Frank Mir Continues The Trend
Former UFC heavyweight champion and promotional poster boy Frank Mir returned to action last night (Wednesday July 15th, 2015) with a jaw-shaking knockout win against Todd Duffee. In a victory that was eerily reminiscent of Duffee’s last win vs. Anthony Hamilton, Mir caught the ATT (American Top Team) heavyweight with a beautiful straight left hand as he rushed in during the striking exchanges. Hate to say I told you so. With the victory Mir goes to two straight wins and KOs, Duffee had a three-fight winning streak snapped, and the Jackson’s MMA Jiu Jitsu wizard continues an interesting trend in the UFC, especially at heavyweight.
I’m talking about old school fighters that are on the upswing, and more particularly after suffering terrible form in recent times. Mir was riding a four-fight losing streak before he starched Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in Brazil this past February, and admitted that it was only yoga with soccer moms that saved him from retiring. A loss to Silva would surely have scored the ex-champ his walking papers, and now we’re all singing a song of a different tune about Mir’s future. Another great example of a late career comeback is Fabricio Werdum, who spoke openly about nearly retiring following his decision loss against Alistair Overeem in Strikeforce.
Still unbeaten six fights down the line, ‘Vai Cavalo’ is the UFC heavyweight champion and looking to be in the best form and shape of his career. Andrei Arlovski, another former UFC heavyweight champion, is looking fantastic in the octagon as of late, scoring a monstrous KO win against Travis Browne at UFC 187, ‘The Pitbull’ is currently unbeaten in five fights. It was only a few years ago that Arlovski suffered four straight losses, and three by knockout. Many were questioning AA’s jaw strength, and ability to hang with the best, and now he’s getting props in the title race of the most elite MMA organization around.
Then we have UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler who, during a break from the UFC in 2005-12, lost to guys like Tim Kennedy, Babalu, Jake Shields and Jason Miller. Now ‘Ruthless’ is the cream of the crop in the elite welterweight pool, and recently destroyed Rory MacDonald in the fifth round of their UFC 189 burner to come back from what would have been a 3-2 loss on the scorecards. So what’s the skinny, where are all these legendary heroes of the sport finding their turn around in success? Well, a lot of it can be attributed to a change in camp. Frank Mir joined Greg Jackson‘s MMA in New Mexico during the latter stages of his career, as did Andrei Arlovski.
Fabricio Werdum went from training on the European continent mainly, to Rafael Cordeiro‘s Kings MMA, and Robbie Lawler switched up from Pat Milteich’s Fighting Systems to ATT in 2013, since that date ‘Ruthless’ has only lost one fight and it was a close decision against Johny Hendricks. It seems a change of scenery is bringing back some of the game’s old school warriors to form that they had never realized in the past, at least that can be said for Lawler and Werdum. Another all-time great, Fedor Emelianenko, has began training for a comeback from retirement, will he continue the trend of throwback names on the upswing?
