Mirko “Cro Cop” To Return at UFC 99 Against Mustapha al-Turk
Heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, who looked unimpressive in a three-fight UFC sting in 2007 that saw him go just 1-2, will return to the Octagon in June at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany against Mustapha al-Turk.
From Cro Cop’s official blog:
“I decided to fight in the UFC again, because of the stronger competition in the heavyweight division. My next opponent will be Mustapha Al-Turk. I didn’t do well in my first three appearances – I wasn’t myself. By returning to the cage I want to prove that I can still fight at highest level, no matter when or where. It’s hard to talk about concrete plans, but I would really like to fight at least three times this year. I wish to fight against quality opponents and to fight my way up to a title shot but for now, I’ll focus only on my next fight and after that we’ll see what’s going to be on the menu next. I want to say thank you Mr. Dana White for your interest and for an invitation back to the UFC. I owe you a lot from our first deal, and I’ll make it up to you.”
Since leaving the UFC following back-to-back losses to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo, Filipovic has won two-straight bouts, defeating Tatsuya Mizuno and Hong Man Choi at DREAM 1 and Dynamite!! 2008 respectively, while also fighting Alistair Overeem to a no contest after getting hit with several illegal groin strikes.
Al-Turk (6-4), a Cage Rage veteran who had been scheduled to battle Todd Duffee at UFC 99, suffered a first-round TKO loss to Cheick Kongo at UFC 92 in December in his UFC debut.
The reason for Duffee’s withdrawal from the card has not yet been revealed.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC news.
[Pictured: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic]
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Yes! Hopefully we will see the animal that we did we saw in PRIDE this time around. CroCop will get Al-Turk out of the with little worry and hopefully see the winner of Nogueira and Couture. A title shot in or after 3 fights? Hmmmmm only time will tell. Great news though
Man,this is awesome news. I hope he can put a few wins together and work his way to a title shot. It would be so awesome to see Cro-cop “Cro-cop” the hell out of Brock Lesnar.
I’ve always been a Cro-cop fan and i hope he redeems himself from his previous time in the UFC. This is a good move for him to end his career on a high note whenever he choses to reitre and he belongs in the UFC anyway. He has what it takes to still compete at this level. fortunately for him most Hevyweights prefer to stand and strike rather than take the fight to the ground which still gives him that chance of knocking guys out. I feel that he has really good overall striking, but tends to get careless and somewhat reckless when the pace is pushed on him.
I feel he still has a few highlight reel left kick knockouts in him before he hangs it up. The good thing about Cro-cop is that he is a huge name and would make great fights and matchups with lots of top Heavyweights in the UFC.
I’m rooting for Cro-cop to make a run at the title and win the title.
For now just give us another cool ko and drop Al-Turk with that left kick.
I just want to point out that you keep talking about that Cro-Cop needs to work on his ground game, but fortunately most HWs like to stand. Which is true, but Al-Turk prefers to take guys down and then GnP them, fortunately for CC, he’s not all that good at it…
Most hw’s like to stand…? Lesnar (uses size to take guys down/wrestle/g n p), Mir (submission expert), Couture (greco roman wrestling), Nogueira (BJJ/boxing), Gonzaga (solid stand-up/BJJ), soon to be in UFC Fedor..meeting with Dana in June (machine on feet or ground), so i dno what you’re trying to imply here. As for Cro Cop, i’d love to see him back in the octogan and succeeding, i’ll never forget the tournament in Pride in which he dummied wanderlei silva and Josh Barnett to claim the championship of the tourny, just wicked.
this is great news that he is back, and adds to a grwoing hw talent pool. even if he wins I dont think he gets the winner of coutore-nog, I think kongo gets that, unless kongo gets the next title shot. I would love to see cro-cop make a run for the title.
CC is overrated never did much in his career… Can’t fight on the ground and should retire… How dare he think cuz of two wins and getting his nutz crushed by Overeem he can step back into the cage and be a forc, if anything he has always been a farce, and I discredit everything he has done til he proves that he can beat an elite fighter……..
Now that I’ve covered the trolling aspect of this thread we can move forward… I can’t wait to see CC come back and shine he is a true legand of our sport and quite frankly has a good opprotunity to bring some “new life” to the UFC HW division.. And also it’s nice to see that Dana has kept his word about bringing CC back for the “remander” of his contract… I can’t wait to see CC ,(Cro COP) Turk… Sorry for the above comments trust me I’m a huge fan
I totaly understand what your saying. This really is Cro-cop’s chance to shine one last time and prove he can win against elite fighters. I still think he has a decent shot of reaching the top though. I know everyone knows what to expect when they fight him, but that kick can drop anyone if caught by it.
