UFC heavyweight veteran Frank Mir will be looking for his 19th career win when he takes on Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia this coming weekend. And, with 15 years of competitive experience, the former UFC champ is confident in his strategy heading into the fight.
“His strong suit is striking. He’s not a threat to finish the fight on ground. I’m a threat at both,” Mir said on UFC Tonight. “I have to be aggressive and play to get fight to ground. If I can make takedowns a threat, then that drops his standup down a level because he’ll have to defend more, and it increases my ability to do standup. If he commits to a standup fight, it’s easier to get him down.”
Mir is coming off a closely-contested decision loss to fellow former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski last September. According to Mir, the training camp he had for his fight prior to the Arlovski loss – a KO win over Todd Duffee at UFC Fight Night 71 – suited him better and it’s something he has replicated for the Hunt fight.
“The reason why I was so sluggish against Arlovski was I had too long a training camp,” he explained. “For Duffee, it was 12 weeks of training camp. But for Arlovski, it was longer and I had hard time being explosive. The longer camp took away that pop I had in my step. I trained properly and peaked at the right time for this.”
The 36-year-old Mir was apparently looking for a quick turnaround after his last fight but it never came to fruition, and he admits that the extra time off has most likely done him some good.
“I was supposed to fight in December, but it fell through. I’m 36 years old. Training is tough and draining and I need the time off to recharge the batteries.”
UFC Fight Night 85 takes place March 20th at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
