The UFC 184 card set for Feb. 28 has added a heavyweight main card bout featuring veterans Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva and Frank Mir. Both fighters were top five, with Mir also being a former champion, but both have been on vast slides and are in desperate need of a win. Fighting with his back to the wall like that, expect Silva to come in as the favorite, since he’s expected to have a greater sense of urgency than Mir.
Silva is 0-2-1 in his last three outings. One loss was for the title against Cain Velasquez, and his draw was a fight that got rave reviews against Mark Hunt. But his last outing was supposed to see him take care of the long past-his-prime Andrei Arlovski, and it turned into a resurgence for Arlovski, who delivered the KO.
Mir has not tasted victory since 2011 as combined inactivity and a four fight losing streak have left him almost de-facto retired. It will be more than a year since his last fight, when he lost to Alistair Overeem by unanimous decision.
Silva has forgotten his ground game and been engaging opponents on the feet. In Mir, he faces a guy who has a credible ground game, and it might be the right thing for Silva to do is to stand and slug it out with Frank. In the case of Mir, he has seemed so slow in his last outings that Silva is very likely to get off first. Mir takes punishment too, he probably wont just go out.
Mir has spent the last two fights training with Greg Jackson’s camp and, to his credit, he has come in leaner and less muscle bound. Unfortunately, it has not translated into success, as he was not able to get off before Overeem in his last outing. Mir’s slowness will mean he cannot get a takedown, so if its a groundfight it is because Silva puts Mir on his back. Not a lot of chances to win that way for Mir.
Relive some the classic moments in Antonio Silva’s career as he prepares to face Mark Hunt. Here are the weigh-ins from that UFC Brisbane event. Hunt is fighting his UFC Heavyweight title bout this weekend in Mexico City.
