MMAmania.com resident fighter analyst — and aspiring professional fighter — Andrew Richardson breaks down the mixed martial arts (MMA) game of UFC Fight Night 85 headliner Frank Mir, who looks to return to the win column this Saturday (March 19, 2016) inside Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Australia.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strap-hanger, Frank Mir, takes on kickboxing veteran and knockout artist, Mark Hunt, this Saturday (March 19, 2016) at UFC Fight Night 85 inside Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Australia.
Returning from a year-long layoff, Mir had a surprisingly strong 2015. The 36-year-old won two of three fights inside the Octagon — with his sole loss coming via close decision to top contender Andrei Arlovski — and showed a bit of renewed energy.
Now, Mir looks to return from that loss and jump back into the win column. If he can pull it off, Mir is still relevant to today’s Heavyweight title picture, as astounding as that may seem.
Let’s take a closer look at the former champion’s skill set:
Striking
Mir has always been a dangerous, albeit inconsistent, striker. Since his resurgence, Mir has spent a lot of time improving upon his striking and focusing on the technical aspect. Most notably, Mir now largely works out of the Southpaw stance, and it’s gone rather well for him.
The biggest benefit of Mir’s switch to Southpaw has likely been his improved lead hand. His jab and right hook are harder than ever, which helps him maintain a bit more distance and deters his foe from rushing him with power shots. Most notably, Mir shut off the lights of Antonio Silva with a beautiful right hook off the jab (GIF).
On the whole, Mir seems to be relying and building on his karate background more than ever. From the outside, he bounces around before stepping forward with quick, straight punches. Afterward, he’ll retreat back to range and attempt to avoid any counter shots.
Mir has never been the most durable fighter — a tough quality to find in most Heavyweights — so it’s a smart strategy to avoid exchanges and focus on speed.
In his last two bouts, Mir also showed an improved counter striking game. That wasn’t true early on in his fight with Todd Duffee, as Mir really had something to prove and tried to beat Duffee at his own game early in a wild brawl. However, as Mir relaxed and began to reign his attack back in, he quickly found an opportunity to counter when Duffee badly overextended himself (GIF).
In addition, a large part of Mir’s game plan in the Arlovski fight revolved around countering Arlovski’s attempts to rush forward. While neither man was truly effective in implementing their strategy, Mir’s counter punches did cause Arlovski to hesitate a fair bit. Plus, Mir did a very nice job slipping the right hand, Arlovski’s primary threat, while looking for his counter shots (GIF).
Continuing with the karate influence on his attack, Mir is more active with his kicks. While he’ll occasionally step hard into a body kick — one of which clearly affected Cormier a couple years back — he’s largely been shooting out fast kicks without much of a step.
Additionally, Mir is throwing a wider variety of kicks. He’s occasionally throwing kicks off his lead leg and even attacked with a side kick against Overeem. He’ll also follow up these kicks with combinations of quick punches.
Mir has never been a difficult fighter to hit. His head movement simply isn’t great, nor is Mir athletic or tough enough to survive the hard punches that get through. Furthermore, Mir has long had trouble with opponents looking to manhandle him in the clinch. From that position, he’s not the biggest offensive threat except for rare occasions, so opponents have simply bum rushed into the clinch and punished him before.
Wrestling
Mir was a successful wrestler in high school, and his takedowns have always been decent inside the Octagon. He’s not exceptionally powerful or slick, but Mir usually manages to get his opponents to the mat at least once or twice.
That’s usually all he needs.
The Nevada native’s best takedowns come from inside the clinch. While he usually looks for basic trips, Mir broke out some Judo against Roy Nelson. As “Big Country” looked to pressure Mir into the fence, Mir turned the big man’s underhooks against him. By pressuring on his overhook, Mir could step across Nelson’s body and toss him through the air.
In addition, Mir will also shoot for takedowns, and he’s decent with both the single and double leg takedown. Recently, Mir was successful with his single against Arlovski, dumping the former champion to the mat a couple of times.
More often, Mir relies on the double leg takedown. The best recent example came against Alistair Overeem. Mir actually timed one of his shots very well, catching “The Demolition Man” with his feet out of position and dragging him down to the mat.
Otherwise, Mir likes to pin his opponent against the fence and work from there. Since he’s generally not the quickest fighter, this helps eliminate that disadvantage.
