#9
Frank Mir
Summary: Great submissions, improved striking
Fighter Info
From: | Las Vegas, Nevada USA |
Fights Out Of: | Las Vegas, NV |
Age: | 31 |
Height: | 6' 3" ( 190 cm ) |
Weight: | 240 lb ( 109 kg ) |
Mir met UFC matchmaker Joe Silva at a school Silva was visiting. Silva saw potential in Mir as a future UFC fighter and suggested that he first prove himself against some fighters in the mixed martial arts world. Mir would make his professional MMA debut against Jerome Smith at HOOKnSHOOT: Showdown on July 14, 2001. Mir won the bout by judges' decision after two rounds. He won another match by submission at IFC Warriors Challenge 15.
After these events, Mir made his UFC debut against Roberto Travern. Traven had fought once in the UFC before (at UFC 11), and was the 1999 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship open class champion and 6th degree black belt in BJJ.[9] Mir defeated Roberto Travern by armbar at 1:05 of round one at UFC 34: High Voltage on November 2, 2001. The submission earned Mir the "Tapout of the Night" award.
Mir's next match in the UFC was against Pete Williams and took place at UFC 36: Worlds Collide on March 22, 2002. Mir submitted the veteran Williams (who had never been submitted before[10]) at only 46 seconds into the first round with a shoulder lock that has since been named after Mir.[11]
He faced Ian Freeman, at UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall, held in London, England on July 13, 2002. Despite several leglock attempts by Mir, Freeman achieved side control at around four minutes into the first round, landing numerous elbows and punches on Mir's head. After Freeman separated, the referee signaled Mir to stand back up. A time out was called due to an apparent cut on Mir's face, and the referee stopped the fight when Mir had difficulty standing up.
Mir then faced David "Tank" Abbott at UFC 41 on February 28, 2003. Mir[12] defeated Abbott in only 46 seconds into the first round by submission (Toe Hold).
On June 26, 2003 Mir fought Wes Sims at UFC 43: Meltdown. Mir won by disqualification at 2:55 of round one after Sims stomped down on Mir's face after slamming his way out of Mir's armbar attempt. They would rematch at UFC 46: Supernatural on January 31, 2004. Frank Mir won by knockout at 4:21 of round two.
On June 19, 2004, Mir faced Tim Sylvia for the vacant UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 48: Payback. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight at 50 seconds into the first round when Mir's armbar visibly broke Sylvia's right forearm. Mir trapped Sylvia's right arm in an armbar attempt. When Sylvia tried to pull out of the hold, Mir jerked back harder and Sylvia's radius bone snapped about 3 inches below his elbow. Sylvia repeatedly claimed his arm was not broken, even touching it and moving it around to show he was O.K. Sylvia was taken to the nearby hospital where an x-ray showed that his arm was in fact broken in four different places.
With this technical submission win Mir became the new UFC Heavyweight Champion and later received his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black-belt for his performance in the fight.
On September 17, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. The accident caused a break in Mir's femur and tore all the ligaments in his knee. The bone had broken in two places but the injury did not end Mir's career as a fighter. Major surgery was needed to repair the bone in his leg. An interim heavyweight title was created whilst Mir was recovering from the injury, which Andrei Arlovski won by defeating Tim Sylvia by way of a first round submission. On August 12, 2005, the UFC learned that Mir was not able to fight Andrei Arlovski in October as scheduled, thus Mir was stripped of the title after 14 months, and Arlovski was promoted to be the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.
Mir recovered from his motorcycle accident and fought Márcio Cruz at UFC 57: Liddell vs. Couture 3 on February 4, 2006. In a shocking upset, Mir was defeated by the relative newcomer in the first round by TKO due to strikes. Initially, referee Herb Dean called for a break to check a large cut on Mir's face. Mir was given the opportunity to continue, and did so.
Mir returned to the Octagon on July 8, 2006 at UFC 61: Bitter Rivals and faced Dan Christison.[15] Mir had gained a considerable amount of weight and quickly became exhausted. Mir won in a lackluster fashion by unanimous decision after three rounds; the judges all scored the bout 29–28.[16] Criticism began to flourish with Mir not looking like the same fighter as he was before, both physically and technically.
Mir next faced Brandon Vera at UFC 65: Bad Intentions. Mir showed slightly improved sharpness on his feet, and boxed well until being stunned by a straight right from Vera. He was then dropped by knees from Vera's Muay Thai clinch, where the smaller Vera delivered elbows & punches from side control, forcing the referee to stop the fight. Mir lost by TKO at only 1:09 of the first round.[17]
Frank Mir was scheduled to fight Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9 on April 5, 2007, but had to drop out due to a shoulder injury.[18] Mir recovered from the shoulder injury and fought Antoni Hardonk at UFC 74 and won via kimura in 1:17 of the first round.[19] At the end of the bout, Mir walked to the cameras pointing at himself saying "I'm back!". Frank's wife Jennifer was shown on the replay screaming and crying with joy when Frank secured the kimura and the fight was stopped.
