Size doesn’t matter anymore to Frank Mir

By Brett Okamoto

Monday, Sept. 20, 2010 | 8:51 p.m.

Frank Mir had his entire training camp laughing during a recent grappling session at his private gym in Las Vegas.

The goal for Mir was to keep his training partner, Danny Scolari, on the mat as long as possible — which he ended up easily doing the entire length of the drill.

As the bell sounded, signaling a break, head trainer Jimmy Gifford laughed and said, "is Scalari still trying to get up? Keep trying man, you almost got it."

While the team can laugh now, Mir says the joke would have been on him four months ago when his wrestling skills were so poor he couldn’t keep a single member of his team on the ground.

After years of considering wrestling as one of his strengths, humbling losses to Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin in the past 14 months showed Mir that wasn’t the case.

“Pretty much everybody in this room who I work out with, I couldn’t hold down until about a month ago,” said Mir, waving his arms around the gym.

“I used to think I could hold people down, but I didn’t realize it was because I was holding down jiu-jitsu guys. They’re not trying to get up. Then all of a sudden, I go with a high school wrestler in practice and I couldn’t hold him down to save my life.”

Mir (13-5) will look to bounce back from his first-round loss to Carwin in March this weekend when he meets Mirko ‘Cro Crop’ Filipovic (27-7-2) in the main event of UFC 119 in Indianapolis.

In addition to the improvements he’s made in wrestling, fans also will see a big change in Mir’s physique.

After bulking up to the 265-pound weight limit for his last two fights, Mir will be back to his comfortable weight of 245 to 250 pounds against Filipovic.

Mir actually considered making a drop to the light heavyweight division following the loss to Carwin — a move that was eventually squashed by those closest to him after he fought his way down to 225.

“He got down to 225 pounds and he looked like he was in a death camp,” Gifford said. “You ask how much did (the Carwin loss) hurt? It hurt a lot. So, what’s the easy out? Move to 205 where he thought he’d be the bigger, stronger guy.

“But I told him, ‘that’s not your game. What are you going to do, muscle guys?’ You’ve never done that.”

After experimenting with dropping weight, Mir says he finally admitted to himself it wasn’t a difference in size that gave him trouble against Lesnar and Carwin.

They had come up with the right tools to beat him and he hadn’t done the same.

“My initial response was it’s a size thing,” Mir said. “But then I came to the realization, which the hardest part with my ego, was that Lesnar is technically a better grappler than I am.

“And I asked, ‘how is that possible?’ It was my own ignorance of not studying the game.”

These days, wrestling has become a staple of Mir’s training and he even talked renowned grappling coach Ricky Lundell into leaving his Utah home to spend an entire training camp in Las Vegas.

Instead of being angry at the fact he’s been forced into learning more wrestling, Mir says he’s eager to pick up a style that’s quickly becoming the most successful in the sport.

Others in the UFC have resisted that urge and even criticized wrestlers for bringing a boring style to the octagon.

According to Mir, he’s in no position to criticize a style of fighting that’s beaten him twice.

“If something works, I don’t sit there and say, ‘I like it or I dislike it,’” Mir said. “It’s not my place as a fighter to do that. Jon Fitch, Chael Sonnen, Rashad Evans, Georges St. Pierre — all those guys are proficiently the best fighters in the world and the reason is they have a wrestling base. It’s the best form of fighting right now.

“The days where I could sit on my back and wait for you to make a mistake and catch you in a triangle, those days are long gone. I still like working out of the guard, but if I had to pick, I’d rather be in top position now.”

At 31 years old, Mir says retirement is far from his mind and it’s clear he would still relish a third shot at the current heavyweight champion, Lesnar.

For that to happen, Mir will need to get by Filipovic this weekend and continue to develop his wrestling game.

If a day ever comes when Mir believes he’s learned all the wrestling he can and Lesnar still dominates him, it will be time to call it quits.

But until he feels the UFC heavyweights have seen the best version of him possible, he’s going to keep working.

“I’m not satisfied yet,” Mir said. “I don’t think I’ve accomplished everything I have the potential to accomplish. I don’t think I’ve pushed myself to the limit where I can sit there and say, ‘that’s the best that I can do and that guy’s just better than me.’ I haven’t got there yet.

“Once I fight a near-perfect fight and someone still beats me, then I’ll throw the towel in.”

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at LVSunFighting