Recent weeks in the gym have been pretty enjoyable for ex-UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir. He’s training to hurt someone.

That someone, in this case, is Todd Duffee, with whom he used to train in Las Vegas and who said some things to which he took offense on the way to getting their fight at UFC Fight Night 71.

“As far as trying to garner interest and petition for a fight, I completely understand,” Mir (17-9 MMA, 15-9 UFC), who headlines the July 15 event at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center, told MMAjunkie. “Some of the things he said, obviously that irked me a little bit.”

Duffee (9-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) used MMAjunkie Radio to call for a fight with Mir on the rationale that he needed a bigger challenge and other UFC heavyweights were booked. He may have gone a little further in separate interviews, claiming the ex-champ was just looking for a payday, among other things.

It’s not that Duffee said them, Mir said, but the fact that he backtracked later by downplaying his own talk.

“One thing is petitioning for a fight, it’s another thing when you start throwing things,” Mir said. “You fought, what, four times in five years, you’ve only fought one guy in the top-10, and that guy demolished you in 19 seconds. I think there’s still a certain relative perspective that should be kept.

“And I don’t like, and it’s kind of what he does, for somebody to do something that’s dickish, like me to slap you and then go, ‘but I’m not a dick.’ But wait a minute, you did a dick move. I don’t care what you say afterwards.

“For him to say, ‘Well, I’m trash talking, but I’m not really a trash talker.’ What? You can’t sit there and go, ‘I’m acting like a dick, but I’m not really a dick.’ It’s like, no, you’re a dick, and now you’re actually a coward, because you won’t even stand up for the fact that you’re a dick. At least be a real dick and embrace it.

“That’s one thing I respect the Diaz brothers for. Not that I would tell anybody that’s the smartest way to go about your career money-wise, but hey, those guys are across the board. When they’re flipping someone off, that’s them. They don’t sit there and act a certain way and go oh, I’m just trying to sell fights. I’ve never heard them ever say any of their antics are to sell fights. That’s just who they are. Like it or not, I respect the behavior, because they stick to their guns.”

In the end, though, the talk has given Mir a push as he prepares for their meeting. So for that, he has Duffee to thank.

He’ll just do it in the cage.

“It kind of brings you back to the fact of, I train to break bones and put people unconscious,” Mir said. “At the end of the day, I know we have a referee in there and there’s a point system, but this is fighting. This is me trying to dismember you and trying to hurt you and trying to completely crush the person in front of me.

“When Duffee says some of the things he’s said, it reminds me that I need to practice going for that armbar and adjust that position and hold there. Instead of thinking what the judges are going to think for this fight, I’ve been going in thinking I don’t really care what the judges say, about being on top or being in this position. I’m going for broke, and I want to make sure that this might be his last fight, that he’s unhealthy afterward.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 71, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.