Arlovski vs. Mir: The Antithesis of a Good Heavyweight Fight

At UFC 191, the worst fight of the night was without a doubt the featured co-main event heavyweight bout between former heavyweight champions Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir. This fight had a good deal of intrigue behind it as it was billed as “over 10 years in the making.” Both men are former UFC champions who have had their own fair share of ups and downs in their career. There was a time about 10 years ago when Frank Mir was the champ, and Arlovski was to be his first challenger. Unfortunately, Mir was injured in his infamous, near career-ending motorcycle accident. Arlovski went on to become the champion, and he would eventually leave the UFC. He went on a four-fight losing streak, he managed to mount a decent comeback and fought his way back to the UFC. Similarly, Mir mounted his own comeback after the injury, but he had recently found himself on the wrong end of a bad losing streak. However, both men had some strong momentum going into this fight. They both had two impressive knockouts in their last two fights. Arlovski scored an incredible stoppage over top ranked heavyweight Travis Browne. In short, Arlovski is now in a position where he’s arguably in the UFC title mix. Unfortunately, the fight did not live up to expectations. Instead it was one of the more garbage featured heavyweight bouts in recent memory.

If you listened to last week’s 411 Ground & Pound Radio Show, the preview show for UFC 191, I rightfully predicted the fight going this way. While both men have their fair share of impressive wins and finishes, both men have their fair share of stinkers, even in the Octagon. When Arlovski returned to the UFC against Brendan Schaub, it was reviled as one of the worst fights of the year. Unfortunately, this fight more closely resembled his fight with Schaub than his recent performances against Browne and Antonio Silva. Frank Mir, while he has the most finishes of any fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division, has also had a fair share of very flat and ugly performances. Case in point, his fights against the likes of Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, Daniel Cormier and Alistair Overeem. Mir is noticeably putting in a lot more mass than his recent TRT days. He came in at 266 pounds for this fight, one of the highest weights I can recall him ever coming in for a fight. It’s no wonder he was gassed just minutes in, and his cardio was absolutely shot. But basically, these guys tend to have a pattern with their fights. If they can’t score that early knockout or submission, they tend to have very slow, lumbering fights, with a lot of stalling, pushing against the fence, and listless clinching. And that’s exactly what ended up happening here.

This is not always the case, but Robert Winfree and I have laid out how heavyweight fights usually go. If the heavyweight fight gets out of the first round, it is usually a red flag. The longer a heavyweight fight goes, the sloppier it gets. Heavyweights can’t maintain a fast pace for very long. So if big guys like Arlovski and Mir get out of the first round, it’s usually not a good sign. Are there exceptions? Yes. However, instances like Antonio Silva vs. Mark Hunt are incredibly rare. When Cain Velasquez brings his A game, it is hard to think of many heavyweights who could go for five hard rounds nonstop and bring the aggression like he could at his peak. Daniel Cormier’s performance against Josh Barnett also comes to mind, but it’s no surprise as one of Velasquez’s main sparring partners at AKA and his Olympic wrestling background.

Mir for all his talents a grappler has never submitted any of his opponents outside of the first round. I think it merely says if the fight goes longer, he doesn’t have the energy or strength to utilize his exceptional ground techniques to secure a hold. At one point here, Mir did get Arlovski to the mat. He did land a few solid ground shots, but he looked too tired and winded to try and work at all in Arlovski’s guard.

What really killed Mir vs. Arlovski for me is numerous spots where both men, especially Mir, just stood there in the middle of the Octagon and didn’t move and just stared at each other. In fact, numerous times in the fight, Frank Mir stood right in front of Arlovski, literally right in front of him, not moving at all. He had his hands down, and he was not moving. And Arlovski looked absolutely flabbergasted. I really do not understand. While Mir said he was not enthusiastic about this fight and that he liked Arlovski, apparently they did not have much of a friendship or connection when both men trained at Greg Jackson’s gym. In fact, this fight was a huge opportunity for Mir. Arlovski is ranked at No. 4 in the heavyweight rankings. Some even questioned the wisdom of this match being made because Arlovski seemed to be pretty far ahead of Mir in terms of the pecking order. Mir just managed to get back into the top 10 after his win over Todd Duffee. In other words, Mir really should’ve treated this fight like a title eliminator.

Honestly, the fight was so bad, I do not even really care about the decision. I think I barely scored it in favor of Arlovski. I think Mir might have just edged out Round 2, but I do not feel passionately about the winner either way. The real loser of this fight was the fans. The fight was so terrible, I do not think either Arlovski or Mir really deserved to be declared the winner. This was a clear-cut case of neither man really fighting to win and coming in with bad cardio and out-of-shape, especially on Mir’s part. Mir might have one of the most interesting histories in the heavyweight division, but I would say he has always fallen short more often than not because all these holes in his game constantly pop up.