Still Negotiating, Mir Hopes Carwin Match 'Works Out'

LAS VEGAS -- Ink has not yet been put to paper, but Frank Mir has already put on his scouting hat for a potential interim heavyweight title fight against Shane Carwin at UFC 111 on March 27 in Newark, N.J.

“He can hit pretty hard, but … it’s not like I don’t hit hard,” Mir said. “So it will be a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game on the feet. I don’t think either one of us really wants to take a direct shot from the other guy. I think it’s going to be two guys feeling each other out, looking for the opportunity to finish the fight. It’s one of those situations where we’re both so powerful that the first guy who really does something stupid is probably not going to win the fight.”

The match still appears to be in the negotiation stage, as Mir said he was “hoping that it all works out” when asked about the fight during a Q&A session that followed the WEC 45 “Cerrone vs. Ratcliff” weigh-ins on Friday at the Palms Casino Resort.

Mir, in his role as World Extreme Cagefighting color commentator, hosted the session. He was joined by WEC interim lightweight champion Benson Henderson and former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres.

Torres cracked jokes in his fast-talking style but went serious when asked about his surprising first-round knockout loss to Brian Bowles at WEC 42 in August.

“I watch that fight on a daily basis to remind me that I lost the fight,” he said. “I hurt him and I chased him and I got knocked out. I was out with the first punch he hit me with. He hit me in my ear and I was gone. For me, I watch it on TV, and I’m like, ‘Did that really happen? That’s crazy that happened to me.’”

Torres claimed his training camp for the fight was hindered by the unavailability of pros like Kurt Pellegrino and Mackens Semerzier, whom he had become accustomed to working with before big bouts. Instead, he got his usual cadre of locals who “just got too relaxed thinking you’re going to walk through whoever you fight.”

“I got caught up a lot into the hype of trying to stand and bang with guys instead of using my jiu-jitsu and my wrestling,” Torres said. “I’m going to fight them in their weaknesses and not fight them in their strengths. Put guys away in 20 second if I can. That -- and I’m putting on some size, so eating a lot of tacos and tortillas.”

Torres promised to shake up his training camp in preparation for his return to action at WEC 47 on March 6 in Ohio, leaving Chicago and splitting time working with Robert Drysdale and Jimmy Gifford in Las Vegas and Mark DellaGrotte in Boston.

Torres told Sherdog.com he has been given a list of five fighters he could face next: Damacio Page, Joseph Benavidez, Rani Yahya, Takeya Mizugaki or Scott Jorgensen. He said he was most interested in re-matching Mizugaki or testing his grappling against Yayha. Benavidez and Yahya collide on Saturday at WEC 45, as do Mizugaki and Jorgensen.

Other notes from the Q&A included:

• All three panelists were asked to name one of the most hurtful statements they had read about themselves in the media. Torres referenced forum chatter that he was overrated but added, “You’ve got to realize that a keyboard warrior is a 12-year-old, never trained a day in his life. He has a voice, and if you respond to that voice, you give him power.” Mir remembered “someone, one time, made fun of me for having a perm. It kind of hurt my feelings. I always had curly hair. I’ve always been really self-conscious about it. I tried to put a lot of stuff to straighten it out. Obviously, you can’t put anything in my hair [for a fight], so it’s ‘froey,’ and I’m very sensitive about that fact.”

• Henderson praised the regimen of Marv Marinovich in his recent training session with UFC lightweight king B.J. Penn. “The Marinovich brothers themselves -- they are freaking mad geniuses at what they do,” he said.

• When asked about comments from WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner, who claims he has an edge in their Jan. 30 fight, Henderson said: “He’s a confident dude. All us fighters are pretty confident; you have to be confident in yourself and what not. He’s confident in his skills. I’m confident in my skills. There’s only on way to find out.”

• Torres on new WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo: “His striking is crazy. He uses weird angles and weird strikes, and he makes them work. We have yet to see how he uses his jiu-jitsu in a match, and I think the first person that can take him down is going to test him there.”