UFC Fighters Frank Mir and Anthony Johnson have something in common. Both fighters have recently made statements in regards to changing weight classes.
Here is an article from Fighters Only with Frank Mir and his reasoning behind the proposed change in weight division. Pic from MMA Weekly.
Frank Mir, The Beefcake version
“Right now I have a couple months off, so I’ve actually been toying with the idea of maybe going down a weight class. Since I don’t have a fight for a couple months, I’ve just been watching what I eat and see what my natural weight will fall now at now, since I have lifted a lot lately to add size,” he said to MMA Figures.
“I’m kind of curious where I think I would fall at. Because some of the guys I train with that are light-heavyweight, and our bone structures are the same. Sometimes I stand next to Forrest Griffin and I think I’m in the wrong weight class.”
While Mir did hit the 265lb weight limit in his last fight with Shane Carwin, he still had trouble dealing with Carwins nightmarish power. Suffering a loss in similar fashion from current Champ Brock Lesnar last year at UFC 100 gave Frank the idea to bulk up in the first place. Now after going 1-2 against the next gen of heavyweights, his next move seems to be a 180 from his previous plan of trying to fight muscle mass with muscle mass.
Anthony Johnson has the same idea but is going up rather than down a weight class. At 6′2 Rumble is one of the tallest welterweights in the division. Where he stands to gain by being the bigger man come fight time, he loses come time for the weigh ins where he looks less than impressive and more like he is auditioning for a sequel to The Machinist.
From. MMA Junkie
Now as a person who has actually seen the man in in person I can personally vouch for his hugeness. And yes, the other handsome devil in the photo is yours truly, and I don’t mean the broad from Snow Crash. All jokes aside, his move to middleweight has been speculated for a while. From MMA Junkie
“He has to maintain a very diligent cardio routine to stay in striking range of 170 (pounds),” Johnson’s manager, Ken Pavia, today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Because of his knee injury, his weight has gotten up a little bit, and we don’t want to delay his comeback because of a weight issue. So we’re entertaining the possibility of taking a fight at 185 (pounds).”
The history of Rumbles trails and tribulations making the 170 pound welterweight limit is well documented. And even cost the fighter a knock out of the night bonus. This along with the unknown long term effects of weight cutting in a young combat sport, make the idea of moving up a weight class seem smarter the longer you consider it.
Last but not least, props to Steve4192 for the pic. It pretty much inspired the entire post.
From an interview over at 5oz of Pain, Roy Nelson hinted at a possible matchup between him and Frank Mir being possible now that Cheick Kongo won’t be able to fight due to injury.
When speaking about his rumored upcoming fight with Cheick Kongo at UFC 116 on July 3rd, Nelson was quick to respond, “I believe that is still part of the rumor mill, cause I think I‘m supposed to be fighting Frank Mir too.”
Nelson went on to jokingly say, “I think I might fight them all in the same day.”
While he believes that he is more likely to face Mir, nothing is official…
Going 2-0, with both fights being first round knockouts & having already bested Frank in a Grapplers Quest bout in 2003, there is already a built in narrative if the fight were to be made official. It is a compelling match up and hopefully Joe Silva can make it happen.
Finished watching the event, talking it over with friends and wanted to get some of my thoughts on the blog before I call it a night.
-What we saw in tonight’s welterweight title bout was the MMA grappling equivalent of the Pacquiao v Clottey fight. The champion offered a one sided offensive assault that was countered only by desperate defense and pure tenacity to survive by the challenger. GSP is the man, letting go of the 4th round kimura was one of biggest examples of sportsmanship I’ve seen in MMA to date.
I never would have thought I would be applauding a guy for not finishing a fighter when they could have,
Comments on the interim heavyweight belt which Lesnar says is a, “make-believe” belt and the stirring up of Mir’s comments we’ve all been over 100 times already. Brock’s pick is Carwin, based off Mir’s statement of Carwin being a, “better version of Brock Lesnar“.
Either way, good to see Brock back in good shape and ready to return to the octagon in July.
