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UFC on Fox 7: Frank Mir Very Happy with Permanent Change to Jackson’s MMA

Frank Mir will always claim Las Vegas as his own but the former UFC heavyweight champion seems to have found a new home in the weeks leading up to his UFC on Fox 7 clash against Daniel Cormier.Mir spoke to the Las Vegas Sun about his recent move t…

Frank Mir will always claim Las Vegas as his own but the former UFC heavyweight champion seems to have found a new home in the weeks leading up to his UFC on Fox 7 clash against Daniel Cormier.

Mir spoke to the Las Vegas Sun about his recent move to Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque and the benefits it has provided.

“Having a bigger depth of talent to work with in the gym every day and bouncing ideas off of them was great,” Mir said. “Misery enjoys company, and having all these other world-class fighters in the gym made it all go a little faster.”

Don’t be surprised if you see a different Mir in the Octagon against Cormier. After all, one would expect Mir’s game to rise given the level of talent he’s training with now. The former UFC champ has said he’s sparred with Jon Jones, Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne all on the same day.

It’s not just the great training partners Mir works with that help improve his game either.

“And having guys like Donald Cerrone sitting outside of the cage when I’m with those guys and giving me pointers and tips was a great help,” Mir said. “Everyone, in my eyes, was a great help.”

Mir will need all the help he can get as Cormier has looked great thus far into his MMA career. After competing with the United States’ Olympic wrestling team, Cormier has won all of his MMA bouts thus far and has finished five of them before the final bell.

His last performance against Josh Barnett was particularly telling as Cormier simply dominated the former UFC champion including a highlight reel worthy slam.

Regardless of the outcome in his fight, Mir believes he’ll travel to Jackson’s MMA again for his next contest.

“It will be a permanent move,” Mir said. “I think a lot of people would say, if I lose I wouldn’t consider the move to be justified, but I don’t agree — it was a great experience and I’ll be back to do it again.”

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Frank Mir Believes Brock Lesnar Could Have Dominated in UFC If Not for Illness

If Brock Lesnar never got sick, Frank Mir believes his UFC career would’ve ended much differently.The former UFC heavyweight champ was forced into early retirement after being diagnosed with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder.Since his exit from th…

If Brock Lesnar never got sick, Frank Mir believes his UFC career would’ve ended much differently.

The former UFC heavyweight champ was forced into early retirement after being diagnosed with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder.

Since his exit from the UFC, Lesnar has returned to his old stomping grounds at World Wrestling Entertainment in search of a safer way to compete and still make a living.

It has been over a year since Lesnar officially announced his retirement from MMA, and Mir can’t help but ponder the vast amount of untapped potential Lesnar left on the table.

“Honestly, I think the guy got so ill, he just couldn’t do it anymore,” Mir said in an interview with the New York Post. “He had to leave or his quality of life wouldn’t have been normal.”

Lesnar burst onto the scene in the UFC with only one professional fight to his name. In his debut, he was paired against Mir, a bona fide MMA legend and future UFC Hall of Famer. He dominated Mir in the early going before being submitted with a kneebar.

After the loss, Lesnar skyrocketed to the top of the heavyweight ranks by defeating Heath Herring and Randy Couture for the UFC title. The much anticipated rematch between Mir and Lesnar served as the main event for UFC 100.

The bout played out similarly as the original, but this time the outcome was different. There weren’t any submissions to save Mir from a lopsided thrashing handed down by Lesnar‘s lunchbox-size fists.

Looking back, Mir is convinced the Lesnar that fought him that night wasn’t the same fighter from then onward.

“We didn’t get to see the Brock I fought. Had he not been ill, things would have been different,” said Mir.

Not long after the fight, Lesnar was diagnosed with diverticulitis and forced to undergo major intestinal surgery. He returned a year later to defend his UFC title against Shane Carwin. After getting dominated early in the fight, Lesnar rallied in the second round with a submission win.

The amazing come-from-behind victory would be Lesnar‘s last in the UFC.

