Frank Mir clobbers Bigfoot Silva at UFC Fight Night 61

MANILA, Philippines – Frank Mir has put the shimmer back in his prizefighting career by pulling off a first-round stoppage of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the main event of UFC Fight Night 61 on Monday, February 23 (PH Time) at the Gigantinho Gymnasium in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The 35-year-old Mir, who was coming off a one-year layoff and a four-fight losing skid, surprisingly made a quick work of the former EliteXC heavyweight champion by calmly implementing his newly-acquired boxing pedigree.

Switching from southpaw to orthodox, the jab was undoubtedly effective for Mir as he set up both of his early combinations with it, catching his Brazilian foe with a flurry against the fence in the opening moments of the scheduled five-round clash.

After seeing a loophole on Silva’s defense, Mir clobbered a left hook that instantly dropped “Bigfoot” to the canvas.

On the mat, Mir unleashed a series of rights and lefts before mixing in three vicious elbows to the head that forced referee Mario Yamasaki to halt the action at 1:40 of round one.

“I came out looking for the jab. I knew he hits hard. There was no doubt about that. He has a long right hand. I wrestle left side forward and my head coach said, ‘Switch back to orthodox.’ So, I did. That’s why I took extra time off. I learned how to box the correct way. The jab sets up everything. I’ve never had a dominant jab,” Mir stated in his post-fight interview.

For his marquee match-up with Silva, Mir acquired the services of Ana Julaton’s boxing trainer Angelo Reyes and tapped grappling expert Ricky Lundell to be his head coach.

“I got a hold of some good trainers, [who] really gave me a good offseason program,” the two-time UFC heavyweight titleholder added.

With his spectacular victory over Silva, Mir (17-9) places himself back on the winning track and earns his first Octagon triumph since December 2011 when he forcefully submitted Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira by breaking the Brazilian legend’s arm with a Kimura lock.

In a dialogue with Rappler nearly two weeks ago, Mir stressed that he would like to be part of UFC’s live event in the Philippines of May 16.

“Of course, I want to fight in Manila. There are a lot of legendary boxing matches that occurred in Manila. If you’re a big boxing fan or a fan of fighting in general, you probably know about Manila,” Mir said.

(RELATED: Frank Mir wants to be part of UFC Fight Night Manila)

On the other hand, Silva has lost back-to-back bouts and downgrades his mixed martial arts record to 18-7-1.

According to immediate cageside statistics by FightMetric, Mir landed a total of ten strikes in the fight, while Silva only delivered one. – Rappler.com