This past weekend heavyweight star Frank Mir revealed that the UFC had agreed to release him from his UFC contract, bringing an end to a run in the Octagon that spans almost 16 years.
The 38-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion had requested his release due to the fact that he was still under a two-year USADA suspension after testing positive for the steroid known as oral Turinabol.
However, a stipulation of his release is that he’s still not able to compete until his current ban ends in April of next year, which makes it a little odd that he would agree to this rather than just opting to remain under contract with the UFC.
However, it does mean that from this point onward he will no longer be under the scrutiny of USADA testing and he’ll also be able to take other kinds of work for competing organizations in the mean time.
Mir is now looking to the future, and while he’s keeping all his options open, he has made it clear that he wants to keep fighting and has cited Fedor Emelianenko as someone he’d like to lock horns with.
“Right now I’m trying to weigh all my options,” Mir stated on his own Phonebooth Fighting podcast. “We talked about who could possibly be opponents out there, so I’m thinking, more or less, what show offers who to fight. Fedor would be an awesome fight. I think we talked about maybe even Brock. So there’s different ideas out there and really there’s just endless possibilities.”
However, it seems he’s not in a hurry to face that man who just defeated Fedor in Bellator, Matt Mitrione.
“It wouldn’t be my first choice, to be honest with you. I think Matt Mitrione is a super tough guy, very athletic but I think that I’d probably get more pay-per-view buys if I fought Fedor. Mitrione would probably elevate my status more, a victory over him at this point, towards moving up the rankings but I’m kinda past that part of my career. I’d rather fight named fighters and Fedor’s somebody I’ve always wanted to fight and I think that it would be nice to be able to complete that kind of Who’s Who of my resume.”
Mir is coming off back-to-back losses against Andrei Arlovski and Mark Hunt, and in fact has lost six of his last eight fights in the Octagon.
With that in mind, it seems as if Mir’s career should be drawing to a natural conclusion, but while he’s acknowledging that he can no longer fight as often as he did in the past, he still clearly has the urge to compete.
““I enjoy fighting. I want to fight for as long as possible. I don’t think I can fight at the same capacity that I fought in the past. The days of fighting three times in a year is probably over with. Once is probably gonna be more or less [the goal], or almost twice or three times in two years. Just enjoy martial arts, enjoy the lifestyle, and fight big fights. . .
“Hopefully until I’m told I can’t do it anymore. I’m thinking maybe 45. If you just handle it smart, I think you can do it.”
