It’s an end of an era in the UFC’s heavyweight division. Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir had been put on the sidelines when he was given a PED suspension from USADA a while back. Since then, he had been asking for his release from the UFC.
After a year of asking for it, the UFC finally granted his wish and gave him his release. Mir announced the news on his Twitter account and explained what happened on his Phone Booth Fighting podcast (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow).
He mentioned that he had to give in a little bit though as he won’t be able to fight until his USADA suspension is officially over, which is April of 2018.
I have been granted my release from #UFC -I just posted this episode of my @phoneboothfight podcast talking details: https://t.co/5LwBmNwypx
— Frank Mir (@thefrankmir) July 8, 2017
“Now officially I’m no longer apart of the UFC. I finally have my release, it’s official. They put a couple of little contingencies in there. Basically, because USADA is not able to regulate or has no ability to do anything outside of the authority of the UFC, they knew that once I was released technically, I could go do whatever I want.”
“So part of me not having to drag this battle out was I made a concession that I would wait until April, which is when the suspension would’ve ended anyway, to start fighting. Basically not to give a big f—k you to USADA I guess.”
Mir admitted that he already has a “foot in the door” for doing color commentary for the ACB promotion in Russia. However, he made it clear that he hadn’t come to terms with any promotion to fight as of yet.
Mir, who holds a pro-MMA record of 18-11, had been with the organization for 16 years and won the UFC heavyweight championship in 2004. He also won an interim title in 2008. Mir had a rough stretch as of late in his career as he was just 2-6 in his last eight bouts dating back to 2012 and lasted competed in March of 2016 when he lost to Mark Hunt. As of a result of a failed drug test for that fight, he was issued a two-year suspension by USADA after testing positive for turinabol.
It will be very interesting to see which promotion he signs with next. Time will tell.
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