, flunked a pre-fight drug test, isn't buying into any of Mir's pre-fight bravado.

In fact, he's doing a little trash talk of his own, telling USA Today that Mir can only dream of being faster than him and also has a tendency to crumble when the going gets rough.

Those comments, after the jump.

"He previously said that he was faster than me. That's only in his dreams. Mir's boxing is reasonable. It's OK. He takes advantage sometimes, just from the fact that he's left-handed, but he's really just pretty average with his boxing. All heavyweights hit hard. But compared to other heavyweights, compared to me, compared to my boxing — I'm faster than him; I hit harder than him; and I'm better technically. I think when Mir's in a good spot in the fight — when he's in a good moment and in a good position — he's very dangerous. But Mir doesn't really know to get through rough spots in a bout. When he gets in those rough spots, his courage goes out the window; his aggression goes out the window. What happened against Nogueira in his last fight was really an anomaly, because Mir got caught standing up. He got caught. He was ready to go down, ready to go out; and he was able to get through that and come back. That never happens in Mir's fights. Usually when Mir gets into a little bit of trouble during a fight, he can't come back from it."

Dos Santos is referring to Mir's UFC 140 submission win over friend and mentor Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. "Minotauro" had his former ex-TUF coach on queer street, but got sloppy when jumping into guard and left Toronto with his arm in a sling.

Now it's payback time for the Brazilian, who can also help answer some lingering questions about his ground game -- assuming Mir is conscious long enough to implement it.

Early predictions on this heavyweight hoedown?