Before Frank Mir faces Mark Hunt in next week’s UFC Fight Night 85 main event, watch the former heavyweight champion’s vicious finish of Todd Duffee from last July.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir had entered 2015 without a win since submitting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 140 in 2011. Losses to Junior dos Santos, Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, and Alistair Overeem, of which none of those fights was particularly competitive, looked like it would just about end Mir’s time in the UFC. Mir finally got back in the win column by KOing Antonio Silva, setting him up for a July 15th, 2015 showdown with the one and only Todd Duffee.
You may remember Duffee as the next big thing at heavyweight in 2010, but then he ran into Mike Russow’s hammerfists of doom, and he was released shortly thereafter. Health problems set his career back significantly, but Duffee smashed Neil Grove in Super Fight League, returned to the UFC in 2012 with a KO win over Phil De Fries, then picked up another KO against Anthony Hamilton to put himself on course for a huge step up in competition.
The (incorrect) belief held by much of the BE staff was that Duffee would KO Mir, with those picking Mir going for him to win by submission. Little did we know that Mir vs. Duffee would be an all-out brawl, with Mir landing the far better shots while Duffee was swinging from the fences — the term is “swinging for the fences” but Duffee’s arms were so far back that he may as well have had his arms winding up from the cage fencing. A massive counter-left punished a criminally sloppy Duffee, who was out cold before he hit the canvas. You can watch the full fight video at the top of the page.
Here’s Tim Burke’s play-by-play of the very brief fight:
Round 1 – Both men throwing right away. Mir with two nice lefts and Duffee is stunned. But he’s right back and he hurt Mir with a left. They’re just throwing bombs! Mir with a big knee. Duffee with a jab that hurts Mir! Mir fires back with the left and Duffee is out cold! That was a street fight and it was awesome!
Frank Mir defeated Todd Duffee by KO (epic punch), 1:13 of round 1
Here’s how the Bloody Elbow community reacted to the KO:
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As exciting as Mir vs. Duffee was, Mir’s next fight was a dreadful decision loss to Andrei Arlovski, which probably (maybe?) ends any hope of him ever contending again.
Frank Mir fights Mark Hunt in the main event of UFC Fight Night Brisbane on Saturday, March 19th (Sunday, March 20th in Australia) on Fox Sports 1.