Frank Mir has been with the UFC for over 10 years. That’s an amazing statistic, especially when you consider that Mir is a heavyweight. As a general rule, heavyweights don’t really have that kind of staying power.
Very few heavyweights have put together the kind of career Mir has over the past decade. He’s a multiple-time champion. He’s the only man to submit and knock out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. And despite those dark times when it seemed like Mir was nearing irrelevancy, he once again finds himself in the title picture as he replaces Alistair Overeem against Junior dos Santos next month at UFC 146.
Mir was the only logical choice to replace Overeem. Sources close to the UFC told me two weeks ago that should Overeem be pulled from his title fight, Mir would be the guy to replace him. Cain Velasquez couldn’t be put back in a title fight due to the way he lost his last bout to Dos Santos. Antonio Silva lost his last bout to Daniel Cormier. Fabricio Werdum couldn’t be ready in time, and he’s needed for the UFC’s Brazil card in June. And, despite a fan campaign that was borderline ludicrous, Mark Hunt was never an option.
Mir appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today, where he said he assumed that he would be the guy to replace Overeem:
“I just kind of did the math in my own mind,” Mir explained on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “My team around me, we all pretty much felt that if dos Santos were to stay on the card, and Overeem was not able to challenge for the title, then I was the most logical person to step in. So as we were still training for Cain (Velasquez), there was that at the back of my mind, okay, be prepared for this to happen also.”
As a replacement opponent, Mir makes sense. He has the biggest name out of the potential replacements, and he’s riding a three-fight winning streak. There’s also the storyline of dos Santos going for revenge against the guy who twice beat his mentor in Nogueira.
Mir understands fan disappointment in not being able to see Overeem gunning for the title, but he believes he still makes for a compelling opponent for the heavyweight champion:
“I still pose a very large threat to dos Santos,” Mir vowed. “I still think it’ll be an interesting cat-and-mouse game between me and Junior, because what I want to be able to impose on him, he’s going to try to avoid, and vice versa.”
Mir has a better chance of winning the heavyweight title than most people are giving him. He obviously has the kind of submission game that makes him a threat on the ground, and Dos Santos will want to avoid the takedown at all costs. If the fight stays standing, Dos Santos should have a boxing advantage, but we have seen Mir drastically improve his kickboxing game over the past two years.
Yeah, we all wanted to see Overeem. But this was the right choice when you consider the controversy surrounding Overeem at the moment.
Dos Santos vs. Mir will still be a compelling fight.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com