One word: Wow!

We're talking about two of the most dangerous MMA heavyweight submission fighters ever here. Sure, Big Nog doesn't speak the greatest English, but that's irrelevant.

For the first time, TUF will feature two big time heavyweight coaches. And this couldn't be a more interesting fight if they wrote the script. After all, Frank Mir and Antonio Minotauro Nogueira have a lot in common.

For a while it didn't look like Frank Mir would ever come back from a motorcycle accident that broke his femur in two places and destroyed all of the ligaments in his knee. He looked terrible in losing to Marcio Cruz by TKO in the first round of his initial comeback attempt. He may have even looked worse during his win over Dan Christison in his next fight. And when Mir was stopped rather easily by Brandon Vera in his next encounter, well, people pretty much gave up on him.

And that's when he got things going for him.

First Mir demolished a good fighter in Antoni Hardonk by submission in the first round. Soon after he managed to catch Brock Lesnar in a first round kneebar.

Now he's about to get a shot at the championship that he lost to that leg injury so long ago.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira hasn't been in a car accident recently. But that doesn't mean he's never been impacted by such.

When he was 10 years old, Nogueira was run over by a truck and subsequently fell into a coma for four days. During that time, he lost a rib and part of his liver, and had to be hospitalized for 11 months. You can still see the scar on his back.

That said, Nogueira is now the UFC Heavyweight Champion after surviving a couple of difficult rounds on his feet against Tim Sylvia before finally getting the fight to the canvas. Once there, it was only a short period of time before he was able to sink in the submission.

Interestingly, before his injury Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia's arm in a submission hold to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship Belt.

So let's go over the similarities. First, both of these guys are true heavyweight submission fighters, a rarity in the sport. Second, they were both impacted by terrible motor vehicle accidents. Third, they've both held UFC Heavyweight Championship belts. Fourth, they both submitted Tim Sylvia to win the belt.

And finally, they're going to be TUF 8 coaches.

In the end, Frank Mir has a size and strength advantage. Along with this, when he locks in on a submission early in a fight it's game time. Antonio Minotauro Nogueira has the better Brazilian Jiu Jitsu background and pedigree and is better in a purely technical sense. Further, Big Nog is the better striker in this fight and has many more big wins on his resume. But Frank Mir represents a challenge in that he is a big Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter.

Keyword: big. We're talking about 240 pounds of man that moves like he weighs 220 pounds.

What a great idea by the UFC and what an interesting match up! Looking forward to seeing this one.

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