The win was quick, decisive, and career-altering for Frank Mir, a talent-laden prizefighter who had proved that he needed a little adversity to truly show what he could do when the bell rang in the Octagon.
The year was 2003, and after getting upset and stopped by Ian Freeman at UFC 38 in 2002, he bounced back seven months later to submit heavily-hyped Tank Abbott in just 46 seconds and then went on to win the UFC Heavyweight Crown.
On Saturday in Las Vegas, Mir, 2-2 in his previous four fights after a serious motorcycle accident broke his leg and stole almost two years from his career, revived his MMA life again with a 90 second submission of another heavily-hyped opponent, Brock Lesnar. And while the Las Vegan is definitely back, it was far from easy as he was immediately taken to the mat by Lesnar and almost stopped by the former pro wrestler.
“Constant motion was key to not having the fight stopped,” said Mir. “I was not winning that fight in the first minute and 20 seconds.”
He laughs now, but when the fight was in its early stages, he had to call on all his veteran savvy to survive Lesnar’s onslaught, which began as soon as the bell rang.
“I thought he was gonna stand up with me,” said Mir. “I figured as big and strong as he was, he wasn’t gonna take me down and that he gonna try to land bombs. When he took me down, his shots were strong from inside the guard, but after he hit me with a couple of shots, I didn’t want to tie him up and wear myself out too much because he was so strong. So something just clicked in my head – let him swing and I’m gonna move my head around and let him miss shots. A couple of shots landed – he has some strong ground and pound.”
One shot landed to the back of Mir’s head, prompting referee Steve Mazzagatti to halt the action and deduct a point from Lesnar. It also gave Mir time to clear his head, and even though he would get knocked to the mat again when the action restarted, this time he went for his patented submissions, missing with an armbar but eventually locking on a kneebar that ended the fight.
“The kneebar wasn’t the greatest and he started to slip out of it, but if you’re a black belt in jiu-jitsu and a good athlete, you could make up for things,” said Mir. “It wasn’t a textbook finish, I wish it was, but I ended up doing things 80 percent right, and it was me just saying ‘I don’t want to get elbowed again.’”
Now at 3-2 since his accident and 11-3 overall, Mir can look forward to a future in the UFC again, something that wasn’t a given after his last couple performances. And maybe, just maybe, he can talk about opponents and not his old injuries in the lead-up to fights.
“I think I proved that my legs are fine,” said Mir. “I was able to lock on to a guy who was obviously a lot stronger than I am and used a lot of stuff from my back. I think in the past you saw the fights where I wasn’t bouncing around and in this fight I was bouncing around. I don’t know what else I can do to prove that my leg is healed. I think it’s just gonna be one of those things that’s gonna follow my career, and it’s the price I have to pay.”
“In the next fight I want to keep growing,” he continues. “I think people can see I’m more well-rounded, and my conditioning was unbelievable. That was the first time I walked in there and I’m looking at people. I waved hi to friends in the audience and I was never able to do that. I’m usually petrified, it’s like I’m in a Petri dish waiting to get experimented on.”
Not any more.
UFC.com
