Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has arguably made its highest
profile acquisition.
On Friday, Fight
Bananas first reported and a BKFC representative
subsequently wrote that former
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight king Frank Mir
(19-13) has opted not to retire from combat sports. The 41-year-old
recently became a free agent after his Bellator
MMA contract ended, and he has reportedly elected to join the
ranks of bare-knuckle boxing. He will become part of an
organization with a roster that includes other ex-UFC names like
Gabriel
Gonzaga, Antonio
Silva, Thiago Alves
and Chris
Leben, to name a few.
One of the most dangerous grapplers to ever set foot inside the
Octagon, Mir left the promotion with eight submission wins on his
ledger – good for the most in UFC heavyweight history. In Mir’s
last eight victories, four came by knockout; this number accounts
for 80 percent of his total victories due to strikes. On the other
hand, Mir has been knocked out 10 times as a professional including
eight times in the UFC. Both he and fellow heavyweight Gonzaga
share the lead for the most knockout defeats in UFC divisional
history.
Mir has dropped four of his last five bouts in MMA, but his final
fight came in a rematch against Roy Nelson at
Bellator 231 in October 2019. Taking a decision over Nelson, Mir
earned just the fourth of his 19 wins on the scorecards. Mir does
not currently have a date or opponent in place for his BKFC debut,
but there is a slew of prospective opponents that could welcome him
including Gonzaga, Silva and Ricco
Rodriguez.