Frank Mir Praises Kimbo Slice, Thinks Roy Nelson Should Drop & More

When he was asked recently about Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson by Fanhouse.com before last Saturday's The Ultimate Fighter Finale, Mir was quite complimentary.

“I think Kimbo has a lot of abilities," Mir admitted. "I think he is a very talented athlete. If he gets with the proper camp, I think he will do well. I was very impressed with his fight with Roy Nelson I thought that he actually caught him with a few shots. With a little more training he can easily be a threat to a lot of guys. He is a very powerful person. I have a lot of respect for him. I think that he is doing the right thing. The fact that he went out into the reality show and didn’t just ask to be put in the UFC and get a big contract, you know that took a big risk.”

Based on that assessment, Mir must have been pleased with Kimbo’s victory over Houston Alexander in The Ultimate Fighter Finale. Mir must have appreciated the marked improvement in the Floridian street fighter’s MMA skills now that he trains with Ricardo Liborio and American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt was less complimentary when he shared his thoughts on Roy “Big Country” Nelson, the eventual winner of The Ultimate Fighter 10.

"I think Roy has great wrestling, but structurally though, I know he hates when I tell him this. I think he needs to go down to light heavyweight. The whole big belly thing is cool I think he will struggle with some of the better heavyweights in the UFC. He would be much more a force to reckon with if he dropped down. It’s not like he is 265 and ripped. He would be a very good athlete at 205. He’d be a menace. He could still beat guys at heavyweight, but will he be an unstoppable force. Nah, he is giving up a lot of height. I can speak from experience, quality size matters."

Given Nelson’s relatively easy win over Brendan Schaub in the finale, it may be difficult for Mir to convince Big Country to make that sixty pound weight cut and drop to light heavyweight. Additionally, Nelson may be hesitant to part with that “big belly” that serves him so well as a tactical tool to pin down his opponents while in side control.

Mir seemed annoyed when he addressed the claims of other fighters’ marathon training sessions.

"I hear guys say they train eight hours," he said. "That’s bullsh*t. They don’t train eight hours… it’s not quality training. If I workout two hours in one work out, honestly it’s forty-five minutes of working out. You know what I mean. Let’s be realistic. You have your warm up, your cool down, your breaks, your talking… As far as your heart rate being at 170 and your throwing blows and going at it, that’s forty-five minutes. If you have two workouts a day, that’s an hour and a half. That’s a far cry from eight hours. There’s nobody who’s going four, five days in a row, eight hours a day. I know they can be in the gym. I’m in the gym all day long too. But I’m not training full blast… There’s no way I know of to keep the body from not breaking down...”

Clearly Mir did not see Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva’s workout regimen on UFC All Access in which the former PRIDE middleweight champion spends the greater part of his life in the gym snorkel training in anticipation of a bout with Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell at UFC 79: Nemesis.