He went on to lose his next two bouts to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem by first-round TKO stoppages. Before his final UFC bout with Overeem, Lesnar suffered a second case of diverticulitis, which required doctors to remove 12 inches of his colon.

It was an unfortunate way to see a promising career end. As a former NCAA Division I college wrestling champ and a freak athlete, Lesnar had the potential to do great things in MMA.

The heavyweight division is deeper than ever, but even now, Mir believes the old Lesnar would be among the best.

“The old Brock, I don’t think I would have been too far off,” Mir said.

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Frank Mir vs. Daniel Cormier Head-to-Toe Breakdown

Daniel Cormier will make his UFC debut this Saturday on FOX, and he will step right in to the deep end of the pool against former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.Mir has been out of action since suffering a defeat to then champion Junior dos Santos …

Daniel Cormier will make his UFC debut this Saturday on FOX, and he will step right in to the deep end of the pool against former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.

Mir has been out of action since suffering a defeat to then champion Junior dos Santos last May. Time off and a change of camp to Jackson’s MMA will try to put him back on the map this Saturday.

This is a premier fight in the heavyweight division. Two elite heavyweights. Cormier will try and make a case for a title shot in his next bout, and Mir wants to play spoiler and upset the rising prospect. This fight can go any number of ways.

This is a head-to-toe breakdown of the fight before Saturday’s action gets underway.

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Frank Mir: ‘Cormier Is in the Wrong Weight Class and I Have to Help Him Out’

Frank Mir plans on doing a little education at UFC on Fox 7. The former UFC champ plans on educating Daniel Cormier not only in the Octagon, but also by letting Cormier know what weight class he belongs in.Mir spoke to Sherdog about his upcoming fight …

Mir spoke to Sherdog about his upcoming fight with Cormier and, as usual, didn’t show the slightest drop in confidence.

“I think he’s in the wrong weight class,” Mir said. “So far he’s been successful at it, so it’s one of those things that I have to help him out with and show him this isn’t the weight class for him and he can drop to 205.”

Cormier has hinted in the past at dropping to light heavyweight, but he seems perfectly fine with taking out another former UFC champion prior to making any changes in weight. Dropping to light heavyweight has always been a discussion point with fans, as Cormier is routinely the smaller man in the cage.

Yet, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner has managed to use his lack of size to an advantage, focusing on speed and precision.

Cormier will be the smaller man once more as he takes on Mir, who has tipped the scales at 265 pounds in the past and completely changed his physique following the loss to Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. However, Mir doesn’t believe his weight will be his biggest advantage at UFC on Fox 7.

“Size won’t matter as much as I think reach is more important; my reach is 79 inches,” Mir said.

By comparison, Cormier‘s reach comes in at 71 inches. Along with the four inches of height advantage for Mir, Cormier will certainly look to get inside.

Even though Mir believes size won’t be the be-all and end-all difference in the fight, the former UFC champion does think it will wear Cormier down.

“If he wants to throw me around, he’s going to do that to someone who outweighs him by 40 pounds…Moving around with a guy bigger than you is very fatiguing.”

However, Cormier isn’t just a one-trick pony with his wrestling. We’ve seen his stand-up prove dramatically and he even owns a TKO over Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Still, Mir isn’t intimidated by the fight being contested on the feet.

I think his striking looks the way it does because he’s not afraid of being taken down…If he wants to strike, I’ll out-strike him on the feet; I’m not worried about the takedown. I’ve already acknowledged he’s a better wrestler than me. So if he takes me down, I’m a better jiu-jitsu guy, so I’ll just break his arm.

Mir continued with the grappling talk, believing that he has more room for error than his opponent.

“If I make a mistake, he picks me up and slams me; that’s one thing. If he makes a mistake, you know he’s visiting an orthodontist to fix his arm.”

Well, I don’t know if Cormier has any dental issues, but at least Mir gave it his all in the latest round of trash talk between these two.

