Frank Mir

MMA Live Episode Fourteen

From ESPN, here’s this week’s installment of MMA Live with Jon Anik, Kenny Florian, Frank Mir, and Franklin McNeil.

In related news, ESPN has told MMA Junkie that despite reports stating that the network was considering moving MMA Live to television, there are “no current plans for it to appear on any ESPN television networks in the future.” Bummer.

MMA Live Episode Thirteen

From ESPN, here’s this week’s installment of MMA Live with Jon Anik, Franklin McNeil, and special guest Frank Mir as usual analyst Kenny Florian is off preparing for his upcoming lightweight bout against Roger Huerta at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy this weekend.

MMA Live Episode Twelve

From ESPN, here’s this week’s installment of MMA Live with Jon Anik, Franklin McNeil, and special guest Frank Mir as usual analyst Kenny Florian is off preparing for his upcoming lightweight bout against Roger Huerta at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy next weekend.

MMA Live Episode Eleven

From ESPN, here’s this week’s installment of MMA Live with Jon Anik, Franklin McNeil, and special guest Frank Mir as usual analyst Kenny Florian is off preparing for his upcoming lightweight bout against Roger Huerta at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy next month.

Mir, Nogueira Tapped as Coaches for “TUF 8”

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Frank Mir and the organization’s current interim title holder, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, have been selected to serve as the coaches for the upcoming eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”.

SpikeTV officials confirmed the previously rumored news this afternoon in a press release sent out to the media.

Mir will try to continue a successful road back from a near career-ending motorcycle accident when he takes on Nogueira at the conclusion of the show, which will begin taping later this week. He was originally slated to take on Team Punishment member Justin McCully in July, but was abruptly removed from the card once the UFC decided to use him on the popular reality show.

Mir is now riding a wave of two straight impressive performances. He slowly crept back into title contention after his submission win over former professional wrestler turned mixed martial artist Brock Lesnar at UFC 81: Breaking Point in February.

Meanwhile Nogueira became the first mixed martial artist in history to hold championship gold inside the confines of both the UFC and PRIDE Fighting Championships as he submitted former two-time champion Tim Sylvia to win the interim UFC heavyweight belt in February as well. With current champion Randy Couture all but finished with the promotion, the winner of the showdown with Mir later this year will almost surely become the sole title holder.

Mir has already made it known that he’d love to be a coach during a future season of the show and he’ll get his chance now. He wanted it to lead to a rematch with Tim Sylvia, but now that the Miletich Fighting Systems product has been released from the UFC, that won’t be happening anytime soon.

His fight with Nogueira will pit two of the world’s top heavyweight grapplers against each other. While Mir might be marketable because of his win over Lesnar and WEC color commentating job, casual fans aren’t all that familiar with Nogueira, who has only fought twice inside the promotion. It could be the making of a potential negative hit to ratings but rumor has it that the UFC has a plan to showcase the Brazilian and expose his personality to fans.

The winter season will mark the first time that the reality show has ever featured two heavyweights as coaches. It will also return to the show’s original format of featuring two separate weight classes - eight lightweights and light heavyweights (155 lbs and 205 lbs) will compete for the coveted six-figure UFC contract. The cast is expected to be announced sometime in September.

Source: Nogueira, Mir Tapped as Coaches for TUF 8 (Updated)

Update 1:30 PM ET: MMAJunkie is reporting that according to a source from the show itself, the coaches have not been chosen yet.  However, while the coaches have not been picked, Big Nog and Mir are among the finalists for the coaching slots. - Bill Reger

Frank Mir has already made it known that he’d love to be a coach during a future season of “The Ultimate Fighter”. He wanted it to lead to a rematch with Tim Sylvia, but now that the Miletich Fighting Systems product has been released from the UFC, it looks like it isn’t going to happen, at least with Sylvia as his counterpart.

According to a report from our friends at Cage Potato citing an unidentified source, Mir has been tapped to serve as one of the coaches for the eighth season of the show along with current interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

It will be the first time that the reality show has ever featured two heavyweights as coaches. While it seems that Nogueira would ultimately defend his belt against Mir at the conclusion of the show, Mir is currently scheduled to face McCully in July. Filming for the show apparently starts in June.

Sam Caplan also points out that Mir and Nogueira aren’t exactly the most personable fighters to ever coach the show and I’d tend to agree. While Mir might be marketable because of his Lesnar win and WEC color commentating job, fans outside of the hardcores aren’t all that familar with Nogueira. It could be the making of a potential negative hit to ratings.

UFC Announces Three Additions to “Jackson vs. Griffin”

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced three additional fights will take place at UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin on July 5th.

