Heavyweight Legend: A Mir Defeat

"There’s only maybe 10 people in the world that on any given night could beat me in a fight. The other 6 billion won’t stand a chance. Fight with your baseball bat and I’ll take it away from you and tell you where I’ll put it at."

Francisco Santos Mir lll, more commonly known as Frank Mir, was born 1979 in the home of professional fighting, Las Vegas Nevada. Being from the bright lights of sin city would certainly seem to have shaped Mir’s confident and often gregarious personality, as expressed in the above quote from an ecko advertisemen. It is this immense sense of self belief that has driven an illustrious MMA career where he holds a record of 12-4, as well as two UFC heavyweight titles, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt under Ricardo Pires and the accolade of 1998 Nevada State Wrestling Champion.

Mir grew up a dedicated pupil of Kenpo Karate and earned his black belt at a young age. However, his thirst for combat was not satisfied by Karate alone, and so Mir began wrestling at Bonanza High School where he held a record of 44-1 on his way to the aforementioned 1998 Nevada State Wrestling Championships.

Given his High School credentials, it is unsurprising that Mir would strive for further combative glory, and where better to it than in the Ultimate Fighting Championships which he had watched from the humble origins of UFC 1: The Beginning.

In late 2001, after successive victories in lesser mixed martial arts organisations, 22 year old Frank Mir made his UFC debut against submission wrestling specialist Roberto Travern. An armbar victory after just a minute of round 1 set the young Mir in great stead for the future.

Wins over Pete Williams, ‘Tank’ Abbott and Wes Sims followed confirming such promise and young Mir’s path to the title seemed assured. In 2004 he would literally break the reigning champion, Tim Sylvia, with a vicious armbar which snapped the radial bone in ’The Maine-iacs’ right arm.

The performance earned Mir, not only the UFC heavyweight title, but also his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt.

Soon after being crowned the heavyweight champion of the world, Mir would suffer a serious motorcycle injury breaking his femur in half. The incident is well documented and left the former champion distraught and disillusioned throughout the long period of recovery. His wife Jennifer, along with thoughts of returning to the octagon, kept Mir focused until February 2006 where he fought Marcio Cruz at UFC 57. He lost by TKO due to strikes.

A few lacklustre performances followed until the true Frank Mir returned at UFC 74 in an impressive win over Antoni Hardonk. Victories over big name fighters such as Brock Lesnar and a perhaps not 100% Minotauro Nogueira followed and saw Mir becoming the interim heavyweight champion and silencing many critics.

Mir was to unify the belt against the previously defeated Brock Lesnar in one of the most eagerly anticipated rematches in UFC history. However, with the exception of two hard knees landing for Mir, Lesnar went on to utilize his massive frame and relentlessly ground and pound until the referee stoppage mid way through round number two.

This fight showed the more experienced, technical and decorated fighter in Frank Mir being overpowered and simply out muscled by his larger counterpart. Did this match up initiate the beginning of a new breed of heavyweight fighter? A breed where immense size and power would simply dominate technical stand up and smooth Jiu Jitsu.

In all fairness, Lesnar also used his superior wrestling pedigree and executed his game plan to perfection in order to avenge his previous loss but the performance does beg the question ‘What could Mir have done differently to negate the sheer size and power’?

It was clear from the weigh in that Mir looked to be in the best shape of his career, with very little body fat evident. It seemed as though knowing it wasn’t possible to out muscle Lesnar, he would therefore look to rely on his technical abilities in order to get the win.

Mir weighed in at 245pounds whilst Lesnar weighed in at 265pounds. That 20pound difference would certainly be greater by the time they stepped into the octagon as Lesnar reportedly cuts from 280 to 265 in order to make the limit only to return to 280 by fight night. This undoubtedly gives him a huge advantage.

Mir has admitted to focusing very little on strength based exercises in the build up to UFC 100. He was to focus more so on cardio and technique. However, with the luxury of hindsight, Mir has also stated that 245pound was not a suitable weight to enter into battle with Brock Lesnar. Now considering Frank Mir has always been seen as a big heavyweight, is it now necessary for the elite in the division such as Frank Mir, Minotauro Nogeuira and Cain Velasquez to either pile on the pounds or attack the impossible task of making weight at 205?

Or, as has been hinted at, should a new division of super heavyweight be put into place to even the playing field? Surely, this proposal would carry many hindrances but is certainly worth considering.

Regardless of what may happen in the heavyweight division one thing’s for sure, Frank Mir will continue to remain among the elite and has the opportunity to prove that on December 12^{th at UFC 107 when Mir is set to face Check Kongo.}

^{A victory should send Mir back to title contention and hopefully, some time in the not too distant future, set up a must see rubber match with Brock Lesnar.}