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[VIDEO] UFC on Fox 7: Melendez vs. Henderson — ‘Road to the Octagon’ Preview Show

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

It’s as simple as this — Saturday’s UFC on Fox 7: Henderson vs. Melendez card features top-ranked fighters and heavy stakes. As such, we love getting a lil’ something extra in anticipation of it. This UFC on Fox 7: Road to the Octagon documentary gives us just that, including behind-the-scenes footage with Benson Henderson (competing at a Jiu Jitsu tournament with his mom, working out with the NFL’s Larry Fitzgerald), Gilbert Melendez (at home and at work with his ex-fighter fiance and business partner, chilling with his tight-knit ‘Skrap Pack’), Frank Mir (crying, and on a flight to New Mexico to conduct the first training camp of his career away from his wife and twenty kids) and more pre-fight action from Josh Thomson, Nate Diaz, and Daniel Cormier.

It’s a good way to waste your lunch hour today — better, at least, than talking to that weird guy at the office who always just eats a can of soup for lunch, like, every day. (Seriously? Get some protein in there, you’re a grown ass man.) Anyway, watch it and tune in Saturday. It’s free, so you’ve got no excuse not to, fight fans.

–Elias Cepeda

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

–Elias Cepeda

Daniel Cormier on Frank Mir Fight: ‘I’m Not Going to Fight with Emotion’

If you ever wanted a real life example of someone making the best of the opportunities presented to them, look no further than Daniel Cormier. Two years ago, Cormier was fighting on Strikeforce Challenger Series fight cards. Now on April 20, Cormier will make his UFC debut in the co-main event of the UFC on Fox 7 fight card, facing former UFC champion Frank Mir, all because he took an opportunity and made the most of it.

When the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix began in February 2011, Cormier was not one of the fighters selected to participate. In fact, he wasn’t even one of the alternates named to the event.

An injury to Shane Del Rosario and the promotion’s release of Alistair Overeem opened the door for Cormier. Instead of just peaking around the corner of that door, he kicked it wide open, knocking out Antonio Silva in the semifinals of the tournament and then going on to win the Grand Prix with a victory over former UFC champion Josh Barnett.

One additional fight later, a TKO over Dion Staring, and Cormier stands at 11-0 and is hearing his name mentioned as a possible future UFC champion in either the heavyweight or light heavyweight division. The road toward that goal will begin in San Jose when he meets Mir.

The two fighters have exchanged some trash talk in the time leading up to the fight, with Cormier telling Bleacher Report: “Frank Mir says I can’t finish fights? Okay that’s fine. My intention in this fight is not to finish Frank Mir. I’m going beat up on Frank Mir for 15 minutes and I’m going to make him stay in that cage with me. If Frank Mir gets finished, it will be because he quit.”

Mir’s retort to Cormier, via MMAFighting, was “if he makes a mistake, then I’ll take one of his limbs home.”

Cormier feels the trash talk is all for naught, that it doesn’t really mean anything, “I’m not going to fight with emotion. There’s not going to be anything that Frank could ever say that’s going to make me fight a fight that’s more dangerous. I’ve stated time and time again that I think that there is only a select few individuals that can take the beatings that Frank has taken and still continue to be the way he is. I’m going to go out there and fight my fight”

As for the words of Mir, Cormier said, “I’m hoping it’s promotion, because if that’s the way his mind works that’s very disturbing.”

When talk of pursuing the light heavyweight title came up, Cormier said, “I’ve got such an important fight on my hands in this the next one, I’ve kind of strayed away from that thought process. I’m not really thinking about the 205-pound division right now. I’ve stated time and time again that I want to be the UFC champion and if that means going down to the weight below, then I would do that. But I have the toughest fight of my career in front of me in two weeks and I can’t focus on that right now. I’m confident that I can make the weight, but right now my sole focus is on Frank Mir and once we get past Frank Mir we can talk about that stuff.”

If Cormier does get past Mir, you can guarantee that one of the first questions he’s asked will be what’s next for him, as current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is a good friend and training partner of his. But like Cormier said, he first has to pass the test that Mir will present in San Jose.

**All quotes obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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