Frank Mir is relishing the opportunity to challenge for a UFC heavyweight title once again.
The 12-year veteran previously held the heavyweight strap in 2004, before vacating the title after a motorcycle accident nearly cost him his career. After earning three consecutive victories, Mir now finds himself facing current UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th.
Mir said he is honored to face a competitor of the Brazilian’s caliber, but it is only dos Santos’ boxing that he sees as his primary concern.
“Junior dos Santos is always submitting people on their feet and he’s a better boxer, but that’s all he brings to this scenario,” Mir told TATAME.com. “He may be good at Jiu-Jitsu, he can be a great wrestler, but his strongest point is Boxing, so his game plan is not to be on his punching zone so he won’t find me.”
Mir was originally slated to meet former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez that same night, however, he was put in the main event after learning dos Santos’ original challenger Alistair Overeem had failed a pre-fight drug test.
Mir said he wasn’t surprised to learn that he would replace the Dutchman and believed he was the only other contender who was worthy of challenging “Cigano.”
“I wasn’t surprised at all. Obviously I heard Dana’s version and in my mind I don’t think they’d put another person instead of me to fight Junior dos Santos,” he said. “I thought there would be a great chance I wouldn’t fight for the title, but it never happened and here I am.”
And now that Mir is competing for a title shot again, he is focused on recapturing the belt and he expects dos Santos to be ready as well.
Despite his last victory over dos Santos’ mentor and friend, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mir doesn’t believe the champion’s intention will be to avenge Nogueira’s loss. Mir fought Nogueira at UFC 141 last December and broke his arm after submitting the former PRIDE FC star in the first round.
“I guess he’s only fighting me because I’m trying to take that belt off him,” he said. “I know it would be nice for him if he could win this fight and come back having revenged his friend’s loss, but in the end of the say he will be more focused on fighting me for his own reasons, after all, he wants to remain as the champion.”
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com