There are two kinds of men in this world.
The "quitters," who would rather roll over and tap out than put forth the necessary effort to reach down into the pit of their gut and grab hold of that last ounce of fight they have left, and hang on.
Or the "fighters," or "survivors"—men such as the former Ultimate Fighting Championship's two-time heavyweight champion, Frank Mir.
These are the guys who are willing to go down swinging, out on their shield, or in a hail of bullets; nothing short of death can stop them from achieving their goals. They are solid human beings built from a strong foundation of morals.
These men possess rare human qualities and values, such as honor, integrity, courage, and a tremendous amount of pride.
Mir is one of the proudest, and, from watching his fights and listening to him throughout his career, it's evident that he not only believes it, but has also lived through it.
In 2004, Mir was involved in a life-threatening motorcycle accident. He was broadsided by a vehicle, knocked off his bike, and seriously injured.
The front end of the vehicle had smashed into Mir's leg, destroying all the ligaments in his knee and the large femur bone in the fighters leg had been broken in two places.
If Mir had any hopes of ever walking again, major surgery would be required to repair his damaged leg.
Quickly and unbelievably, the top heavyweight MMA fighter in the world had been flattened by unforeseen events.
Now, the fighter—who was then the linear UFC heavyweight champion—could do nothing but watch from his hospital bed as his dreams—like gold dust in a windstorm—were suddenly and unexpectedly swept away.
To further add to his misery, the UFC created an interim heavyweight title in his absence and allowed the two top contenders, one of whom Mir had already beaten, Tim Sylvia, and Andre Arlovski, to fight for it.
Previous to his accident, I was one of the people who, at that time, were incredibly impressed by the submission skills of Mir and thought that he would be a dominant champion for years to come.
However, life can be a real bitch sometimes, and we never know what may be awaiting us around the next corner.
In light of these sudden events, Mir could have taken the easy way out, pulled the plug on his fighting career, and never fought again.
Or, such as we see many lower tier UFC fighters doing nowadays, Mir could have dropped his weight division to 205 and—hoping no-one would notice, gain an advantage over the smaller men, and by beating them—possibly win a light-heavyweight title.
However, it's not in Mir's nature to do that; he was a proud champion.
So, like a true heavyweight cage-fighting warrior, he decided that—even though he wasn't fully recovered—he would try and mount a come back to regain the heavyweight belt.
Eventually he would face off against one of the biggest, certainly the fastest, UFC heavyweight champions to ever hold the belt. Still he remained determined.
At first, Mir faced adversity once again, and after witnessing his loss to newcomer Marcio Cruz, and then getting kneed and pummeled by Brandon Vera, I have to admit that I was also one of the naysayers who felt the comeback was possibly a serious mistake, and he wasn't going to get the title shot.
Mir eventually proved us all wrong with a perfectly executed knee-bar submission off his back to achieve the only win over the man who could potentially become the most dominant Heavyweight champ ever, Brock Lesnar.
His next fight would be the icing on the cake. It was against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the UFC interim heavyweight championship.
Known as Minotauro, big Nog had gone the distance twice with Fedor Emelianenko and was thought to be a mythic Brazilian submission expert, some even claimed he had an advantage over Mir in boxing skills.
Apparently they hadn't seen Noguira's fight against Sylvia, where Minotauro was thoroughly out-boxed and hurt several times by Sylvia—a man who was recently knocked out by ancient former boxer Ray Mercer.
Mir is an extremely intelligent fighter. He knew he could beat Nog in the stand up and in this match, Mir showed us a whole new side of himself that we had never seen before, a much improved set of boxing skills.
The heavy-handed Mir needn't worry. He finished off the over-hyped former "Pride FC" left over in the first round with an amazing display of boxing skills which is virtually un heard of for a MMA fighter of his size.
This was the first time Big Nog has ever been stopped, and in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Mir was almost in tears.
He turned to the crowd in attendance and asked the audience to take a good look at their own lives, and to look at his life...and to remember that there is no limit to the human will, we can all persevere, overcome, and eventually conquer, anything we put our minds to.
The upcoming events in combat sports are not unlike the events in life, they can lead one to the summit of the mountain, or they might also send us tumbling backward to the foot of the hill.
The only option we have is to pick up the pieces, put ourselves back together, and press forward.
Mir lost a rematch to Lesnar, in a fight which resembled a camper being mauled by a 500lb grizzly bear, Mir, the BJJ black belt, was smothered, and thoroughly dominated in a place where this writer said that he should have an advantage, on the canvas.
However, life goes on, and on Dec. 12, Mir is expected to fight Cheick Kongo at UFC 107. The out-come of that matchup may potentially precede a third battle against Lesnar, or there may be a new champion by that time named Shane Carwin.
Whatever the future may hold for Mir, there's one thing we know for sure, he has no shortage on heart and courage.
He was able to cheat death, get back on his feet, and achieve his personal goal by regaining part of his past championship, the interim heavyweight title.
And, who knows, if he beats Kongo impressively, he may have a another title shot awaiting him around the bend.
Remember his words from his post-fight interview after the impressive win against Nogueira: in essence, simply "it's never over 'til it's over."
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