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March 19, 2024

Las Vegas legend Frank Mir has plenty of fight left in him

UFC Fighter Frank Mir In Training

L.E. Baskow

UFC fighter Frank Mir, right, sends a kick to the head of trainer Angelo Reyes during training at Hybrid Performance in preparation for his Labor Day weekend fight in the co-main event of UFC 191 against Andrei Arlovski on Friday, August 14, 2015.

The other main event at UFC 191

Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson has encountered virtually no adversity during his reign as UFC flyweight champion over the past three years, with one notable exception. John Dodson scored an early knockdown at UFC on Fox 6 in January 2013 and nearly dethroned the 125-pound kingpin before Johnson rallied for a close unanimous-decision win (49-46, 48-47, 48-47). Johnson gets the chance to beat Dodson more convincingly in the main event of UFC 191. Dodson has won each of his other six UFC bouts, including a first-round knockout of current bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw. A victory would be Johnson’s ninth straight and potentially spring him further up the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, where he is No. 3 behind featherweight champion Jose Aldo and middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

UFC Fighter Frank Mir In Training

UFC fighter and Bonanza High product Frank Mir continues his training at Hybrid Performance in preparation for his Labor Day weekend fight in the co-main event of UFC 191 against Andrei Arlovski on Friday, August 14, 2015. Launch slideshow »

Long before he became a two-time UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir was a multisport standout at Bonanza High School. He established the region record in the discus throw at 177 feet, 10 inches — a mark that still stands — and was the football team’s best player at defensive end, helping the Bengals reach the region semifinals.

But when Mir joined the wrestling team as a junior, he lost nine straight matches to open the season and tried to quit the sport. Opponents less physically gifted than he had better technique and beat him in seconds.

“I was always a very big, strong, fast, natural athlete,” Mir said. “That is usually a recipe for mental weakness, which I had in abundance.”

His coach, Russ Leet, was persistent in encouraging Mir to stay with the sport. As a senior in 1998, Mir went 44-1 and won the state championship.

“It was very mentally discouraging, very hard to deal with,” Mir said of the pressure to keep wrestling in high school. “I tried to quit on (Leet). I didn’t show up for the weigh-in. He pulled me out of class and said, ‘There are a couple different ways we could go about this. You can either run from it and this will set a trend for the rest of your life, or you can suck it up, like any man does when you have obstacles, and face them head on.’”

The latter is how Mir, now 36, has approached his career in the UFC, which began in 2001 and continues Sept. 6 against Andrei Arlovski in a co-main event fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 191.

Mir, a 14-year veteran, is the longest-tenured fighter, regardless of classification, in the UFC. In the heavyweight division, Mir has had the most fights, victories and submissions in organization history.

But his tenure also has been filled with humbling moments, situations in which, just like in high school, Mir easily could have walked away from competing. Mir lost four consecutive fights from May 2012 through early 2014, and some felt his career, or at least his tenure with the UFC, was coming to an end.

In February, Mir faced Antonio Silva in Brazil in what turned out to be a career-saving fight. Despite being a 2-to-1 betting underdog, Mir finished Silva in 1 minute, 40 seconds with a series of punches and elbows. He was so impressive, he earned the Performance of the Night bonus.

Then on July 15, he floored Todd Duffee with a thunderous punch just 1:13 into the fight to again win Performance of the Night, showing the victory against Silva wasn’t a fluke. And just like that, Mir again became a contender in the heavyweight division.

“Frank Mir is a Hall of Famer, I’m sure in everybody’s eyes, because of his experience,” said Angelo Reyes, Mir’s boxing coach. “Losses happen in MMA. They happen in boxing, but boxers don’t have the same earning potential after one or two (defeats). The UFC has been great. They have been very loyal to Frank. And he has been very loyal to them.”

That loyalty was confirmed weeks after the Duffee fight. Mir had assumed he’d get a few months off to relax, but the UFC asked him to take on Arlovski, another former champion who has revitalized his career.

“I was really looking forward to sitting there and drinking beer and watching my kids play up and down the street,” Mir said. “So it was a little bit of a shift in mindset” when the UFC called.

But even if his body still was recovering from training for Duffee, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Mir (18-9), who is No. 10 in UFC heavyweight rankings, has positioned himself once again to be in contention to earn a championship fight. Another victory, especially against a high-quality opponent such as Arlovski, could do wonders for Mir’s title chances.

Mir’s experience will help in the quick turnaround. Earlier in his career, he admitted to not watching film of his opponents and going into matches with little preparation.

“You don’t need a game plan. You go out and react,” Mir said, describing his one-time mindset.

Now, an older and wiser fighter, Mir is much different in his approach. He’s analytical and always searching for answers. He often relates philosophies from life to fighting.

“If you are doing something you love and if you enjoy it, the journey and path itself is its own reward, even if you don’t reach the destination,” he said.

So along with coach Ricky Lundell and Reyes, Mir and his team study each opponent’s tendencies and create a detailed game plan. It’s partially why Mir says he has gone on a win streak and why he’s confident he will have a plan to beat Arlovski.

Mir admits to self-doubt, especially during his losing streak. But just like the days of Bonanza wrestling, he found a way to overcome.

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