CBSports.com has an article up with Frank Mir in which he discusses his upcoming fight with Antonio Nogueira.
What he thinks of Nog:
I look up to Nogueira. I think he's a phenomenal fighter, somebody who is an inspiration to a lot of people. He shows a lot of heart in all his wars he's been in. Fighting him is not going to take anything away from him.
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He has a pace. I think Nogueira's a better athlete than sometimes he lets himself on to be. A lot of guys, we go for home runs in fights, and that can be a problem.
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He doesn't kill himself trying to get anything, he just sets a pace and keeps that same pace. He's like a marathon runner. He knows how fast he can run a mile and he can push a certain pace but if he goes faster he'll get tired, and if he goes any slower he lets the pressure of the guy.
On his conditioning training:
After I beat Lesnar I was back in the gym Monday. It doesn't mean I don't take a day off here and there to go spend time with the family, but two days never go by where I'm not in the gym, even when I don't have a fight coming up. And 10 weeks out I'm in the gym every day, twice a day.
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The minute you step in the ring you have a pretty good judge of where you're at. I knew where I was, I had no cardio in my early career in the UFC. That was due to my training. Cardio is not genetic. People can be a little bit better than others naturally, but you've got to work at it.
On how long the fight will last:
I don't see it being quick at all. I can't imagine that in over 35 fights Nogueira has had -- and no one has finished him -- that I'm going to be the one to do it.
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I've really expected that this fight is going to be a 25-minute fight. If anything my strategy has been more geared towards making sure I win convincingly on the judges' score cards.
Will it be a jiu-jitsu extravaganza?
I think going jiu-jitsu for jiu-jitsu is going to be quite difficult for me. He's been doing jiu-jitsu longer than I have, and if anybody asked me I would say he's a better jiu-jitsu guy than I am. He's been a black belt longer than I have. For me to say I have an edge there, I don't see where. But that's why I'm not trying to make it a strictly confirmed jiu-jitsu match, I'm going to use elbows and strikes and mix it up and go for more unorthodox submissions -- more footlocks and kneebars and whatnot.
If not JJ, then what?
Striking, I think I have the potential to be the better striker, but as far as actually applying it in the ring that's a different story. That's really going to be my goal now -- I've seen what I've done in practice and I need to transfer that to life.
And finally:
Nogueira can't stop me from fighting my hardest. I can stop me.
