Issue 133
October 2015
Knocked down, counted out and written off – how five of MMA’s most popular fighters fought back to define their careers
Frank Mir
Defeating his demons
No matter how good a fighter is, they’ll always hit a bump in the road. Whether it’s a losing streak, injuries or personal problems, no mixed martial artist is immune.
When most are faced with staring into the MMA abyss, they falter, fade into obscurity or simply retire. But then there are a few exceptions, the truly great fighters, who won’t go quietly. They change things up and find greater success than ever before, achieving the defining moments of their careers.
On September 17th 2004, just three months after being crowned UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir’s life was tuned upside down. While out riding his motorcycle on the eve of his wedding, he was hit by a car and launched 80 feet down the street. His femur was snapped in two places and his knee ligaments were in shreds. The wedding was off and doctors said he may never walk again.
Though Mir got back to his feet and was eventually able return to the Octagon, 15 long months later, he’d been stripped of his title. Worse still, he was a shadow of the fighter who broke Tim Sylvia’s arm to clinch Octagon gold. In his next three fights, devastating TKO losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera were only punctuated by a lackluster decision win against Dan Christison. The Las Vegas native was slow, overweight and technically deficient.
He admitted he wasn’t living the lifestyle of a martial artist. Flirtations with depression and alcohol clouded his training camps and he just couldn’t get his mind past his accident and the possibility of re-injuring his leg. But finally, the people closest to him rallied behind Mir to support his road back to the top. He rededicated himself to training like a champion, and returned to form.
Remarkably, his best career wins came after his horrific accident and long road to recovery. The highlights were undoubtedly his first-round kneebar on Brock Lesnar, and becoming the first man to stop Antonio Rodrigo Noguira to capture the interim belt at UFC 92. His emotional post-fight speech after his TKO of ‘Minotauro’ summed up what he’d been through.
“To come back and fight the best heavyweight to ever fight in the UFC and get a win over him after what I’ve gone through, it just shows… I’m proof you can do things,” he said. “I didn’t think I could beat Nogueira. If I was a betting man, I wasn’t on Mir’s side tonight. I came through this with the love of my family, my children, my wife, everybody.”
Chris Lytle
Reinvention pays off
Despite featuring on season four of The Ultimate Fighter, which was dubbed The Comeback, Chris Lytle didn’t even begin his career resurgence until after the show had wrapped.
The 54-fight MMA veteran made it to the final of the competition, but lost to Matt Serra in a fight that could charitably be described as boring. By his own admission, Lytle was fighting not to lose, which sucked all the life out of his bouts. Holding an unremarkable 2-5 Octagon record, he needed to change things up, or face receiving his walking papers.
Instead of playing it safe, ‘Lights Out’ decided that he’d leave everything in the cage. He didn’t win ’em all, but it turned out to be the best decision of his long career. Not only was his place on the UFC roster secured, he would go on to become a fixture of main cards and a fan favorite. The rest of his UFC run was defined by whirlwinds of violence that whipped fans into a frenzy. Though Lytle never reached the championship level, the decision to adopt a kill-or-be-killed style of fighting paid – literally.
He earned 10 performance checks including six ‘Fight of the Night,’ one ‘Knockout of the Night’ and three ‘Submission of the Night’ bonuses, adding up to $435,000 of extra scratch and a reputation as one of the sport’s all-time great action fighters.
Andrei Arlovski
Back from the brink
A decade ago, Andrei Arlovski was on top of the world. He was one of the UFC’s biggest stars and sat at the top of its heavyweight division. He had the skills, he had the look and he had a spell as champion. Even after he lost his belt, ‘The Pit Bull’ was still a hot property. He left on a three-fight win streak to sign a lucrative contract with upstart promotion Affliction that would be worth $1.9 million for just two fights.
But then things started to go wrong for the Belarusian. A brutal KO at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko began a disastrous four-fight skid that had fans doubting his ability to compete at the highest level. Accused of possessing a glass jaw following another two savage knockout losses, it was the lowest point of his career, and possibly the lowest of his life. He admitted in 2009 that he put a gun to his head for a game of Russian roulette during that losing run.
Arlovski was cast out from the world’s major MMA promotions, but he refused to give up. He resolved to make his way back to the top the old-fashioned way: hard work. Under the tutelage of Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he impressed for the Pro Elite, One FC, Fight Nights and WSOF promotions, fighting around the world from Hawaii, to Russia, the Philippines and back to Las Vegas, until he got the call from Joe Silva to come back to the UFC.
Three fights and three wins later – including one ‘Fight of the Year’ contender against Travis Browne – Arlovski is one of the heavyweight elite again, and on the cusp of an unlikely rematch with Fabricio Werdum for the chance to reclaim the championship he once held.
Randy Couture
Out of retirement
“This is the last time you’re gonna see these shorts and these gloves in this Octagon. I’m retiring tonight. That’s it for me, I’m ready to do something else.” Following his second KO loss at the hands of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture emotionally announced his Octagon career was over. He was a legend – a two-time champion at heavyweight and light heavyweight, and the first man to hold belts in two weight classes – but he was outgunned by a younger, hungrier fighter. The time was right.
But less than a year later, the competitive spirit buried deep within ‘The Natural’ was itching to break out, and he fancied his chances against the UFC’s crop of heavyweights. Some fans and commentators thought he should have stayed retired. They said he was too old and too small compared to six-foot-eight, 265lb champion Tim Sylvia. But the 43-year-old had other ideas.
“(People said) he shouldn’t be coming back, he shouldn’t be doing this, he doesn’t have it any more, he’s going to tarnish his reputation,” said Couture. “That’s bullcrap. I’m not tarnishing anything. I’m going out and getting after Tim Sylvia”
It took all of eight seconds to prove his point. Couture launched a bazooka of a right hand and floored his gigantic opponent. A then-record North American crowd in the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, went berserk, and kept screaming as the UFC Hall of Famer dominated for 25 minutes.
“Not bad for an old man,” he joked to Joe Rogan after the fight. But he wasn’t finished there. At 44 years young, ‘Captain America’ completed his comeback by doing what all true champions do, and defended his title, pounding Gabriel Gonzaga out for a TKO win at UFC 74.
Robbie Lawler
Relocation revival
Just a couple of years ago, it looked like Robbie Lawler had lost his fire. Once considered the 170lb division’s hottest prospect as a 20-year-old, it appeared MMA had evolved beyond his skillset when he was fighting at 185lb in Strikeforce 10 years later.
Far from the lethal striker that thrilled fans in Zuffa’s early years of UFC ownership, ‘Ruthless’ slumped to a 3-5 run in the Caliornia organization. Lowlights included losses to grappler Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral and gassing while being outclassed by Lorenz Larkin.
Most of the stars he trained with during his formative years had long since retired, and Lawler was left as a de facto MMA orphan – a man without a fighting family. He was largely in charge of his own training, and lacked the guidance to make the most of his unquestionable talent.
But when Strikeforce was sold and its fighters were absorbed into the UFC, he received the kick he needed to turn his career around. He rededicated himself, committed to cut back down to welterweight and relocated his training to Florida and American Top Team.
ATT head coach and co-founder, Ricardo Liborio, said Lawler “really found himself” in Coconut Creek. The benefits of structured training, real coaching and a return to sparring, which he had shunned for so long, showed in the cage. He surprised all but his most ardent believers when he incinerated Josh Koscheck in his Octagon return.
And that was just the start of one of the most remarkable rebirths in the sport’s short history. Within two years, he fought his way to a UFC welterweight title shot twice, captured and defended the belt and was crowned the World MMA Awards ‘Fighter of the Year’ for 2014.
...
