Fans want it. Josh Barnett is down for it. And now Frank Mir has expressed interest in it as well.
When news surfaced former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight titleholder Josh Barnett had signed a multi-fight deal to return to the world's premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization after 12 years, talk of potential match ups for "The Warmaster" in his return to the Octagon began to swirl.
The most attractive candidate to Barnett, though, seemed to be a match up with another brash and well-spoken former heavyweight champion in Mir, who is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC on FOX 7.
Seeing as Cormier also handed Barnett his last professional defeat in May 2012, it makes sense to match up the two former heavyweight champions in a fight Mir believes would be "phenomenal."
"I think that would be a phenomenal fight," Mir said of facing Barnett in an interview with El Octagono. "I think that some of the fans have talked about it a lot on the Internet as far as who is the better catch wrestler. And I think that I would be more than happy to welcome him to the UFC and I think it would be a great fight."
In a division that severely lacks high-level submission fighters, Mir and Barnett are two of the best in the world on the ground and the idea of the two big men going head-to-head on the mat is one to salivate over.
From Mir's perspective, though, he is extremely confident that he is the craftier ground fighter and believes Barnett would have a similar confidence in his skills going into the fight, which would ultimately lead to his demise.
"I think that he's not afraid to grapple with me," said Mir. "Which I think would be one of his downfalls."
Mir did not target a date for a potential clash with Barnett; however, he did mention that he hopes to find out when and where his next fight will take place in the coming days.