The event will be headlined by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s first light heavyweight title defense in nearly a year as he will take on Forrest Griffin, who is currently serving as one of the coaches alongside Jackson on the current seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will try to continue a successful road back from a near career-ending motorcycle accident when he takes on Team Punishment member Justin McCully, who has not fought since winning a unanimous decision over Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9, leaving him inactive since last year.

Joe Stevenson will attempt to bounce back from a failed bid for the UFC lightweight title in January when he challenges American Top Team’s Gleison Tibau. German native Dennis Siver will also return to action against Melvin Guillard, who recently took a leave of absence from the UFC in order to fight in smaller shows.

The rumored fight card for the event now looks like this:

Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle*
Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Frank Mir vs. Justin McCully
Ricardo Almeida vs. Patrick Cote*
Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver
Justin Buchholz vs. Corey Hill*
Tyson Griffin vs. TBA*
Cole Miller vs. TBA*
Steve Bruno vs. TBA*
Ben Saunders vs. TBA*

* - not yet confirmed by UFC.

Report: Mir-McCully Set for UFC 86 in Vegas

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will try to continue a successful road back from a near career-ending motorcycle accident when he takes on Team Punishment member Justin McCully at UFC 86 on July 5th.

The news comes from a report by MMA Weekly, confirming the fight through a source close to both fighters.

Mir is now riding a wave of two straight impressive performances and slowly sliding himself back into the UFC heavyweight title picture after his submission win over former professional wrestler turned mixed martial artist Brock Lesnar at UFC 81: Breaking Point.

McCully has not fought since winning a unanimous decision over Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9, leaving him inactive since last year.

After missing a deadline to accept a fight against heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo, McCully opted to undergo surgery to remove a number of bone chips and spurs that gradually contributed to a nagging elbow injury. This reported fight likely confirms that he is recovering well.

WEC 32: Condit vs Prater Thoughts and Notes

Some thoughts and notes from last night’s WEC 32: Condit vs Prater…

Good Show, Good Production

Last night’s event was definitely fun to watch. The televised bouts had a lot of everything - spectacular knockouts, slick submissions. Even the most boring fight on the broadcast had a highlight reel ending. The main thing that I wanted to touch on was the production. Sam Caplan makes a great point when he says that last night’s show was perhaps the best MMA show he’s ever seen on basic cable. I couldn’t agree more.

The commentating was great. Aside from Frank Mir’s screams of excitement once in a while during a bout, he did fantastic as always. Even Urijah Faber guest commentating during the Torres-Beebe fight was interesting to listen to. He came off as being a lot more than just a California surfer like I’m sure the casual fans portray him as.

Did anyone else notice that their was a semi-entrance where the fighters came out last night? Granted it was only a lit-up WEC sign above the curtain but still, it’s at least a start for those out there who still long to see a Zuffa-promoted event use the ramp again.

Strange Judging in Tapia-Banuelos

I realize it was a pretty even fight for the most part but how that one was scored a draw confuses the hell out of me. Antonio Banuelos did a good job of controlling the third round but I still thought that Manny Tapia earned a unanimous decision for the first two, even though a split call was more likely.

I’m still surprised that no one scored a 10-8 first round for Tapia. He knocked Banuelos down twice in the round and came very close to finishing him. Just like in the Bisping-Hamill fight, Cecil Peoples gave the fight to the wrong person again.

Continue reading "WEC 32: Condit vs Prater Thoughts and Notes"

Mir Interested in TUF Road to Sylvia

With Frank Mir now riding a wave of two impressive performances and slowly sliding himself back into the UFC heavyweight title picture, one can only expect that the former champ will eventually clash again with another former title holder in the form of Tim Sylvia.

Of course everyone knows the history between the two. Mir won the vacant title in a 2004 bout that saw the Las Vegas native snap Sylvia’s forearm in half. Since then the two have gone down separate roads - Sylvia held the title for a near eight month period within the last two years while Mir has struggled until recently to get back into form following a devastating motorcycle accident over three years ago.

While a title bout against current interim champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is in the distant future, a potential rematch between Mir and Sylvia has become much closer to a reality now that the Miletich Fighting Systems product has failed in two straight attempts to regain the title.

In a recent interview with MMA Weekly, Mir mentions that he would love to have a rematch with Sylvia as well as the opportunity to build up the fight as coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter”:

“Obviously, the Tim (Sylvia) fight is always going to sell,” Mir said. “I’m trying, I wish that would work out where it’s for a title, me and Tim, so maybe we can do a show and coach, maybe do a lot of hype behind that one.”

While Mir’s idea is an interesting one, the reality show has never featured two heavyweights as coaches. A season highlighting heavyweights would help the UFC’s depleted heavyweight division greatly, but one can only question whether or not enough competent heavyweight prospects would be able to be gathered at the moment in the sport. Then again, who says that the two wouldn’t just handle fighters from a lighter weight class?