Frank Mir Speaks
by mythbuster on Dec 5, 2008 3:56 PM EST
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Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.
CBSports.com has an article up with Frank Mir in which he discusses his upcoming fight with Antonio Nogueira.
What he thinks of Nog:
I look up to Nogueira. I think he's a phenomenal fighter, somebody who is an inspiration to a lot of people. He shows a lot of heart in all his wars he's been in. Fighting him is not going to take anything away from him.
...
He has a pace. I think Nogueira's a better athlete than sometimes he lets himself on to be. A lot of guys, we go for home runs in fights, and that can be a problem.
...
He doesn't kill himself trying to get anything, he just sets a pace and keeps that same pace. He's like a marathon runner. He knows how fast he can run a mile and he can push a certain pace but if he goes faster he'll get tired, and if he goes any slower he lets the pressure of the guy.
On his conditioning training:
After I beat Lesnar I was back in the gym Monday. It doesn't mean I don't take a day off here and there to go spend time with the family, but two days never go by where I'm not in the gym, even when I don't have a fight coming up. And 10 weeks out I'm in the gym every day, twice a day.
...
The minute you step in the ring you have a pretty good judge of where you're at. I knew where I was, I had no cardio in my early career in the UFC. That was due to my training. Cardio is not genetic. People can be a little bit better than others naturally, but you've got to work at it.
On how long the fight will last:
I don't see it being quick at all. I can't imagine that in over 35 fights Nogueira has had -- and no one has finished him -- that I'm going to be the one to do it.
...
I've really expected that this fight is going to be a 25-minute fight. If anything my strategy has been more geared towards making sure I win convincingly on the judges' score cards.
Will it be a jiu-jitsu extravaganza?
I think going jiu-jitsu for jiu-jitsu is going to be quite difficult for me. He's been doing jiu-jitsu longer than I have, and if anybody asked me I would say he's a better jiu-jitsu guy than I am. He's been a black belt longer than I have. For me to say I have an edge there, I don't see where. But that's why I'm not trying to make it a strictly confirmed jiu-jitsu match, I'm going to use elbows and strikes and mix it up and go for more unorthodox submissions -- more footlocks and kneebars and whatnot.
If not JJ, then what?
Striking, I think I have the potential to be the better striker, but as far as actually applying it in the ring that's a different story. That's really going to be my goal now -- I've seen what I've done in practice and I need to transfer that to life.
And finally:
Nogueira can't stop me from fighting my hardest. I can stop me.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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Very well spoken, very intelligent, very classy.
Very much about to lose.
im not impressed with your performance
Couldn't have said it better myself...
Appears classy…. no chance in hell though.
Look forward to Mir vs Couture in the bronze medal match.
by Gunslinger20 on Dec 7, 2008 12:55 AM EST up reply actions
This is funny to hear
after hearing all season long on TUF how Nog has no chance of beating him & that Nog is nowhere near the athlete he is.
Damnation, I like Mir as a fighter
And I am looking forward to this match more than any other on the card. Yeah, I said it.
I agree with that,
but this goes directly against what we have heard from him all season on TUF. I like his comments either way, just a little inconsistent.
One thing that is interesting, Mir has never been a striker at all or a cardio machine, Nog has never heen KO’d & their BJJ should pretty much offset.
I must be fast-forwarding through too much of TUF this year. I haven’t heard Mir say anything about Nog all year, aside from the soccer challenge episode where Mir seemed afraid of messing up his hair.
He talked...
a lot about being a better athlete than Nog…being better than Nog in general…etc.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 5, 2008 5:53 PM EST up reply actions
From Mir though ...
… that sounds like he was just trying to hype the fight rather than detailed tactical plans, y’know?
by asa on Dec 6, 2008 7:24 AM EST up reply actions
Really? I don’t remember that. I remember the episode where he was saying that Vinny was better than Nog at BJJ but that was about it. I’m surprised Mir would go as far to say that because he seems pretty self-aware most of the time. Based their past fights, Mir is not as good as Nog to even the most untrained eye.
Most of Mir’s most recent fights are after getting a career ending injury and him taking fights for the money before he could fully heal something that was supposed to prevent him from ever fighting again. Recently Mir has been looking a whole lot better physique wise. He also sounds like a a passionate newly converted person to the idea that, hey! cardio is important.
I’m not knocking anything Frank has gone through. Even comparing him in his prime before the accident, I think it’s pretty clear that Nog is little bit better. Frank never really defeated any world beaters aside from Sylvia.
Either way, the Frank Mir who steps into the cage against Big Nog better be an improved fighter than the one who lost to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera. From everything I’ve been reading it looks as though he has increased his training regimen ten fold and claims to be better than ever, but the question still remains whether that will be enough to snatch victory from Nogueira. I think it’s doubtful but maybe Frank will prove me wrong. That’s what makes this fight so interesting.
