“To have an effective striking match, you need gloves on. Junior dos Santos would have a very short career if he was in a bare knuckle fight. The early UFCs, before gloves, were grappling with some striking.”

American former mixed martial artist and UFC Heavyweight Champion

Frank Mir is an American former mixed martial artist and former UFC heavyweight champion. He competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's heavyweight division for much of the 2000s and 2010s, and finished his professional MMA career in Bellator MMA in 2019. Mir is known for his long UFC run and for setting the record for the most submission victories in UFC heavyweight history. He fought 27 times in the UFC, held the promotion's longest uninterrupted contract tenure for a time, and was the first man to knock out and the first to submit Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.