Defensively, Mir has never really had a problem defending takedowns, in large part due to the fact that no one wants to grapple with him. Outside of Brock Lesnar, no one has taken Mir down since Marcio Cruz way back in 2006, according to Fightmetric.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Mir is one of the best submission artists in UFC history. He not only possesses some smooth technique, but he’s also known for simply cranking on any limb he can get his hands on and snapping something, regardless of whether or not the submission is fully locked in.
Jiu-jitsu isn’t always the gentle art, as Mir makes the most of his considerable size and strength.
From his back, Mir likes to keep his guard open and put his feet on his opponent’s hips. This allows him to spin around his foe and create angles. Similarly, if his opponent is standing above him, Mir will grab on to a foot before rolling under in pursuit of foot locks or sweeps.
For example, Mir did an excellent job of disarming Tim Sylvia in the bout that won him the undisputed title. Sylvia placed his arm on the mat when he took Mir down, which allowed the jiu-jitsu black belt to overhook his arm and trap it. From there, Mir unlocked his guard and swiveled his hips, pushing off the fence to further get the correct angle.
Once his hips were in the right position, Mir threw his leg across Sylvia’s face. Now, here’s where — in classic Mir fashion — it gets ugly. Despite that slick set up, Sylvia was able to shrink his arm a bit, which got his elbow out of correct position and loosened the pressure of Mir’s legs on his head. In short, Sylvia put himself in a position that causes the vast majority of armbars to fail, and he probably should’ve been able to escape.
However, Mir did not loosen up the pressure in the least and clung to his foe’s arm like his life depended on it.
As it turned out, Mir still held enough of Sylvia’s arm to pop his arm in unpleasant fashion, earning Mir his world championship. No part of the arm is meant to be bent in that direction, which Mir showed by breaking his opponent’s radius rather than elbow (GIF).
In another example, Mir handed Lesnar his first professional loss. After Lesnar softened Mir up a bit from top position, he stood over Mir’s guard. Mir again rotated his hips, first away from Lesnar. Then, he brought his legs back toward the monstrous wrestler, reaping his knee and knocking Lesnar off-balance.
In an attempt to escape Mir’s clutches, Lesnar turned away and looked to pull out. Because of this, Mir switched to a kneebar… except most of Lesnar’s knee was out of the hold. Just like the Sylvia armbar, Mir ignored that pivotal fact and hipped in hard anyway, forcing Lesnar to submit (GIF).
Again, Lesnar probably should’ve been able to escape, but is it really worth it to play chicken with Mir when he’s doing his best to rip off a limb?
While on the ground, Mir is constantly looking for openings. He stays very relaxed on the mat, which is the cause of some of his greatest victories and most brutal defeats. Even when taking damage, Mir is utterly calm and ready to strike.
The best example of a positive result from this mentality is Mir’s incredible comeback against Nogueira. After being badly rocked by punches, Mir kept his cool and was ready to counter attack when Nogueira looked for his trademark sit out.
First, Nogueira dropped onto a guillotine and pulled guard. In a scramble, Mir landed on top but his Brazilian foe was still in on his legs. Nogueira attempted to do a sit out, which he used very successfully across his entire career. Instead, Mir pinned down Nogueira’s wrist and locked in the kimura grip.
After securing the grip, Mir jumped across Nogueira, firmly establishing his top position. From there, he began cranking on the shoulder lock, but Nogueira resisted, eventually resulting in a torn shoulder (GIF). Had Mir failed to keep his wits about him under fire, this submission would never have presented itself.
On the other hand, Mir’s comfort on the bottom got him hurt badly against Brock Lesnar. With the massive wrestler atop him, Mir probably should have been a bit more focused on his defense. Instead, he stayed rather calm, which allowed Lesnar to pin one of Mir’s arms behind his back. Mir was trapped, and he suffered some brutal ground strikes en route to a knockout loss for his calm demeanor.
Conclusion
Mir is a former champion and likely future Hall of Fame member. However, he’s also showed some improvement and the spark of a fighter looking to emerge as a legitimate contender again, meaning he still has goals in the sport. If those goals involve the title, Mir cannot afford this loss and will likely need to return to his grappling roots here. Otherwise, he faces an very uphill battle on the feet against a hard-hitting, durable and crafty veteran.
*****
Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt, is an undefeated amateur fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.