I agree—He always comes across very well in interviews, but he really seemed like a tool on the show. I was pretty indifferent when it came to Nog/Mir, but after watching the show I’m definitely pulling for Nog.
by Patrick McCauley on Dec 5, 2008 4:56 PM EST up reply actions
See that’s what I was wondering, haven’t followed TUF much but from what I’ve heard he comes off very egotistical and sort of an ass, but every other interview I’ve seen with him is along these lines. Very humble and classy. Maybe he was trying to hype the fight on TV?
If you get 500 hours of footage and cramp it up to a few 1 hour episodes, you can make anyone look like an ass to sell the fight and get good ratings..
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Dec 5, 2008 10:07 PM EST up reply actions
Yep.
Amazing what they can do with editing these days. Lots of fighters from previous seasons have already insinuated that the UFC selectively edits to push a certain “persona” for a fighter… regardless of whether or not a fighter really IS or wants to be seen that way.
"I'm AJB and I endorse this nut-puncher."
Good point. But on the same hand I doubt all of those things were taken out of context. Could you imagine Nog talking like that? “I like da hugz.”
ofcourse it’s still mir talking, but i doubt he’s that much of an ass all the time. He probably says dumb stuff a couple of times, then the production crew shows every bit of them.. he’d still end up looking a bigger ass than he really is..
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Dec 7, 2008 8:30 AM EST up reply actions
Either way, I don’t think it was a “gross” misrepresentation of Mir. Everyone on these shows knows they’re being filmed and edited so they have to be aware of what’s coming out of their mouth. I didn’t really have a problem with any of Frank ‘s comments and still generally like the guy, except for those chin pubes. Others don’t share my sentiment.
just when i was starting to hate frank.....
i didnt have much of an opinion on frank until this seasons’s TUF. and for the most part he seems like what we’d call a ‘choad’… underhanded comments about Nog, the god-awful commercial endorsements for transporter 3 and call of duty, the huge ego, crying about the soccer match….
but then he goes and says all the right things here… i guess he either was playing a character on the show or maybe it’s just the editing trying to make him look bad (which is a strong possibility).
anybody know a TUFer we can get ahold of and get the inside scoop?
Good idea!
I mean, just look at the way he comes across when handling Junie… I wonder he much time and effort he put into actually trying to make him behave like a human-being. I`m gusseing a lot. And about the Nog/athlete comments… Those were made AFTER he lost in a kinda humiliating fashion. So he`s a sore looser and loosing turns him into an ass. No really big surprise there. I`m a very sore loser and loosing turns me into a semi-idiot too. And I`m not nearly competitive enough to let a 250 pound gorilla try and smash my face in on a regular basis.
"They called him the axe-murderer because he was murdering chumps. They should have been calling him the chump-murderer..." Rampage Jackson (commentating on the fighting abilities of Wanderlei "F#ck Chuck" Silva.)
by BlueberryMuffin on Dec 6, 2008 4:18 AM EST up reply actions
the UFC prob makes Mir act like a Dick on the show to make people tune in to the payperview, they diddnt have that kind of heat between forest and rampage, that ppv diddnt do as well as they wanted, therefore they made Mir the bad guy.. i mean shit you cant make Nog the bad guy hes to damn nice
I really hope that Mir doesn’t pull a Sherk and thinks he can box all day with Nog, that would be very stupid on his behalf he needs to try and take him down and try to got for kneebar/foot lock which Nog has proven to be succeptible to in the past. The last thing I need to see is a guy abandoning his strenght and end up embarrasing himself and his fans like Sean did against BJ i’m still wondering WTF? he was doing in that fight be smart Frank use your strenght and that’s your bjj.
I disagree. I think he’s going to have to try to box with him for a while. He thinks his boxing is much improved than it was and, despite Mir’s BJJ ability, he admits Nog has the advantage. It’s going to end up on the ground eventually and become a chess match but Mir is trying to prove to the world and to himself that he can hang with the best. To do that he needs to be able to stand with a guy known for his improved boxing skills.
i think for mir to win, he should beat him up standing. But i doubt that will happen, i think nog is a better boxer.. but who knows, maybe his “three strikes” will work. hahahaha. :)
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Dec 7, 2008 8:32 AM EST up reply actions
His objectivity is kind of shocking in comparison with most others. I remember the same thing against Lesnar. He was so friggin realistic I almost didn’t believe that he was going to be the one fighting. I like both guys, don’t mind if either one loses, or wins, but hope that they have a good fight.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. He was so realistic about the fight he seemed like an ESPN analyst rather than the person involved. I’ve never seen any athlete talk like that before and it was, to say the least, refreshing.
Remember, he also has an anouncing job with the WEC, so he can probably use that to evaluate himself.
Honestly I’m not that impressed with his announcing. I hope he improves or they get someone more interesting. Maybe it was just the last wec card ( I cant remember how he was on the ones previous), but I was less than impressed.
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