The main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 61 card features a five-round battle between two heavyweights who are fighting for their UFC lives.
On one hand you have Brazilian Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. The former UFC heavyweight title contender has lost two of his last three fights and is overall 2-3, 1 NC in the UFC. After losing via first-round TKO to Cain Velasquez in his bid to become heavyweight champ at UFC 160, Silva then had a “Fight of the Decade” contender against Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 33,
and all seemed well. However, Silva tested positive for elevated testosterone levels in a post-fight drug screening and had his draw against Hunt switched to a No Contest in addition to drawing the ire of the fans, media, and UFC president Dana White. After serving a nine-month suspension for his drug infraction, Silva returned to action at UFC Fight Night 51, but despite entering his bout against Andrei Arlovski as a big favorite, Silva was brutally knocked out in the first round, a devastating loss that makes you wonder how much punishment his chin and body can take.
On the other hand you have Frank Mir, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mir, who was once one of the most feared fighters in the division, is now a shell of his former self. Mir has lost four straight fights — to Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, Daniel Cormier and Junior dos Santos — and hasn’t won a fight in MMA since UFC 140, all the way back in 2011. And that was a fight he was losing against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira until he pulled out an incredible hail-mary kimura after being rocked. So really, he hasn’t looked good since a win over Roy Nelson at UFC 130 in May 2011. And that was a fight where Nelson was sick. Prior to that, Mir had a horrible fight with Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 119 and before that he was brutally KO’d against Shane Carwin. Although he’s a former champ and a sure-fire UFC Hall of Famer when it’s all said and done, the fact is he hasn’t looked good in years, and the only reason the UFC has kept him around so long is because of his name and marketability.
Combined, these two men have been knocked out 12 times — Mir seven times, and Silva five times. Both men are 35 years old. At some point, both men are going to have to look in the mirror and ask themselves how much longer they want to do this. With a dearth of heavyweight talent in MMA, both men are still ranked among the top 20 heavyweights in the world, but all of those knockout losses add up over time, and combined with both men being former TRT patients who have both looked terrible since getting off the now-banned substance, you have to question if they should even be allowed to fight.
This is a main event, but it shouldn’t be, and it wasn’t supposed to be. It’s only the main event because Rashad Evans pulled out of his planned light heavyweight bout with Glover Teixeira. Otherwise, this fight would have been on the UFC 184 undercard, where it would have been three rounds, and not five like it is now. Instead, fans are now left with a main event featuring someone with four losses in a row who hasn’t won a fight in four years against someone on a three-fight winless skid who hasn’t won a fight in two years. Sure, someone likely gets his head knocked off in this fight, and the fans will likely be happy with that, but I personally feel like this is an awful headliner, and I’m just hoping the added pressure of both men possibly being cut with a loss adds something extra to the fight. But it’s doubtful.
• Antonio Silva vs. Frank Mir
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UFC Fight Night 61: Mir vs. Bigfoot (formerly UFC Fight Night 61: Evans vs. Teixeira) is due to take place on February 22, 2015 at Gigantinho Gymnasium in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
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