Frank Mir is not a guy to mess around with.
Mir is one of the most decorated heavyweights to ever compete inside the octagon. A former UFC heavyweight champion, Mir is considered to be among the greatest heavyweight grapplers in UFC history and holds a number of promotional records along those lines, including most submission wins in UFC heavyweight history (8), fastest submission in UFC heavyweight history (45 seconds), and the only toehold submission in UFC history.
Along those same lines, Mir also has the distinction of being one of the only people to ever finish multiple fighters via technical submission, earning stoppages over Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira after breaking their arms with an armbar and kimura respectively when both men refused to tap during their fights. And as you might expect, this same thing happened to Mir plenty of times in training.
“I do a submission, I do it slow. That way I just apply pressure. I’ve broken guys arms and legs in the gym before,” Mir told the JAXXON podcast while sharing stories with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. “Because, in my mind, if I’m going really, really slow, if I lock it up and apply pressure, if you’re not tapping it’s because I don’t have the move. Obviously it’s not working, your limb is not in danger. If you’re one of those guys that just doesn’t want to tap, don’t train with me, because I’m going to f*ck you up. ...
“So guys, when I’m rolling with them — it’s only happened a few times — I apply pressure on a hold and I’m going, ‘Shit, I guess I don’t have it,’ and next thing you know their limb explodes.
“I remember one time I did it to a guy. He was a national champion in wrestling, D1, and I grabbed him in a kneebar and I’m applying pressure. I’m like, ‘Huh, I really feel like I have this,’ and next thing I know his leg folds. He screams. Forrest [Griffin] is rolling next to us. We stop, the guy grabs his leg, and he goes, ‘Hey bud, that was pretty stupid. Should’ve tapped.’ Salt in the wound, man!”
As a 20-year MMA veteran himself, Quinton Jackson has his own share of such experiences and after Mir shared his story, the former UFC light heavyweight champion brought up his former teammate Jason Miller, saying “Mayhem” was that sort of guy in the gym. And apparently Mir knew this first hand as he then told a story about nearly killing Miller during a training session.
“That happened on time with us. He screamed,” Mir said about training with Miller.
“We were training at Marc Laimon’s, and Laimon said, ‘Hey, Frank, practice is over ... once you finish somebody.’ So then I just went through and turned it on and started tapping everybody.
“So then I had Mayhem and I put him in a guillotine and he almost killed himself. He ran his feet up the f*cking cage, and almost tried to flip over the top of me. It was weird. So then I let it go and then I got him in a kimura and I applied it. I started going and cranking it and I was like, ‘I ain’t letting go. F*ck this. Today you’re going to learn!’ So I put his hand to the back of his head.”
The moral of the story is, if you’re training with Frank Mir, check your ego at the door.