Mir fought Brock Lesnar at UFC 81 on February 2, 2008. Early in the first round, Lesnar took Mir down and, while striking from Mir's guard, landed illegal punches to the back of Mir's head, drawing a foul and a one-point deduction from referee Steve Mazzagatti.[20] They were stood up and Mir was given a brief recovery period, but Lesnar quickly took Mir down again. When Lesnar escaped an armbar attempt, Mir caught him with a kneebar, causing Lesnar to tap out at 1:30 of the first round.
Spike TV on 12 May 2008 announced that the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former champion Frank Mir would be the coaches for the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter.[22]
The season, which premiered on Spike TV on September 17, returned to the two-weight class format. It featured light heavyweight and lightweight fighters.[23] Production on season eight began in late May, with the entire cast announced in September, and concluded in December.
Frank Mir fought Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92 for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship.[24] This bout was part of a mini-heavyweight tournament, often hyped by Dana White. The winner of this fight would then face the winner of the match between the heavyweight champion Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar won by TKO in the second round, gaining him the heavyweight championship belt in the process and then setting him to face the winner at UFC 100 to unify the belts.
Frank Mir then defeated Nogueira in the second round via TKO due to strikes, showing vastly improved striking (particularly his boxing), by knocking down the Brazilian twice in the first round, and once in the second. He also scored a Judo-trip takedown in round one.[25] Herb Dean stopped the match at 1:54 of the second round.[25] Nogueira's loss marked the first time he had lost a fight by TKO.[26] In a post fight interview, Mir credited his improved striking to a drastic improvement in conditioning.[27]
Two days after the fight Dana White revealed in an interview that "Nogueira had just gotten over a Staph infection".[28] Nogueira himself verified this fact several months later in his own interview, stating that he had a Staph infection "20 days before the fight, [requiring] 5 days in the hospital." When asked if this infection affected his fight, Nogueira answered: "For sure." In addition to this significant illness, his knee was injured during training for which he had surgery in February 2009. Despite these legitimate handicaps, Nogueira offered strong praise for Frank Mir's performance, with particular credit given to Mir's ability to maintain "very good distance".
Frank Mir's victory over Nogueira set in place a re-match with the UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight championship.[30] However, Mir stated, that in his opinion, holding victories over former Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92 and current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 81 is enough to recognize him as the owner of the "real belt".[31] On May 23, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Frank Mir was scheduled to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 98, however Mir sustained a knee injury during training which required arthroscopic surgery and the removal of bone chips from his knee. Mir's rematch against Brock Lesnar was rescheduled for UFC 100, July 11, 2009.[32]
At UFC 100, Mir was lively on his feet but proved unable to counter Lesnar's wrestling and positional dominance. In the second round, after being allowed to standup, he landed a combo ending with a turning right elbow which forced Lesnar to clinch - proceeding to land a jumping right knee to rock his opponent - he was still unable to prevent the takedown. After a period of recovery from the knee Lesnar pinned Mir up against the cage and delivered multiple unanswered blows to his face, forcing Herb Dean to stop the fight via TKO at 1:48 in the 2nd round. With the win, Brock Lesnar became the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Mir had his next fight against Cheick Kongo on December 12, 2009 at UFC 107. Mir was expected to weigh 20 to 25 lbs heavier than usual, due to the strength and conditioning program that he had undertaken to largely improve his muscular frame. This meant he would have to cut weight to get to the 265 lb limit.[34] As expected, Mir weighed in for his fight against Kongo at 264.5 lbs. At the weigh-ins, Kongo refused to face Mir during the traditional staredown before the fight. During the fight, Mir stunned Kongo with an overhand left early, dropping him and swarming to secure a guillotine choke victory at 1:12 in the first round. Kongo refused to tap and was rendered unconscious by the submission.[35]
In the post-fight press conference Mir expressed his desire to fight a rubber match with Brock Lesnar.[36] Mir later created controversy after commenting that he wanted to break Brock Lesnar's neck, so that he would become the first mixed martial artist to die in competition. Mir later made an apology for his comments.[37]
Mir faced Shane Carwin for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship on March 27, 2010 at UFC 111.[38] After a brief standup exchange, Mir established the clinch, where Carwin eventually delivered multiple short, powerful uppercuts to Mir's face. Unable to defend himself, Mir lost the fight via KO at 3:48 of the first round.[39]
At a UFC Fan Expo, Mir said he briefly considered dropping down to the Light heavyweight division, although he later confirmed he will remain at heavyweight.[40]
Mir was expected to face Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira on September 25, 2010 at UFC 119 in a rematch from the Interim Championship bout, which Mir won via TKO at UFC 92.[41] Nogueira pulled out of this fight due to knee surgery and was replaced by Mirko Filipović.[42] Mir defeated Filipović via third round KO, earning the win with a knee from the clinch in a largely uneventful fight where neither fighter was able to deliver any significant offense.[43]
Mir was expected to face Brendan Schaub at UFC 128,[44] but was replaced by Filipović.
Mir is expected to face Roy Nelson on May 28, 2011 at UFC 130.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Mir
