Frank Mir

Biography

Frank Mir was born on 24h May 1979 in

Las Vegas

Nevada. His fighting skills consist of Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Frank made his debut in the

MMA

fight scene on July 14th 2001 against Jerome Smith. He made his

UFC

debut on November 2nd 2001 against Roberto Traven, winning by submission (armbar). His submission technique would be classed as one of the best in the heavyweight division as for a heavyweight fighter he was amazingly agile, and could take his opponent down and quickly submit him with various different types of submissions.

His fastest win in the UFC was against the UFC legend, Tank Abbott. He made Abbott tap within 46 seconds in the first round. After the Tank Abbott fight he was going to fight his next oppenent Wes Sims a newcomer to he UFC. During the fight Frank had Wes in an armbar posiion and Wes tried to escape from that by lifting him up and dropping him on his head. After doing so he started to stomp Frank until the referee stopped the fight. Resulting in Frank winning the match by disqualification, as stomping your opponent's head while on the ground is illegal.

Frank Mir got his oppurtunity for the heavyweight title at UFC 48 against the former champion

Tim Sylvia

. The match started with Tim taking down Frank and then Frank started to put a submission on him. The submission was an armbar, which can be escaped from by lifing your oppenent and slaming him on the ground. Tim went to do that but Frank put so much force in the armbar that he broke Tims arm and the referee

Herb Dean

called for the match to be stopped. After becoming the World Champion, he never had the opportunity to defend his title due to a motorcycle accident. Afer holding onto the title for 14 months he was stripped of it by the UFC president Dana White

.

When Frank was recovering from the accident an interim title was made so that he heavyweight division could continue. So after returning to the UFC and geting a few fight under his belt he went to challenge he UFC interim champion,

Antonio Nogueira

. The winner would eventually get a shot at the heavyweight title which was being contested by

Brock Lesnar

and

Randy Couture

. Frank Mir went on to win the interim title by TKO, resulting in a first loss for Nogueira by TKO. Brock Lesnar managed to win his fight with Couture and the stage was set for Mir vs Lesnar 2.

These two men had fought before, when Brock was making his UFC debut. That fight was being hyped greatly because the fans wanted to know if a former

WWE

wrestler could compete in the UFC. The fight took place at UFC 81 with Frank Mir winning via kneebar after Brock had made a stellar start to the fight. In this fight Brock was the heavyweight champion and was seen as a more legitimate opponent with a decent level of experience to take on Mir. So in the fight at UFC 100 Frank Mir went on to lose to Brock via TKO, as the much bigger Lesnar proved to have much more strength than Mir. This meant that interim and heavyweight title were unified to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight title.

MMA Career

Franks record stands at 13 wins and 5 losses. 8 of those by the way of submission.

Shane Carwin

- Loss at UFC 111, March 27, 2010

Cheick Kongo

- Win at UFC 107, December 12, 2009

Brock Lesnar

- Loss at UFC 100, July 11th 2009

Antonio Nogueira

- Win at UFC 92, Dec 27th 2008 ( Won Interim title)

Brock Lesnar

- Win at UFC 81, Feb 2nd 2008

Antoni Hardonk

- Win at UFC 74, Aug 25 2007

Brandon Vera

- Loss at UFC 65, Nov 18th 2006

Dan Christison - Win at UFC 61, July 8th 2008

Marcio Cruz - Loss at UFC 57, Feb 4th 2006

Tim Sylvia

- Win at UFC 48, June 19th 2004 ( Won vacant UFC Heavyweight title)

Wes Sims - Win at UFC 46, Jan 31st 2004

Wes Sims - Win at UFC 43, June 6th 2003

Tank Abbott - Win at UFC 41, Feb 28th 2003

Ian Freeman - Loss at UFC 38, July 13th 2002

Pete Williams - Win at UFC 36, March 22nd 2002

Roberto Traven - Win at UFC 34, Nov 2nd 2001

Dan Quinn - Win at IFC 15, Aug 31st 2001

Jerome Smith - Win at HooknShoot, July 14th 2001

Stats

Tale of the Tape

• Height: 6'3
• Weight: 240 lbs
• Reach: 79"

Other

• Born: Las Vegas, NV
• Fighting out of: Last Vegas, NV
• MMA Record: 13-4-0
• Weight Division: Heavyweight (265)

Trivia

• In September 2004, Mir was in a devestating motorcycle accident, significantly injuring his knee. He returned to the UFC in Febuary 2006.
• Mir was stripped of his UFC Heavyweight title during his time off because of his accident, the title was given to Andrei Arlovski.
• Mir, along with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, was a head coach for the eight season of the Spike TV show The Ultimate Fighter.