Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir is a very polarizing figure who seems to have an equal number of fans and haters.  Mir recently answered a few questions for UFC.com, and here’s what was discussed.

Mir discussed the fallacy of younger fighters changing their game plans to cater to fans seeking stand up wars:

“I don’t care how I win the fight. I think sometimes a lot of young fighters get stuck in that thing where they say ‘I want to be considered a stand-up guy, so I’ll knock you out,’ or ‘I want to be considered a submission artist so I have to get the armbar or the choke,’ or ‘I have to get the ground and pound and show that I’m a superior takedown artist.’  I don’t care.  I’ve heard fighters go, ‘well, I got knocked out, but I stood here and I took it.’  I would look over at my wife, look at the ring and I’m like ‘did that guy just say that he lost, but he lost like a man?’  What the hell does that mean?  I don’t understand that because it’s all warfare, and I just want to win.  I’m not gonna go outside the rules; I’m still gonna be an honorable human being and say ‘these are the ground rules we settled upon.  Anything within those ground rules, I’m gonna use.’  I’m not gonna go ahead and prove a point in the face of defeat, because all people remember a week later is, ‘man, did you get knocked out heroically.’  I remember when I knocked out Wes Sims, everybody was like ‘well, you couldn’t submit him.’  I really didn’t care.  I was more like, ‘damn, I can’t submit this guy.’  I went after him with whatever I thought was best; I was in the middle of the ring, I looked up at the clock and said, ‘I’d better adapt. I can’t beat this guy this way.’”

His fighting style once the cage door closes:

“I’m more of a ‘get you out fast’ fighter. I like a quick sprint and I don’t like to stretch things out stylistically. I’ve always been bored with the take you down, ground and pound and wrestle you to death and win a decision on points type of matchup. And secondly, I think if I was to go in there, hesitate, and try to purposely see if the fight went longer, I think that only leaves him opportunities to catch me making a mistake. I have the mindset to go out there and the first mistake he makes I will try to take him out of there. But in the back of my mind, I’m not gonna be as worried with the fight going the distance as I would be with other fighters who have been there quite a few more times.”

What he thinks about his career:

“I think my career’s been a pretty interesting one as far as some really good highs and some really good lows, and it really hasn’t been a consistent increase in any one direction. I’ve been at it long enough that on a long enough time curve, anything in life will have its ups and downs. But as long as you keep bouncing back and going forward, you’ll have those high moments in contrast to the low ones. The reason why my life is different than someone’s in the same situation is that I never stopped trying to move forward. It’s not that I’ve got anything different going for me than anybody else. I think we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I’m not inhuman. I obviously have my shortcomings like anybody else; I just don’t give up. I just keep looking for a way to succeed, regardless of whether I do or not. That’s not a guarantee for success, but the only way you guarantee failure is by giving up.”

The full interview can be found on the official UFC web site — other topics include his motorcycle accident, bulking up after being manhandled after Lesnar-Mir II, and the importance of skill and mental strength.