UFC Fight Night 61: Bigfoot Silva not afraid of Frank Mir's ground game

Antonio Silva has seen better days inside the Octagon.

After winning two straight against Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem, both via devastating knockout, "Bigfoot" has gone 0-3 in his last three outings, with a draw against Mark Hunt sandwiched between knockout losses to Cain Velasquez and Andrei Arlovski.

As he heads into this Sunday's (Feb. 22, 2015) heavyweight showdown against former division kingpin Frank Mir at UFC Fight Night 61 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Silva is planning to putting it all on the table, as he knows another loss won't be too good for his career.

"I'm going to fight Frank as if this is a title fight and he was the No. 1 ranked fighter. That's the way I will fight him," Silva told FOX Sports.

With most of Antonio's finishes coming via strikes, people sometimes forget the fact that he's a jiu-jitsu black belt. Should his bout against Mir -- one of the best submission specialists in the history of the sport -- turn into a five-round ground war, Silva says he'll be more than ready.

That's because the massive heavyweight has yet to be submitted in his entire 10-year career.

"A fight's a fight, you never know where it could go, but I'm very comfortable on the ground," Silva said. "I've fought a lot of great jiu-jitsu names. I fought Fabricio Werdum, and I've never been submitted. So if I have to fight five rounds on the ground, I'll fight five rounds on the ground."

Of course, that probably isn't the wisest thing to do if he's trying to avoid his third straight defeat. That's because Mir has submitted the best-of-the-best, including Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the man previously regarded as the best jiu-jitsu practitioner in the history of the heavyweight division.

Then again, if a ground game does ensue, that would be right up Mir's alley and it would increase his own chances of avoiding his fifth straight loss.

Easy solution!