How dare you diss the Cro Cop!!!!!! Chuck Norris checks the closet for Cro Cop before he goes to bed. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!!!
Now the crazed response to trolling is taken care of too.
Haha, sarcasm! I love it.
SWEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Don’t get too excited Marvel he’d have to still improve his ground game and takedown defense if he’s going to get to the top of this heavyweight heap(still feels good to be able to say that about the UFC’s heavyweight division again).
I do however like this for both guys. For Cro Cop it’s only 10 hours from home and it’s not far for Al-Turk either. So you can bet both will want to put on a show. If I just judge on similar competition then I give the fight to Cro Cop but I am still a little wary about which Cro Cop will show up, so it should be interesting. I am encouraged by his quote above though and hope that he comes through on it!
yeah man, i’m just excited because i’ve always been a fan, but he does need to work on his ground game and i’m also wondering which Cro-cop will show up. However, i like his chances because most guys in the Heavyweight division like to strike which gives Cro-cop a decent chance.
CroCop beat the hell out of Big Nog before he got tapped. Bottom line is that CroCop will be a top contender in the HW division and there isnt 1 guy in there that you can 100% guarantee he could not defeat
Improve his ground game? Last time I checked he beat this excellent wrestling/submission guy, I think his name’s Josh Barnett or something like that.
Cro-cop does need some work on his ground game. If he gets take down by any guy, he’s in trouble. Theres a big difference of being on top of a guy, then being the one whos on the bottom. Off his back, Cro-cop is at a high risk of getting pounded out or tapped out. He should work on his takedown defense and on his overall ground game, that would make him more dangerous and give him more confidence instead of hesitating while trading with other guys
Aswell as Josh Barnett hasnt CroCop defeated wrestlers Ron Waterman, Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman? Randleman by sub at Shockwave in ‘04 I think
Has Crocop faced a good ground game fighter? I don’t think so, but he can and will eventually run into a guy who is very dangerous on the ground, especially if he’s coming back to the UFC.
I understand that most mixed martial artists can improve their game in all aspects. But what are you basing this on with Cro Cop?
He’s lost 6 times:
Tapped by Nog: no surprise, Nog’s arguably the best ground fighting HW in the world.
Punched out by Randleman: from what I remember, ground game was non existant in the fight
Decisions loss to Fedor: EVERYONE loses to Fedor. It’s amazing Cro Cop didn’t get finished by the ground master.
Decision loss to Hunt: can’t really remember the fight, but I doubt Hunt took it to the ground
Head kicked by Gonzaga: really drunk watching this one, don’t think it went to the ground though, and if it did Cro Cop was able to get up.
Decision loss to Kongo: see Head kicked by Gonzaga
The only person to finish Cro Cop on the ground was Nogueira. Not even Barnett, who puts everyone on their back, could get advantage over Cro Cop.
So I ask, once again, based on what does Cro Cop need to improve his ground game? Obviously if he wants to roll with Lesnar, Mir, Couture or Nogueira again he’ll need to improve his ground game and takedown defence, but so does everyone against those 4. I understand that he may have trouble under certain HWs, but they need to get him down first, and not many have been able to.
eldiablo,
In the fight between Cro-Cop and Gonzaga, the first ~1:30 of the fight was spent circling around with neither fighter doing much, then Gonzaga caught a kick and got a takedown. The next ~3:00 was spent with Cro-Cop on his back getting GnPed by Gonzaga while trying to tie him up and get a stand up. Cro-Cop then got the stand up he wanted and proceeded to get Cro-Copped twenty seconds later, just before the end of the round. (I just re-watched the fight.)
Part of a ground game is also taking guys down, it’s not just submissions and takedown defense. Believe me a large part of BJJ or SAMBO is takedowns, people just tend to focus on the guard work. I am a Cro Cop fan as well so I’m not bashing him at all I’m stating fact.
Anyways, here’s what I am basing it on: Kongo out pointed him all day on their feet and that’s where Cro Cop should be dominant. Mark Hunt dominated the fight with Cro Cop because Cro Cop just kept it standing w/ another former K-1 kickboxing stand out who had the worst submission defense ever. yeah he subbed Randleman but Randleman got over extended on a shot after KOing Cro Cop earlier in the year. Gonzaga dominated that fight from start to finish other than the one beautiful body kick (that was caught) Cro Cop had nothing for him. Against Minatauro yeah he beat him up badly before getting arm-barred BUT tim sylvia also beat up Minatauro before being submitted as well. In Pride if you were stuck on the ropes you were pulled out to the center and restarted in the center, if you get stuck against the cage…have fun with that, that’s a miserable feeling trust me because there’s no give and on your feet you can’t use it like you would ropes. I’m saying the guy HAS to learn how to better use the cage and start rounding off his game before he can be considered a title contender.
