Frank Mir Hopes to Fight in ACB Next Before Returning to Bellator MMA

Frank Mir may have lost to Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night but that hasn’t extinguished his desire to fight again sooner rather than later.

The former UFC heavyweight champion was making his Bellator MMA debut but unfortunately things didn’t go his way as he suffered a knockout at just 48-seconds into the opening round.

That marked Mir’s third loss in a row overall but the tougher part was coming back to face Emelianenko after two years on the shelf after he faced a lengthy suspension from USADA as a result of a positive drug test in the UFC.

That’s why Mir hopes to get back into the cage relatively quickly following that loss with hopes that he can compete in ACB (Absolute Championship Berkut) before making his return to Bellator.

“Bellator first came to me and they’re talking about October and I said OK that’s cool, I would like to get a fight in the ACB before that just so I can get more time clocked under me,” Mir revealed on his “Phone Booth Fighting” podcast. “So I can get my timing back for fighting.

“You can train as much as you want but there’s nothing like the real thing so I’ve only had 40 seconds for the last two years. So I need some more time, some more allowance.”

According to Mir, his contract with Bellator allows him to take fights in ACB, where he currently holds the role of color commentator for their shows.

With Bellator not planning to have him fight again until October, Mir would like to knock off some of the ring rust by getting in another bout before then in ACB.

“As long as Bellator gives their blessing. Obviously they have it in the clause where they can say no but pretty much I was given verbal assurances that would never be the case unless it were to interfere with their show,” Mir said about fighting in ACB.

“I guess the silver lining to a dark cloud is that I wasn’t successful on Saturday, I’ll get more fights this year.”