Even though Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir have taken a couple of swipes at each other while hyping their upcoming UFC heavyweight title unification match, the

former Bismarck State College wrestling champ said there's no real animosity between the two.

"I don't dislike Frank in any way other than he's got a win over me," Lesnar said in a conference call on Wednesday. "This is a sport. I consider myself a gentleman, and sportsmanlike conduct should take precedence."

That doesn't mean Lesnar, the champion, won't be trying to bring the pain when he and Mir, the interim champ, hook it up at UFC 100 on July 11 in Las Vegas.

Especially since Mir (12-3) handed Lesnar (3-1) his only mixed martial arts defeat, in Lesnar's UFC debut.

"The only thing I've got going for me is Frank's got a win over me, and I don't like to lose," Lesnar said. "Revenge is a key factor me."

Mir also defused the notion of bad blood.

"If there is any animosity, I think it's coming from both of us in that we don't have the respect we want in the division," Mir said.

That didn't prevent Lesnar from getting in one dig at Mir. In a previous interview, Mir called himself a mixed martial artist, while saying Lesnar was "a professional fighter" - someone who was in it solely for the money.

"He has his desires to fight and I've got mine," Lesnar countered. "I truly love what I'm doing. It just so happens that I get paid a lot more money than he does."

Lesnar has been a money generating machine for UFC since his debut loss to Mir in Feb., 2008. Mir was trying to revive his career at that point. The former heavyweight champ was coming back from a serious motorcycle accident.

Lesnar overpowered Mir and was dominating the first match with wrestling and ground-and-pound. But Lesnar got reckless gong for the finish. Mir, a jiu jitsu expert, caught him with a kneebar, ending the bout in 90 seconds.

Since then, both fighters have picked up big wins. Mir's next bout was for the interim heavyweight title - created while Couture was in a legal battle with UFC. On Dec. 27, he scored a second-round TKO of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to earn a shot at Lesnar.

Lesnar dominated veteran Heath Herring, then knocked out MMA legend Randy Couture to win the heavyweight title last November in just his third UFC fight.

"I've improved dramatically since my first adventure of even thinking about getting in mixed martial arts," Lesnar said. "… When I first got started, I was very lucky to get my break that I did.

"Now having so many more hours in the gym and so many more hours on the mat, in all aspects of the game - I can't believe somebody even let me into the octagon."