After more than two full years of absence, Frank Mir made his MMA return on Saturday against legend Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 198. The former UFC heavyweight champion ended up losing via TKO within just 48 seconds of action.
Mir was actually having some success in the early goings, as he was even able to knock Fedor down. But after being hip-tossed by the Russian heavyweight star upon getting the action back on the feet, it was then when he said things went out of control.
“That kinda hurt my ego,” Mir said during the recent episode of his Phone Booth Fighting podcast (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I gotta admit, it embarrassed me to get tossed through the air like that. So when we got up, I kinda went into street fighter mode. I just started throwing left hand after left hand instead of setting up my strikes and being composed, which, two years since I’ve competed seriously, my composure was not what it should’ve been.”
“That’s probably where the most ring rust came into it, is once I got into a firefight. I just got emotional instead of staying strategic.”
“I lost my cool. I let my ego dictate how I fought,” he added. “Before that, I’m pretty good at being very emotionless and not trying to let that enter it. But once I got thrown through the air, and it was such a highlight-reel kind of throw, my ego was very injured.”
Now 38 years old, Mir is eager to bounce back and carry on with his career. As of the moment, he is looking at returning in the summer under Russian promotion ACB, where he also works as the color commentator.
“They’re talking about October,” Mir said of his return date. “I’m like, OK, that’s cool. I would like to get a fight in with ACB before that so I can just get more time clocked under me, so I can get my timing back on for fighting. There’s nothing like it. We can train as much as you want, but there’s nothing like the real thing. I’ve had 40 seconds in the last two years, so I need some more time, some more rounds.”
“Hopefully the next fight up, honestly, I’ll probably not take someone as dangerous as Fedor, get my feet a little bit more underneath me,” he continued. “And then hopefully Fedor, if he goes through and has success and wins the tournament, maybe I can be his first title defense if I’ve strung together some wins.”
Mir (18-12, with 14 wins by stoppage), is currently on a three-fight skid. Prior to the Fedor fight, he also lost via first-round knockout to Mark Hunt in March 2016.
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