Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir knows he’s facing a very dangerous striker in current title holder Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on Saturday night, and he claims he’s got an interesting strategy planned to deal with that threat.
“I think I’m going to have to go ahead and pull guard,” Mir told MMAfighting’s Ariel Helwani at yesterday’s media workout session. “I think shooting on him is going to be a very hard thing to do. Once I get the clinch I’m just going to jump up, pull him down and when he’s trying to get away I’m going to grab an ankle and finish him.”
If that is his strategy then it’s somewhat surprising that he’s admitting it given that if he had kept it secret it may have been easier to catch JDS off-guard with it.
With Mir there’s always the chance that he’s just playing mind games with his opponent however, as he’s already admitted to over-emphasizing his reputation for breaking fighters bones in the build-up to this fight as a way to get inside the champion’s head and make him worry about his submission prowess.
On the other hand, takedowns have never been Mir’s strong point and his chin has come under question in the past, so pulling guard does seem like a valid strategy in order to get the fight to the ground where his BJJ skills could pay dividends.
So, it’ll certainly be interesting to see if that is indeed what he chooses to do at the weekend, and whether JDS will have anything up his sleeve to counter-act it now that the plan is out in the open.
Watch Mir’s full interview below.
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