Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir showed a lot of guts and fortitude in surviving a massive onslaught by Alistair Overeem in their UFC 169 matchup on Saturday night. Overeem rocked Mir in the first round, landing 50 of 57 strikes in the first round compared to just two strikes landing for Mir.
The second round wasn’t much better with Overeem landing 35 of 40 strikes compared to just three strikes total landing for Mir. However, Mir did secure a takedown and went for a fight ending guillotine, but the submission wasn’t in the cards on the night. The third round was more of the same as Overeem landed 54 of 60 strikes, with Mir landing zero strikes in the final frame.
There’s no shame in losing to Alistair Overeem. In fact, there’s no shame in losing to fighters like Josh Barnett, Daniel Cormier, or former champion Junior dos Santos as those fighters are all among the best in the world.
Mir was in huge trouble in his last win against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 140 in December 2011. Nogueira had Mir out on his feet with strikes before getting greedy trying to submit Mir instead of finishing him with strikes.
Let’s take a look at Mir’s last five fights:
Mir has had 379 strikes landed against him, compared to only landing 102 of his own strikes against those five opponents. He has been finished twice in those five fights, and been finished via TKO/KO in seven of his nine career defeats. Also, four of those seven TKO/KO finishes have happened since 2009.
The fact of the matter is Mir is no longer remotely competitive against the best of the best heavyweights in the world. Sure, he could go to another organization and grind out a few more dollars to extend his career but at what cost?
Mir stated that he wouldn’t retire regardless of the outcome prior to UFC 169, but now it might be time to reconsider that thought.
Stats courtesy of Fightmetric