Frank Mir
Template:MMAstatsbox Francisco Santos "Frank" Mir III (born May 24, 1979 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is a former heavyweight champion. He also serves as a fight commentator for World Extreme Cagefighting.
Biography
Born into a martial arts family, a young Mur learned the basics of combat from his parent's Kenpō karate school in Las Vegas. He witnessed the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 1: The Beginning, which was held on November 12 1993 in Denver, Colorado. When watching this PPV event, he was not yet convinced of the benefits in learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: "I was fourteen watching the first UFC with my father and everyone was getting taken down and choked out by this scrawny Royce Gracie. I could not believe it was happening! My dad wanted to learn what they were doing right off the bat, but I defended what I already knew. I thought I could adjust for it. I felt I could defend against jiu-jitsu instead of being humble and trying to learn it." His father convinced him to begin wrestling, on the basis that it could help him avoid submissions. However, "I was covering up a weakness rather than fixing one," Mur suggested.
Despite losing his first seven wrestling matches, Mur went on to win the state heavyweight wrestling title in 1998.
MMA career
Mur met UFC matchmaker Joe Silva at a school Silva was visiting. Silva saw potential in Mur as a future UFC fighter and suggested that he first prove himself against some fighters in the mixed martial arts community. Mur would make his professional MMA debut against Jerome Smith at HOOKnSHOOT: Showdown on July 14, 2001. Mur won the bout by judges' decision after two rounds. He won another match by submission at IFC Warriors Challenge 15. After these events, Silva proposed a match up between Mir and Roberto Travern, a new UFC fighter; Mir accepted the offer.
Mur defeated Roberto Travern by armbar at 1:05 of round one at UFC 34: High Voltage on November 2, 2001. The submission earned Mir the "Tapout of the Night" award.
He faced Ian Freeman, at UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall, held in London, England on July 13, 2002. Despite several leglock attempts by Mir, Freeman achieved side control at around four minutes into the first round, landing numerous elbows and punches on Mir's head. After Freeman separated, the referee signaled an exhausted Mir to stand back up. A time out was called due to an apparent cut on Mir's face, and the referee stopped the fight when a wobbly Mir had difficulty standing up.
FRANK MURRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!
Heavyweight champion
On June 19 2004, Mir faced Tim Sylvia for the vacant UFC heavyweight title at UFC 48: Payback. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight at 50 seconds into the first round when Mir's armbar visibly broke Sylvia's right forearm. With this TKO win, Mir became the new UFC heavyweight champion.
Motorcycle injury
On 17 September, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. The accident caused a break in Mir's femur and tore all the ligaments in his knee. The bone had broken in two places but the injury did not end Mir's career as a fighter. Major surgery was needed to repair the bone in his leg.[1]
An interim heavyweight title was created whilst Mir was recovering from the injury, which Andrei Arlovski won. On August 12, 2005, UFC learned that Mir was not able to fight Andrei Arlovski in October as scheduled, thus Mir was stripped of the title after 14 months, and Arlovski was promoted to the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.[2]
Return to the UFC
Mir recovered from his motorcycle accident and fought Márcio Cruz at UFC 57: Liddell vs. Couture 3 on February 4, 2006. In a shocking upset, Mir was defeated by the relative newcomer in the first round by TKO due to strikes. Initially, referee Herb Dean called for a break to check a large cut on Mir's face. Mir was given the opportunity to continue, and did so.
Mir returned to the Octagon on July 8, 2006 at UFC 61: Bitter Rivals and faced Dan Christison. Mir had gained a considerable amount of weight since his last appearance and quickly became exhausted. Mir won by unanimous decision after three rounds, the judges all scored the bout 29-28. Mir next faced Brandon Vera at UFC 65: Bad Intentions. Mir was unable to mount any significant offense against Vera, and lost by TKO at 1:09 of the first round.
Frank Mir was scheduled to fight Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9 on April 5, 2007, but had to drop out due to a shoulder injury.[3]
Mir fought Renato Sobral in a special submission grappling superfight at a Tuff-N-Uff event named "Unarmed Combat" that had a six minute time limit on June 22 2007. Sobral won the bout by points (6-2).[4]
Mir fought Antoni Hardonk at UFC 74 and won via kimura in 1:17 of the first round. [5]
Mir fought COCK CHESNAR at UFC 81 on February 2, 2008. Early in the first round, Lesnar took Mir down and, while striking from Mir's guard, landed an illegal punch to the back of Mir's head, drawing a foul and a one-point deduction from referee Steve Mazzagatti.[6] They were stood up and Mir was given a brief recovery period, but Lesnar quickly took Mir down again. When Lesnar escaped an armbar attempt, Mir caught him with a kneebar, causing Lesnar to tap out at 1:30 of the first round.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 8
Spike TV on May 12, 2008 announced that the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former champion Frank Mir would be the coaches for the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
The season, which premiered on Spike TV on Sept. 17, returned to the two-weight class format. It featured light heavyweight and lightweight fighters. Production on season eight began in late May, with the entire cast announced in September.
Nogueira and Mir, after serving as coaches, met at UFC 92 for Nogueira's UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship. The fight took place December 27th in Las Vegas, Mir's home town.[7]
Personal life
Frank is married and has three children.[8] [9]
MMA record
| 14 matches | 11 wins | 3 losses |
| By knockout | 1 | 3 |
| By submission | 7 | 0 |
| By decision | 2 | 0 |
See also
References
- ^ "Mir's Motorcycle Injury". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ "Mir Stripped of the Title". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ "Mir's Shoulder Injury". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ "Mir vs. Sobral". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ UFC 74 "Respect" Play-by-Play
- ^ Stupp, Dann (2008-02-05). "Referee Steve Mazzagatti Discusses Lesnar-Mir Fight -- An MMAjunkie.com Interview". MMA Junkie. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ "Mir as a coach for TUF 8". Retrieved 2008-05-12.
- ^ Today Frank Mir continues to train and spend his time with his wife and three kids in his hometown of Las Vegas.
- ^ "The couple's daughter (Isabella, 4) and son (Kage, 2) often attend his training sessions with Jen and her son Marcus (15), whom Mir helps raise and is in the process of formally adopting.]".