Dana White Won’t Confirm Mir vs. Overeem as Loser-Leaves-Town Bout at UFC 169

UFC heavyweights Frank Mir and Alistair Overeem are a combined 1-5 in their past six bouts, but according to UFC president Dana White, their UFC 169 encounter may not have their jobs on the line. 
At the UFC 169 media scrum, White refused to say e…

UFC heavyweights Frank Mir and Alistair Overeem are a combined 1-5 in their past six bouts, but according to UFC president Dana White, their UFC 169 encounter may not have their jobs on the line. 

At the UFC 169 media scrum, White refused to say either fighter would be cut from the promotion with a loss, according to MMA Weekly’s Erik Fontanez:

Mir, a former UFC heavyweight champion, has fought an incredible 22 of his 24 professional fights inside the Octagon and is one of the most respected veterans in the sport. 

With that being said, he has lost three in a row to top-tier talent in Junior dos Santos, Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett, and none of the bouts were particularly competitive. 

He got his shot at JDS, the heavyweight champ at the time, at UFC 146 in May 2012 after Overeem failed a pre-fight drug test for elevated levels of testosterone, per MMA Junkie. 

Prior to coming up short in the title bout, Mir had won three in a row, including a “Submission of the Year” performance when he broke fellow decorated grappler Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm with a kimura at UFC 140 in December 2011. 

As for “The Reem,” the hulking heavyweight improved his unbeaten streak to 12 in a row when he TKO’ed ex-UFC champ Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 in December 2011. 

However, since then, the Overeem hype train has derailed, as he has suffered two devastating knockouts since returning from his suspension for the aforementioned failed drug test.

“The Demolition Man” was well in control of his bouts with Antonio Silva at UFC 156 and Travis Browne at UFC Fight Night 26, respectively, but he ended up on the wrong end of come-from-behind KOs on both occasions.

Fighters remaining on the UFC roster after four consecutive losses are quite rare, though Dan Hardy and Yoshihiro Akiyama are recent examples to show that it is possible. 

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com