Following his knockout of Todd Duffee at UFC Fight Night 71, the former heavyweight champion got the call from the UFC to face fellow MMA veteran Andrei Arlovski as the co-main event of UFC 191. In a recent interview with Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review Journal, Mir expressed his displeasure with the fight promotion's decision.

"In one sense, I'm not happy about it on a social level," Mir said. "I think we both have a lot to offer the sport and I don't want to see either one of us derailed tight now. I would have been much happier with this situation if we could have skipped each other at this point. I could have fought someone else in the top three and he could have fought Werdum for the title and then we could have faced each other in a title fight instead if he would have won," he added, pointing out that both of them have battled back into being contenders after being counted out.

"Here's a guy who was on the top. He went from the pinnacle of our sport to getting cut, signing with other organizations and losing more and he's getting put out cold. Everyone's saying he's done, his chin is gone, he needs to retire and this guy doesn't listen to anybody. He just said, "Nope, I'm going to keep moving forward and figure out a way.' He's better now."

After almost retiring back in 2011, Arlovski has strung together three straight wins in the UFC, and has won seven of his last eight overall to find himself as the 4th ranked heavyweight in the UFC.

Mir, for his part, ha strung together back-to-back knockout victories after losing his previous four fights.

The two are scheduled to fight on Sept. 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada.