Former UFC champion Frank Mir made the defection the rival promotion Bellator, but things didn’t go his way. After rocking Fedor Emelianenko in the opening seconds, the Russian legend caught Mir with a brutal punch which laid him out, marking Emelianenko’s first victory in a North American promotion since Brett Rogers back in 2009.
Now, Mir is looking to fight again soon to get rid of the ring rust he gained during his two-year USADA suspension, but don’t expect to see the former UFC champion back in Bellator right away.
The longtime MMA veteran finally spoke out about the Emelianenko loss during a recent episode of his podcast. According to Mir, he’s looking into taking a fight with Russian-based MMA promotion ACB, where Mir does commentary duties from time to time (MMA Mania):
“Bellator came to me, and they’re talking about October,” Mir said on his. I would like to get a fight in with the ACB before that, so I can just get more time in clocked under me so I can get my timing back on for fighting.”
“I lost my cool; I let my ego dictate how I fought. I’m pretty good at being emotionless and trying not to let that enter, but as soon as I got thrown through the air, it was such a highlight-reel throw, my ego was very injured.”
“When we got up, I went into street fighter mode. Because I was pissed off that I got thrown through the air, all of a sudden I just went for the kill instead of trying to fight like a martial artist. I fought like a street fighter, and that didn’t fair so well.”
Mir (18-12), officially spent 48-seconds in the cage with Emelianenko at Bellator 198 last Saturday. The former UFC champ had been coming off of a long layoff after testing positive for a banned substance following his knockout loss to Mark Hunt in 2015.
While he did say he is looking to take his next fight elsewhere, Mir will likely return to Bellator sometime in the fall.
ACB features such possible heavyweight opponents as former UFC fighter Daniel Omielanczuk, Russian heavyweight standout Evgeny Erokhin, and Amir Aliakbari, certainly a winnable list of fighters for Mir to get back on track.
