Not messing with Frank Mir on the ground is good advice.
The heavyweight division has also been known to have the men with the most knockout power in any division. In fact, being the heavyweight champion has been synonymous to being “the most dangerous man on the planet,” a term that started out in boxing, but made its way into the MMA scene, as well. When one stops to consider the sheer power of athletes such as Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Filipovic,
Francis Ngannou
and
Stipe Miocic, among many others, the fame surrounding the weight class simply makes sense.
However, only a select few heavyweights are mostly known for their dangerous submission skills rather than for their ability to knock any opponent out cold with just a punch or a kick. That is the characteristic which former UFC champion
Frank Mir
used to bring to the Octagon when he performed. Known for having broken the arms of both Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with submission holds, the veteran built a reputation for not letting of his locks and opponents became aware of the dangers of hitting the mat with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt.
Mir is known to break bones at the gym, too
It was not only opponents who needed to be wary of Frank Mir's fierce grappling style, though. Even training partners had to consider the dangers of not tapping when training with the former UFC champion. Although the Sylvia and Nogueira fights are the ones in which Mir was seen on camera snapping someone's bone, the man himself admits to having done it many times before in the gym when partners would refuse to tap during a locked in submission.
“I do a submission, I do it slow. That way I just apply pressure. I’ve broken guys arms and legs in the gym before,” Mir told the JAXXON
(transcribed by
MMAFighting) podcast while sharing stories with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. “Because, in my mind, if I’m going really, really slow, if I lock it up and apply pressure, if you’re not tapping it’s because I don’t have the move. Obviously it’s not working, your limb is not in danger. If you’re one of those guys that just doesn’t want to tap, don’t train with me, because I’m going to f*ck you up. ...
“So guys, when I’m rolling with them — it’s only happened a few times — I apply pressure on a hold and I’m going, ‘Shit, I guess I don’t have it,’ and next thing you know their limb explodes.
“I remember one time I did it to a guy. He was a national champion in wrestling, D1, and I grabbed him in a kneebar and I’m applying pressure. I’m like, ‘Huh, I really feel like I have this,’ and next thing I know his leg folds. He screams. Forrest [Griffin] is rolling next to us. We stop, the guy grabs his leg, and he goes, ‘Hey bud, that was pretty stupid. Should’ve tapped.’ Salt in the wound, man!”
Frank Mir had a memorable session with Jason Miller
Perhaps the most well-known training partner to try his luck on the ground against Frank Mir was UFC vet and controversial MMA figure Jason 'Mayhem' Miller. According to the heavyweight vet, a grappling session against Miller went south and Mir decided to teach his partner a lesson for not giving up when he should have.
“We were training at Marc Laimon’s, and Laimon said, ‘Hey, Frank, practice is over ... once you finish somebody.’ So then I just went through and turned it on and started tapping everybody.
“So then I had Mayhem and I put him in a guillotine and he almost killed himself. He ran his feet up the f*cking cage, and almost tried to flip over the top of me. It was weird. So then I let it go and then I got him in a kimura and I applied it. I started going and cranking it and I was like, ‘I ain’t letting go. F*ck this. Today you’re going to learn!’ So I put his hand to the back of his head.”
Frank Mir became the UFC heavyweight champion in June 2004, the very night in which he snapped Tim Sylvia's arm to win the division's vacant belt. Unfortunately, Mir would go on to be stripped of the title due to a motorcycle accident that left him unable to compete for almost two years.
Though he never became the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion again, Frank Mir remained a top contender in the division for most of his career, and even won the interim belt in 2008. During his career, the submission specialist scored wins over some of the most notable names in his generation, including the aforementioned Nogueira and Sylvia, as well as Brock Lesnar, Mirko Filipovic, and Cheick Kongo.
Frank mir untold stories from winning UFC Title, crazy training stories, and fighting Brock Lesnar
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