Also you made part of my point for me eldiablo, who doesn’t against the top 4 in the UFC, because that would mean he’s not even a top 5(since Kongo and Gonzaga both beat him) if he doesn’t improve. He’s always got the left kick(and his patented slice your eye with his gloves routine before he does the high kick, it’s smart and I’m not bashing it) but everyone is looking for it and as Gonzaga showed before if you can take that brutal shot and turn it into a takedown it negates the high kick.
Tw@- You can’t guarantee anyone 100% they could beat someone, so that’s kinda pointless.
Also don’t forget about those OTHER guys in the UFC Hwt. who will be making a lot of noise… Shane Carwin, Cain Velazquez, Junior Dos Santos, Pat Barry(the angry midget). Those guys all would pose a tough challenge as well.
So basically, I’m excited Cro Cop is back but I’m not about to label him a Championship Contender yet.
Could this open the door for CroCop vs Overeem II in the octagon?
You know that is a thought, but I doubt it honestly.. Overeem is the StrikeForce HW champion (contract I do believe has the “champions clause” in it) sooo unless Overeem loses his title soon I don’t see it happening… Overeem I believe also has two fights left on his contract with StrikeForce as I also believe that CC has two left on his UFC contract, unless Overeem gets randomly cut I don’t see him coming to the UFC…. CC going to StrikeForce would be more likely imo but that’s another conversation, now isn’t it???
O guys my first response (first part) was kinda a joke, I’ve read over and over those types of comments and essentially wanted to get the BS outta the way soooooo we can all talk about how nice it will be to see him fight again that’s all
I thought CroCop lost to Cheick Congo, not Fabricio Werdum.
???
Nice catch you are correct it was Kongo not Werdum, Werdum actually trained w/ Cro Cop for awhile as his BJJ instructor so I doubt you’d ever see them actually fight so nice catch.
I don’t know who Cheick Congo is but he did lose to Cheick Kongo (distant cousins I guess)……. Anyways I fixed it for you guys, thx for the headsup
Dude i’m excited to see crop cop back in the UFC. The HW division is the best that it’s been in HELLA long and the addition of crop cop certainly doesn’t hurt.
I know crop cop doesn’t have a highly “decorated” career, but let’s keep it real. We all know and love him for Cro Coping dude! His leg kick ko’s are legend dude and ironically the only other hw we’ve seen do that is gonzaga, to cro cop. I hope he comes back ready to battle.
“with my right leg they go to sleep. with my left leg they go to the grave” that ****’s funny dude
Cro-cop will “Cro-cop” at least two contenders before his time is done, i’ll bet anything on that.
crop cop’s going to whoop al turk’s ass. He should get hardonk after that. I wonder if we’ll see Crop Junior (Goran Rejlic) keep the “crop copping” alive in the mw division.
* cro cop-ing
I hope he does a lot better this time out than he did the last time. If not it’s to the bone yard with him.
Wanderlei, Herring, and now Cro Cop on UFC 99. Ahhh, just like the old PRIDE days.
excellent Old PRIDE days
Yes YES YESSSSS, i really hope cro cop will make a good comeback just like shogun did, hopefully wanderlei also wins hes match. I thought cro cop said he would be out for at least 6 months before he can train again…… hope he dont rush to soon, best of luck to mirko!!!! wooooooooooooo
Yes, Cheick KOngo’s cousin Cheick Congo, totally whomped on Cro Cop…and then woke up from that amazing dream!
I Want to see some HEAD KICKS!!!!
AWESOME! I hope he wins. He should fight the LOSER of Couture-Big Nog. Then, if he wins that, give him the Mir-Lesnar loser. If he beats him, for his last fight, give ‘em a title shot! Why not? Three fights in a row…he would have earned it.
WOW nice to see a positive twist on everyone’s comments (mostly)! I can’t wait to see him myself, I truly hope the Cro Cop of old (Fedor,Barnett) comes back, you cannot ever totally count him out until the last bell rings that’s what I like about him.
Good news for the European fans, (pssst nice work Dana! now the stadium will be filled in Russia!!!!)
Again just my opinion
Before it even starts, that’s “IN GERMANY” for some reason I had images of Fedor vs “The Law” running through my head, don’t ask
haha no worries I actually thought you were referring to the April Fools joke
O when Fedor grabbed the ropes cuz he was getting handled by an overweight and slow Lindland <——- the guy you just got destroyed by Vitor, ya that fight, there handled that point of view for you all (ya’ll)
um this comment is not about cro cop but what is al turk thinking he must want to have the record for shortest career in the ufc
how old is Cro Cop?