Frank Mir Considering Drop to UFC Light Heayweight Division
Despite bulking up to the 265-pound heavyweight limit for recent matchups with Cheick Kongo and Shane Carwin, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir said in a recent interview that he’s considering dropping down to the UFC’s 205-pound light heavyweight division:
“Right now I have a couple months off, so I’ve actually been toying with the idea of maybe going down a weight class. Since I don’t have a fight for a couple months, I’ve just been watching what I eat to see how my body, without trying to put size on, what my natural weight will fall now at now since I have lifted a lot lately to add size. I’m kind of curious where I’d fall at, because some of the guys I train with that are light heavyweights and bone structure’s are the same. Sometimes I stand next to Forrest Griffin and think I’m in the wrong weight class.”
After scoring a first-round submission of Kongo in December, Mir suffered a first-round KO to Carwin in March in an unsuccessful bid for the interim heavyweight title. Should Mir opt not to drop to 205, a rematch with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira could be on tap.
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The Kongo fight was at UFC 107 in December.
thanks
Because he is scared of brock! He should want the rubber match for the title, but knows he can’t do it. Won’t do good @ 205 either. Should become a commentater for cbs!
He wont do no good at 205? explain? He is widely considered one of the best submission artists for his weight competing in mma, off his back he is deadly and has very good transitions and knowledge, he got beat by 2 neanderthals and out strengthend wen you take away the size and put him in the division wen hell be one of the biggest men easily and extremely powerful wth slick stand up skills i sense title contender being said and a match up with a contender for number 1 contender spot… Guys a beast and if he can amke the weight SAFELY then go for it peace out
Good point dude but just don’t feed the trolls.
Just because I am new to posting, does not mean I am new to mma, or trolling. My opinion is backed up by the fact that while mir is still great off of his back, that’s about all he has. @ 205, he might be stronger than most 205′rs, but will be slower.there are also a boat load of taped fights on mir for those un the 205 to study. In a bjj match @ 205, no problem for mir. But the top 5, maybe top 10 @ 205 keep it standing, he will be too slow foe this.
good decision if he does it, i would like to see who they would match them up with
that seems like a drastic amount of weight loss, unless he is planning on taking 6+ months off to lose the weight safely, 60 pounds is no joke to lose quickly and keep your body healthy
yup just ask 50cent, he recently drop 50lbs took him 3months or so for a movie role…
dropping 60lbs after putting on a bunch though shouldnt be as hard on him… if he does make 205 and is healthy i can see him being rather dangerous, speed will be a factor as well, i can see mir getting alot faster which would make him more dangerous
Ummm slight difference, reading about 50 cent’s diet and weight loss, it was anything but healthy. I’m sure Mir would like not to look like he has some kind of illness.
well part of 50cents movie role is being a cancer stricken nfl player… lol…
but just the dropping of 50lbs off of his frame was drastic and unhealthy, i was only using it as a comparison since the weight that mir would have to drop is similar, he would obviously not do it in such a way as 50cent did…
The type of weight he put on to get up to 265+, and the manner by which he went about gaining that weight would have an effect how quickly/safely he could lose said weight. Prior to the weight gain he frequently weighed in around 245, I know there are fighters that cut from 235 to 205. If 245 were the starting point, and he could smartly lose the extra 10 in walk-around weight I don’t see how 205 is that ridiculous a goal.
I m with you, dropping 60 pounds is quite a feat regardless of his experience in dropping weight. He will sacrifice a ton of strength and muscle to make this drop not to mention probably more prone to injury. I consider myself a Mir fan too!
mir would be a beast at 205, i dont think anyone would really even challenge him
Prior to all that weight gain, Mir walked around 220-230 between fights, same as Forrest Griffen. I think Frank, if determined, can cut down to 205 safely. I think he can be an instant contnder. Why beat around the bush, give him Griffen, Rampage, or even Machida. Better yet, give him Little Nog. He’s already knocked out Big Nog, why not try to make it 2-for-2 against the Nogueira brothers?
Mir could just be talking out of frustration; alas, the top twp heavyweights are too overpowering for him.
This being said, I really do believe droping to 205 is too drastic for Mir. I’m not saying he couldn’t do it, it just don’t think it’s sustanable.
Perhaps as a one-off should he just slip in at 206, he can take on Anderson Silva, perhaps in early 2011 when Anderson has cleaned out some of the middle-weight division and can test himself at 205 again. If indeed middleweight can be cleared by next spring (doubtful)……
Then again, who’s to say Mir can afford to wait that long without a fight$?$?
it’s a great idea if he can do it.
the thing about HW is that there are these mismatched power and size issues that are hard to overcome with technique more than any other class I wouldn’t mind seeing a 235 lb class. guys from that class could still challenge up occasionally. there are starting to be enough guys, maybe in a year or two
I figured Mir was going to drop. Remember the interview where he said he would love to fight Anderson? Maybe Mir would be the next fight for Anderson at 205 after Sonnen beats The Spider.
i think it was the carwin fight that did it.
i just rewatched mir’s last fights – brock is impressive but carwin is like a cross between randy and a chimp – s i c k
First, I’d like to see a rematch with Big Nog. After the Carwin fight, it seemed like Frank realized that he can’t just bulk up and compete with the new batch of HWs. I think he can make the cut to LHW , just like Randy, and then he’d be right in the mix.
