Quote of the Day: Frank Mir “Is Not Happy” About Potentially “Derailing” Andrei Arlovski at UFC 191
Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski have a lot in common. They’re both over six feet tall, they were both born in 1979, and they both recently used Antonio “Bifgoot” Silva as a stepping stone for their careers. (Ed note: Click here to celebrate that sweet burn with me.)
Less than a year ago, it looked like Mir all but destined to wind up alongside his former rival in the “forced retirement” line, and now, he’s looking at a potential title shot if he is victorious over Arlovski, whom himself just defeated a heavily-favored top 5 opponent in his last contest. The two veteran heavyweights will do battle at UFC 191: Johnson vs. Dodson 2 in just a couple weeks in a fight that has damn near everyone foaming at the mouth in anticipation. Everyone except Frank Mir, that is.
Mir lamented his frustrations to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
In one sense, I’m not happy about it on a social level. I think we both have a lot to offer the sport and I don’t want to see either one of us derailed right now. I would have been much happier with this situation if we could have skipped each other at this point. I could have fought someone else in the top three and he could have fought Werdum for the title and then we could have faced each other in a title fight instead if he would have won.
I have a lot of respect for Andrei. He’s a guy that if my kids were to tell me right now they were fans of Andrei, I would completely cultivate that. Here’s a guy who was at the top. He went from the pinnacle of our sport to getting cut, signing with other organizations, losing more and he’s getting put out cold. Everyone is saying he’s done, his chin is gone, he needs to retire and this guy doesn’t listen to anybody. He just said, ‘Nope, I’m going to keep moving forward and figure out a way.’ He’s better now.
While it’s obviously not the ideal thing you’d like to hear from a guy heading into one of the biggest fights of his life, can you really fault Mir here? Like most of us diehard Arlovski fans who totally predicted his comeback from the day he first left the UFC with complete, unwavering assuredness (raises hand), Mir’s pulling for the old guy. The guy who’s been knocked down, beat down, black and blue. The guy who took a bad situation and made it right. The guy who, if he fell back down, you’d help him back up again. (Ed note: The soundtrack for that inspiring bit of prose can be found here).
Then again, over half of the heavyweight division’s top 10 are old dudes either in the midst of a comeback or on the tail end of one, so Mir’s options for potential opponents are pretty limited here. I wonder if he knows that the new champ and the former champ have been booked in a rematch for no apparent reason. That’d be a kick right to his wrinkly old balls.
In any case, I hope for Mir’s sake that his lack of motivation to fight Arlovski doesn’t affect his performance in the cage come September 5th. “The Pit Bull” is already being listed as a 3-to-1 favorite and everyone who knows anything about this sport knows that Nostalgic Frank Mir can be found just between High Altitude Velasquez and Unmotivated Penn on the list of P4P Worst Fighters Ever.
Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski have a lot in common. They’re both over six feet tall, they were both born in 1979, and they both recently used Antonio “Bifgoot” Silva as a stepping stone for their careers. (Ed note: Click here to celebrate that sweet burn with me.)
Less than a year ago, it looked like Mir all but destined to wind up alongside his former rival in the “forced retirement” line, and now, he’s looking at a potential title shot if he is victorious over Arlovski, whom himself just defeated a heavily-favored top 5 opponent in his last contest. The two veteran heavyweights will do battle at UFC 191: Johnson vs. Dodson 2 in just a couple weeks in a fight that has damn near everyone foaming at the mouth in anticipation. Everyone except Frank Mir, that is.
Mir lamented his frustrations to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
In one sense, I’m not happy about it on a social level. I think we both have a lot to offer the sport and I don’t want to see either one of us derailed right now. I would have been much happier with this situation if we could have skipped each other at this point. I could have fought someone else in the top three and he could have fought Werdum for the title and then we could have faced each other in a title fight instead if he would have won.
I have a lot of respect for Andrei. He’s a guy that if my kids were to tell me right now they were fans of Andrei, I would completely cultivate that. Here’s a guy who was at the top. He went from the pinnacle of our sport to getting cut, signing with other organizations, losing more and he’s getting put out cold. Everyone is saying he’s done, his chin is gone, he needs to retire and this guy doesn’t listen to anybody. He just said, ‘Nope, I’m going to keep moving forward and figure out a way.’ He’s better now.
While it’s obviously not the ideal thing you’d like to hear from a guy heading into one of the biggest fights of his life, can you really fault Mir here? Like most of us diehard Arlovski fans who totally predicted his comeback from the day he first left the UFC with complete, unwavering assuredness (raises hand), Mir’s pulling for the old guy. The guy who’s been knocked down, beat down, black and blue. The guy who took a bad situation and made it right. The guy who, if he fell back down, you’d help him back up again. (Ed note: The soundtrack for that inspiring bit of prose can be found here).
Then again, over half of the heavyweight division’s top 10 are old dudes either in the midst of a comeback or on the tail end of one, so Mir’s options for potential opponents are pretty limited here. I wonder if he knows that the new champ and the former champ have been booked in a rematch for no apparent reason. That’d be a kick right to his wrinkly old balls.
In any case, I hope for Mir’s sake that his lack of motivation to fight Arlovski doesn’t affect his performance in the cage come September 5th. “The Pit Bull” is already being listed as a 3-to-1 favorite and everyone who knows anything about this sport knows that Nostalgic Frank Mir can be found just between High Altitude Velasquez and Unmotivated Penn on the list of P4P Worst Fighters Ever.
