MIR OUT OF UFC FIGHT NIGHT DUE TO SHOULDER INJURY

By Ken Pishna

Frank Mir is out of his scheduled bout with Antoni Hardonk on the April 5th UFC Fight Night due to a shoulder injury. According to Sherdog.com, Hardonk will now face Justin McCully at the Palms in Las Vegas on April 5th.

Mir evidently suffered the shoulder injury in training and it wasn't healing properly for him to be able to fight. MMAWeekly spoke to his Business Manager, Dean Albrecht, who said, "We're not sure if it's the rotator cuff or a labrum injury." It's not even readily apparent when he suffered the injury. "He is not sure if it was from falling on the outstretched limb or just constant strain."

Albrecht said that they "should be receiving the results of an MRI and other related tests any day," but that the shoulder just wasn't strong enough for Mir to go into this fight. "With shoulder injuries, you get pain, instability, locking, decreased range of motion and loss of strength. Frank has it all with the most prevalent being loss of strength, which inhibited his submissions and, as you know, that is his strength. So it was decided to concentrate on being in top condition for his next fight."

Mir has struggled since returning from leg injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash in September of 2004. In his first fight back he was TKO'd by Marcio Cruz, won an uninspired decision against Dan Christison in his second, and then was TKO'd again in the first round, this time by Brandon Vera, his last time out. So, it is not really a good time for Mir to be taking unnecessary chances with his career.

Albrecht says that the initial indication is that it will take several weeks to rehab the shoulder, but the MRI should tell them a little more about the injury and give them a more definitive idea on rehab. If everything goes well, Mir is expected to fight on the next open UFC card following his rehab, which would most likely be in July or thereabouts.

With the free agent market heating up, Albrecht says that Mir has no plans to go elsewhere. "He is contracted to the UFC and does not want to fight in any other organization. Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta have been extremely supportive of Frank since day one and Frank loves fighting in Vegas for the UFC," affirmed Albrecht. "This injury has come at an unfortunate time since his training was going so well and the fight was in Vegas. He is training under Marc Laimon and at Randy Couture's [new gym] on a daily basis with a group of pros who go over there and all was falling into line for this fight, so he is very regretful that he had the injury."