Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir went from being on top of the world to being on a four-fight losing streak. Before his win over Antonio Silva in February of 2014, Mir was considering call it quits for his professional MMA career.
“The wife was right (when she told me) to take some time off and heal up the body,” Mir told MMAjunkie on Monday. “After the Alistair fight, I really was thinking about retiring. But she was able to put everything on hold and told me to just relax and work out and go to the gym and not try to get ready for a fight.”
Mir would go on to say that instead of training he went and did yoga. Yes, yoga. Mir claims that when he is doing the exercise with “soccer moms,” so he can clear out all things in mind and let his body recover from the wars he has put it through after years of fights.
Now, Mir faces a tough Todd Duffee tomorrow night (Wednesday) at UFC Fight Night 71 in the main event. Unlike Mir, Duffee is currently on a three-fight winning streak, but last competed at UFC 181.
Mir explained how this fight came about. According to Mir, Duffee was calling him out and said some disrespectful remarks about the former champion. So Mir called the UFC and wanted the fight to be made official.
“People calling people out – I call people out,” Mir said. “You put it out there. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. But one of my buddies said, ‘You hear what Todd’s saying?’ I got a little irritated about some of the disrespectful remarks. So I made sure I called up (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) and said I’m more than happy to take this fight.”
UFC Fight Night 71 takes place Wednesday, July 15, 2015, at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California. The event will be shown on Fox Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
There are three bouts airing on UFC Fight Pass at 6:30.pm EST, then switching to Fox Sports 1 with four bouts at 8:00.pm EST. The main card features six bouts starting at 10:00.pm EST.