280 or 205 won’t make a difference to his commentator abilities. Bring back Frank Mir as the WEC guy. He’s really f-ing good
The only complaint I had about Frank on the WEC was his constant use of “gots.”
Mir at 205 is good for him, but better for the UFC, because suddenly they have yet another “name” fighter in the sport’s deepest weightclass, and new matchmaking options.
Consider this partial list of potential Mir 205 “name” opponents:
- Tito Ortiz
- Rich Franklin
- Chuck Liddell
- Randy Couture
- Keith Jardine
- Stephan Bonnar
- LittleNog
- Forrest Griffin
- Thiago Silva
I haven’t even posted the current 205 champion and top 3 contenders.
Oh, and lets not forget the aforementioned Anderson Silva.
If Mir can do it safely, and is convinced that both Carwin and Lesnar are beyond his reach due to the size/strength/skillset mismatch, then he might as well do whats necessary to prolong his career and remain in the UFC spotlight…
Assuming your top 3 contenders are Evans, Rampage, and Machida, then Bones also definitely deserves a spot on your list?
I think Mir would be decent at 205, now that Machida lost to Shogun. He could be thrown in the mix with the other 8 contenders in a round robin tournament. One matchup per month, winner squares off with the champ around Dec. or Jan. It always makes me laugh when guys say they cant drop to normal weight, yet fighters like Roop make 145 at 6’1.
I don’t think you guys understand how much someone has to eat to gain that muscle and retain it. Depending on the diet its 4-6 times a day. So reducing what he eats or replacing what he ate with more fruit and vegetables while keeping moderate protein in his diet with a cardio based,low weight high rep work out program. He can cut the weight healthy while getting more cut and less bulky as he is. Can he do it in 3 months? I don’t know I just know how to work out,diet and each person is totally different on how long it takes them to drop weight.
Frank at 205 would rock, I could see him get the belt
Well, I seem to recall Mir being slightly bigger in size than Carwin when they stood face to face. But clearly adding muscle and weight is useless if you don’t know how to use it. IMO His weight gain wasn’t so much to add power and strength as it was to keep from getting man-handled. Although I’m sure he’d say different.
If he can safely drop the weight, I think it would be great idea. He seems to be pretty intelligent to do something like that without doing anything stupid. He’d be a big shark in the fish tank. I’m a little upset though at the fact that I may not get to see him rip Lesnar’s arm off, but then again i came to that realization already when he got dropped by Carwin.
anderson silva
I don’t see him being able to cut that kind of weight. He just seems too big boned for lack of better words
maybe someone can enlighten me because ive never had to cut weight, but i think that it would take quite a bit of time for him to get used to fighting at that weight, considering hes probably never cut weight before. alves walks at plus LHW weight and fights 2 classes under, but it took about a year and a half and a handful of fights to get used to the dehydration and exhaustion. and yes, randy has fought at hw and LHW but he walks at 25-35 lbs under frank, plus he has cut weight from his prior wrestling experience. IMO if he can do it well then it may be the way to go with his situation.
Not only should bones be on that list but Ryan Bader is a good up and comer!
Mir would be pretty good at 205 but he would get beat by Bones and Anderson both at 205 they are both way to quick for him…I think he would give a fight but would lose.
I’m not sure if Anderson Silva will be quite as “Anderson Silva” at 205 as he is at 185, but the more I watch him, the more I become convinced that no one can handle Jon Jones, not even Silva or Rua.
And while I might be off-base on Jones this year, by the end of next year I’ll be dead on…
;-)
I think there is a flaw in Mir’s outlook. What I mean by that, is that he seems to consider size such a strong advantage and doesn’t seem to think of himself as big. Now I can understand that, because the poor guy has had two fights with much thicker (physically speaking) guys in Carwin and Lesnar .where he didn’t land a single punch and was totally controlled from the opening bell.
…but Frank Mir is a heavyweight. He is no string bean. He weighed 265 and he is like 6″1 or 6″2! Fedor is 5’11″ and 230Lbs and is almost always fighting someone way larger than himself. Frank, it isn’t a size issue it is an attitude issue. You are a big enough dude and going down to 205 (while I can understand why you think that is necessary) is not a good idea. At 205 you will be much faster…but not fast enough…and your style will need an overhaul. What you can get away with in the heavyweight division in terms of counterpunching opportunities you can’t get away with at 205. A 60 pound weight loss in a mature 6 foot 2 athlete is quite a process. I think Frank has a self-confidence issue…and I think fighting Brock Lesnar would give anyone a confidence issue.