UFC 146 preview: Cold calculations by Frank Mir aiming to dethrone Junior dos Santos Mir also responded to comments from Dos Santos, who said Mir "is not a man" in getting out of tough positions in the Octagon. He's just hyping the fight. I don't take it personally because I know Dos Santos and I know what type of a guy he is. But I've proved otherwise many times. Look at the Nogueira fight, let's face it, I didn't start off too good guys. He caught me but I was victorious. The first Brock fight, I don't think I was ahead on the scorecards as he wore his hands on my face. But we do a pre-fight medical so maybe when we do the hernia thing I'll prove to Junior that I'm a man. Dos Santos making dreams come true A touching story around reigning heavyweight champion Dos Santos. There was a time where he was just another poor kid from Brazil, selling ice lollies on the streets, dreaming of one day becoming a fighter and making a better life for himself. Nicknamed "Cigano" after a character in a Brazilian soap opera he resembled, dos Santos grew up in poverty in Caçador, southern Brazil. He gravitated to the judo and jiu-jitsu fighters who trained in a local gym, and fantasized about becoming a martial artist. Dos Santos chased this dream all the way to the neon lights of Las Vegas, where on Saturday night he headlines the UFC 146 event as the most heavy-handed mixed martial artist on earth. It is now dos Santos who inspires other kids" dreams. As he made his final preparations before flying to Vegas for his bout with two-time champ Frank Mir, dos Santos was taken aside by Breno Luis Ferreira, a nine-year-old boy who, for months on end, had shown up to the champion's gym in Salvador to watch his hero train. The champion said: "As soon as school ends, Breno always appears. We love having him in the gym. He's been coming to the gym so often now he's become a little friend. We call him the Little Guy. After my last sparring session before flying to the US, he asked me why I had to fight in Vegas, and when I explained he said he wanted to come to help me win. He didn't have a passport, his mother didn't have a passport but I was a little guy once and people helped me. If we could make the little guy's dream come true, if we were able somehow, why wouldn't we? Two dozen officials and worked on two continents to get everything in order for Breno, his mother Simone and 16-year-old brother Pedro Gabriel to travel to the US in time to be Octagonside for Saturday's event. They touched down at Las Vegas" McCarran International Airport on Wednesday and were checked in to a MGM hotel room bigger than their home in Salvador. Speaking through a translator, Breno said: "It's just so exciting being here in Las Vegas. Even to get to sit on an airplane was like a dream. I could see all things out of the window, big buildings and we were really high above them, flying like a dream. Our room here is so nice and everyone is being so nice to me, but I'm here to help Cigano defend his title. Cigano is the strongest man in the world. He can defeat anybody even though he is nice. He will beat Frank Mir on Saturday. I've seen him in the gym and he will win with a left hook followed by a big right uppercut. This will be in the first round. Dos Santos is happy to have his friend in town. He said: "He really likes to watch and he's fun to have around. He's not shy at all. He's a mischievous kid, he's always laughing. "Before I left for Las Vegas, he jumped into the ring and shouted "Now I am a Junior dos Santos! The UFC champion! I am Cigano! I will knock you all out!" and he challenged the other kids to a pretend fight. He is a little louder than the real "Cigano" but he is so excited every time he is in the gym." At this point in my career, I can be a motivation and role model for these little guys from home. The kids see that all the fighters from the gym have good cars; they can see that hard work does lead to something good in life. UFC heavyweight title bout: Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir DOS SANTOS Heavyweight bout: Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva VELASQUEZ Heavyweight bout: Roy Nelson vs. Dave Herman NELSON Heavyweight bout: Stipe Miočić vs. Shane del Rosario MIOCIC Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Lavar Johnson JOHNSON Must-win for Dan Hardy against Duane Ludwig After four losses on the bounce in the UFC, and not a win to stake hisclaim since November 2009, British welterweight "The Outlaw" Hardy must win in Las Vegas against Ludwig. Nor is this fight a given. Hardy must go back to what he is best at, and be smart with it and set the pace. He has been away from competition since facing Chris Lytle last August, when he looked a shell of the fighter he had been in his last UFC victory against Mike Swick in Manchester over two and a half years ago. In Ludwig, hardcore metal music fan and fine art lover Hardy faces a Muay Thai and kickboxing expert who is 2-1 in his last three, having lost his last fight to Josh Neer. Hardy needs to deliver. The style match-up suits him, but it is all or nothing. No fighter has ever gone 0-5 in a UFC career and survived the cut. Time to deliver. Paul Sass looks to stay on winning run against Jacob Volkmann Paul Sass meets Jacob Volkmann in a classic wrestler-jiu-jitsu match-up, though Volkmann has the much better stand-up game. Sass, on a 12-fight winning streak in his MMA career, and 2-0 in the UFC, will want to take the fight to the ground as soon as possible, having won 8 of his contests by submission with the triangle choke. Volkmann will be no easy meat, coming into this fight in form, and on a 5-fight win streak. Preliminary card (FX) Welterweight bout: Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig HARDY Preliminary card (Facebook) Lightweight bout: Jacob Volkmann vs. Paul Sass SASS