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[Sakara=Excitement]

What's Next for Frank Mir? - Bloody Elbow

After screaming in horror at Dan Miragliotta's decision to allow Shane Carwin to repeatedly punch a man laying face down with his arms out, it struck me that Frank Mir's career is once again at a crossroads. Having lost two of three fights at heavyweight, he once again finds himself in a position where he must win his next fight to stay relevant.

Frank Mir is one of the company's top attractions, mostly because of his way with words. He doesn't need to be a world beater to stay on top of cards, he simply needs to stay relevant. Even though he lost to Shane Carwin this past Saturday, if he wins two fights while Brock, Shane, and Cain work out the title situation, he could find himself right in line for a shot at the title again. I don't believe he has the physical gifts required to be the UFC heavyweight champion, but he certainly has the brains to remain a top draw.

The first thing Mir must decide is whether to continue his effort to put on size. His physical transformation suggests to me that he spends almost as much time lifting as he does training his skills. Coming out of his fight with Lesnar, I believe Mir drew the wrong conclusion. He convinced himself that strength was the only reason for his loss, and that if he could close the gap he had the skills to beat anyone.

He may have looked as big or bigger than Shane Carwin, but it didn't matter. Carwin was the stronger man, and had his way with Mir. Mir's defense against the cage was hapless; he simply stood still without making any notable efforts to create distance or pull guard. It was almost as if he didn't anticipate the fight taking place anywhere besides on the ground or at striking range.

I think an appropriate fight for Frank Mir is Junior Dos Santos. Dos Santos has been on a reign of terror since debuting in the UFC against Fabricio Werdum, but he's still a few fights away from a title shot. A dominant win over Frank Mir would put him in prime position to go for the title at the end of 2010. For Mir, in order to prove his relevance he must show that he can beat one of the UFC's young lions at heavyweight.

[rampage9712]

Id love to see him fight JDS or Cain but i doubt that dana will let that happen from his recent comments. I would guess he would fight GG or possibly a rematch with Nog. Id really like to see him take it to kimbo or Roy, but again i doubt we see that.

[TapOut27]

Mir will become completely irrelevant again if JDS knocks him silly, which most likely will happen.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

My bet is a showdown with Gabe, however it's another bad matchup for Mir given that Gonzaga's got pretty solid standup and is a helluva lot better than Mir on the ground. Other than that or a rematch with Nog(which I think has zero cache right now), I wouldn't be surprised if he draws winner of Crocop/Barry, because JDS is too much of a beast and I don't think Dana wants to have Mir going three of four loses.

My bet is Napao or Crocop....

I also wouldn't disregard winner of Nelson/Struve, since it's a bounceback and isn't too much of a challenge with minimal risk of a serious threat.

[tinkerskippy]

Junior - a win for JDS gives sufficient credibility to give him a shot behind Cain. A loss for Mir does not make him irrelevant.

[Stacked]

Nog or Cro Cop

[Tyreas]

I'm thinking they play the safer route and pick someone like Rothwell. Still a good fighter but Frank should have better luck against him.

[The_Mab69]

GG better than Mir on the ground are u kidding me? I expected Mir to win that fight the other night, not only did my Kentucky wildcats lose but Frank Mir lost as well, it was not a good night for me, needless to say it ended with a trip to the porcelain god.

I think Mir will, hate to say it but, end up being a title contender gate keeper, I wish he could be the champ again, I hate it that a former wwe superstar is the face of the UFC HW division. I just am finally accepting that Frank Mir cannot fight with the 2 big boys.

I wanted to see the rubber match so bad, it would've been huge. Did you see danas face after Carwin KO'd Mir it was like "Damn there goes my pay day", it was hilarious. Mir Lesnar 3 IMO had the makings to be the highest grossing MMA ppv of all time.

[rampage9712]

Originally Posted by The_Mab69

GG better than Mir on the ground are u kidding me?

GG is better on the ground than Mir, but i dont see either of them submitting the other.

Originally Posted by The_Mab69

I wanted to see the rubber match so bad, it would've been huge. Did you see danas face after Carwin KO'd Mir it was like "Damn there goes my pay day", it was hilarious. Mir Lesnar 3 IMO had the makings to be the highest grossing MMA ppv of all time.

agree, that would have been a bigger fight than the 2nd fight, and we know how well that ppv sold

[mmawolverine]

im amazed that people are righting off frank mir, first of all there is no shame in losing to shane carwin,maybe i saw the fight differently but i saw frank mir showing he could stop the takedown and for a a few seconds he thought it was brock trying to take him down but in fact it was the "better" version of brokc the one mir said could knock him out standing, mir got lazy and didnt expect shane to switch from the takedow n to dirty boxing, he snuck in a crazy barrage of uppercuts repeated fashion and mir didnt see them coming, you think there is another heavyweight that could have stood up to the 3-5 uppercuts shane threw after switching from the takedown attempt, mir clearly got too complacent against the cage thinking shane would only look to take him down, and everything shane threw on the ground was totally unnecessary shouldnt shane have stopped dont just blame the ref carwin went berserk, its the uppercuts he threw in rapid succession that did the job, frank left his face open to the punch and he got caught, hes not going to get bigger and thats fine hes big enough the human anatomys threshold for massive impact will asways hit the wall before the benefits and potential for growth, im 100 percent sure if brock was hit with those three uppercuts he would have went down just as fast as frank, mir is not done im telling you carwin wil be champ very soon and he wont let go of it, mir will eventually get his rubber match with brock still, mir does NOT have a glass chin, carwin is the man to beat not brock