Frank Mir happy he ended up with Steve Cunningham in boxing debut, not a 'tomato can'
Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir is happy to still be facing a worthy opponent in his professional boxing debut.
Mir’s original opponent, 52-year-old Antonio Tarver, was forced out when the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission did not grant him a license to compete. Instead, Mir, 41, will take on Steve Cunningham under the Triller Fight Club on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
When Tarver withdrew, Mir admits he was worried he’d wind up facing an unestablished name. He’s ultimately glad it’s Cunningham.
“I didn’t want some tomato can to get stuck in there to where it diminishes your victory,” Mir told MMA Junkie Radio. “You’re like, ‘Well, yeah, of course you beat that guy who’s some journeyman boxer, who’s 18-30 and he gets paid 1,500 dollars to come in and basically take a beating to pad other people’s records.’
“So when I saw that Cunningham was obviously not that, somebody that it made me nervous to watch him just fight. I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the guy.’ That’s what I need in my opponent. I need somebody that, when I look at you, you scare me. Otherwise, it makes training hard.”
Cunningham, 44, is a former IBF cruiserweight champion with a career record of 29-9-1. He hasn’t fouguth since an August 2017 unanimous decision loss to Andrew Tabiti on the Mayweather vs. McGregor undercard.
Though Mir claims that Cunningham is a tougher test, he still hopes his matchup with multiple-time boxing champion Tarver can get rebooked, as he looks to continue embarking on this new chapter of his career.
“I think Tarver has one hell of a name. Hell, he’s a movie star, really recognizable,” Mir said. “I think it’ll be a crafty fight, and I’m very interested in doing it. So maybe we can do it in Florida, that way I could fight around some of my family from my father’s side and some of the Cubans, and I’ve never gotten to fight in Florida, so it’s always been on the bucket list anyways, and I think their commission doesn’t have that statue or that regulation where a 50-year-old fighter has to have fought so many times in the last five or 10 years, whatever it was exactly that was holding Tarver up.”