Cro Cop vs. Al-Turk Official For UFC 99
As reported in May, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will return to the Octagon at UFC 99 on June 13 in Cologne, Germany against Mustapha Al-Turk.
From UFC.com:
After weeks of speculation, the news is finally official – international superstar Mirko Cro Cop is returning to the UFC. One of the most feared strikers in MMA history, the 34-year old resident of Zagreb, Croatia will be taking on England’s Mostapha Al-Turk in main card action on June 13th’s UFC 99 card at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.
The 2006 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix champion, Cro Cop (24-6-2) holds wins over Wanderlei Silva, Josh Barnett, Hidehiko Yoshida, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Heath Herring. And though he only went 1-2 in his first UFC stint in 2007, he is unbeaten in three straight bouts since then and is looking forward to making a run for the UFC crown his second time around.
Despite Cro Cop’s announcement of his return last month, the bout wasn’t officially announced until today as Filipovic had not yet officially signed for the fight. Contracts have now been finalized, allowing the UFC to promote the Croatian star in an attempt to boost ticket sales for the event, which had sold just 7,200 tickets for the 18,000 venue as of mid-May.
UFC 99: The Comeback is headlined by a catchweight matchup between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva.
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[Pictured: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic]
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fantastic news and even better picture… seriously looks like a picture you would on a site for “insert humorous comment here” type thing…
CroCop improves to 2-2 in the UFC then goes onto rematch Gonzaga . . . . In my opinion anyway
I’m glad this fight is official. Can’t wait to see Cro-cop back in action in the UFC, but i’m not going to count out Al-Turk because anything can happen in the octagon and look what at what happened when people counted out Gonzaga.
I feel Cro-cop still has the stuff and most important,the will and desire to not only improve,but go out on top before his time is up. I hope he can get the win on this one and possibly rematch Gonzaga and work his way up to a title shot. I’d love to see him in a title fight no matter who has the belt,Lesnar or Mir. SHould be exciting to watch how his second go at the UFC turns out.
Personally I am not thrilled with this news. Yes I do believe there needs to be more quality fighters in the UFC’s HW division, but I don’t think that Cro Cop is a quality fighter anymore. If we take Fedor out of the picture, all of the dominant fighters of yesterday are fading away.
Tim Sylvia, Big Nog, Randy Couture have all not only tasted defeat, but soundly so against newer oponents. Nog is the exception, I don’t consider Frank Mir a next generation fighter but maybe he has managed to evolve while others have not.
Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes are prime examples of dominant champions that have been not only dethroned but completely replaced! Both fighters have been dominated by opponents in their respective weight classes. Hughes has no answer to GSP and looked completely lost against Alves. Chuck… poor Chuck.
Cro Cop did not look impressive with his NC bout against Overeem and I don’t expect to see him fair well with many others in the UFC. He still does not employ much in the way of a ground game and relies on his LHK much like Chuck did his over-hand right.
I don’t see CC fairing well, and expect him to be beaten by fighters like Lesnar (if he managed to work his way up to a title fight), Mir, and Carwain just to name a few.
Cro Cop is as yesterday a fighter as is Josh Barnett. Cro Cop is a serious fighter that many disregard because he’s primarily a stand up guy. Clearly he’s not on Lesnar’s ground games level (few are), but he’d do well against Carwin (not Carwain). Cro Cop has beaten Barnett 3 times; let’s not disregard this soon-to-be legend’s skills.
Yes, Cro Cop’s past achievements where very good. But he has only been a shell of the fighter that took Fedor to the limits in Pride. He has not shown the same speed or stamina since then. I know there was a time when he complained about leg pains from that fight, and age has to be factored in to his decline. I am not saying for a minute that Mirko is not a legend, or will not be remembered as such, but I do believe he is fighting past his prime and will not last long back in the UFC.
Good to see this fight is finally official. Now maybe they can promote it and try to help sell out those tickets in germany. It should help the UFC’s PPV buys aswell. Cro-cop via decapitation( i hope).
I’m probably in the minority here, but I just don’t think that Cro Cop’s game is well-suited for cage-fighting in general, and the crop of grapple-happy UFC HW’s in particular. Even if Cro Cop gets past Al-Turk, which I don’t think is a given, how long will it take for some other UFC HW to put Cro Cop on the ground in the Octagon, and either g-n-p him into retirement or stretch him like the new guy at a submission wrestling studio?
I’m not fighter-bashing here, I just think Cro Cop is better suited and served by concentrating his efforts in a combat sport where his glaring ground weakness isn’t so easily exploited.
actually you are in the minority BUT I am also. I’ve thought that since day one, it’s why in previous posts I said Cro Cop had to develop a solid ground game to survive in the cage. It’s the only reason why I think Fedor would be fine coming over and Barnett has already proved he can do it.
Mirko Cro Cop is the best!You will see!Hi is angry and that’s very very good!Go Mirko go