Sorry haters, but Frank Mir is not retiring with a loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 169

If former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight titleholder Frank Mir is going to retire from mixed martial arts (MMA), it's going to take more than a silly little thing like a four-fight losing streak.

Especially when it's not "do-or-die."

That said, don't expect the hulking grappler to hang up the gloves if he's unable to get past Alistair Overeem on the main card of the UFC 169 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which takes place this Saturday night (Feb. 1, 2014) inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Mir vents to ESPN:

"I kind of know no matter what it's not going to be my last fight. I'm still younger than a lot of the guys in the division. There are two ways I would consider retirement. One is losing to guys who are not top-level competition. The other is if I started losing where it's like, 'OK man, you were knocked out viciously and staring at the rafters.' I won't endanger my health. I'm sorry if those three losses aren't killing my ego. The losing streak started with Junior dos Santos, the No. 1 heavyweight in the world at the time. Then I lost to Cormier in a pretty boring fight and then to Barnett, which to me was a no-contest because the fight had a very controversial stoppage. Look at who I've fought. I should retire? Wow. We'd only have five guys in every weight class because everybody else would need to retire."

There is, however, one guy who could force him to retire.

Mir (16-8) is just 34 years old, which makes him younger than half the division's top-10 ranked fighters, including Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, Fabricio Werdum and Mark Hunt, among others. Unfortunately, he hasn't beat a top-10 fighter in over five years.

No time like the present.