Despite 0-2 Start and Near-.500 Record, Mostapha Al-Turk to Fight Again in UFC
Despite back-to-back losses to Cheick Kongo and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic as well as a career record that hovers just above .500 at 6-5, Mostapaha Al-Turk will fight again in the UFC.
“The UFC has said Mostapha will get another fight. It’s kind of one of those things that was confirmed, but we knew would probably happen beforehand as well, going into the fight on short notice and things like that. It’s a tough fight the UFC gave us. Both of the fights have been tough so far,” Al-Turk’s trainer Paul Ivens recently told MMAjunkie.
A Cage Rage veteran, Al-Turk suffered a first-round TKO loss to Kongo in December before suffering another first-round TKO defeat to Cro Cop on Saturday at UFC 99. Though all but elite-level fighters would likely be cut by the UFC following two-straight losses, Al-Turk accepted the bout with Cro Cop on just two weeks notice after originally agreeing to fight newcomer Todd Duffee on the event’s preliminary card and the bout was marred by a missed eye poke that setup the fight-ending flurry of punches.
According to the report, Al-Turk suffered a slight tear in his eye but no lasting damage is expected.
A date has not yet been set for Al-Turk’s must-win fight, which is likely to take place before the end of the year assuming his eye heals as expected.
[Pictured: Mostapha Al-Turk]
Tags: Mustapha al Turk
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It’s kind of bad luck for him. Kongo and Cro cop both are top notch. Ontop short notice, eye gogue blah blah.
Why keep him? Prof X lost on short notice and they cut him. Dana must really be pissed about the Cro Cop thing (although now Mirco’s claiming this to be a misunderstanding).
Prof X was a mutual thing from what I have gathered. Apparently his camp felt like he was mentally unprepared for the UFC.
Who really cares about Al-Turk? He has proven nothing even though he’s fought “the upper tier” of guys in his short time here. He to me at least, has NO chance against Brock, MIr,Randy, Nog hell even the texas crazy horse if he ever gets healthy again.
I think Al-Turk can take out Couture. One shot to the chin and Couture goes down.
Before the eye poke Al-Turk was running…. Randy has nor ever will run in a cage fight. I hope you were joking buddy. I know you are smarter than that.
Al-Turk always has that “backing away” Seth Petruzelli “one shot” chance.
Seriously, I do think that Al-Turk would be able to upset Couture ONLY because of Couture’s age, i’m not saying he’s awesome just that he has that “Matt Serra” chance. Because of Couture’s age, i feel a lot of “nobodies” can upset someone like him.
But that’s just me
i’m not actually saying he can beat Couture, just that he has that lucky shot like everyone else and that Couture’s age increases that Lucky chance.
Ya and i guess paulo thiago could beat GSP and I could beat jake shields if we all just catch them on the chin right? What your said goes without saying Marvel like Turk said your smarter than that. And just because Randy has been knocked a few times doesnt mean he cant take one on the chin. We went over this allready. Al-turk doesnt even need to be mentioned in the same breath as Couture. He needs to serve his country for ten years in the army, win the heavyyweight belt 3 times and then find away to cut down to 205 and win that belt then open up gyms and train some of the best fighters before he is anywhere near the man that Randy is. Sorry for going off here bud but show some respect.
carls, turk,
you guys have a point and i aprreciate the fact that you guys think i’m “smarter than that”. I honestly was not saying that Al-Turk is great NOR that he CAN beat Couture easy, i was just saying that he just like EVERYONE else has a chance to get LUCKY like other guys in the past have. I know what you guys mean when you say he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Couture, but it honeslty was just a thought.
prof x was… well we’re not supposed to fighter bash here, he deserved to be cut
i like al turk he wants to fight and he wants to put on a show, both his fights have ended with him losing but neither one did they just stand around and clinch or lay on top of each other he makes the other work and i think that has alot to do with him staying. dana likes good fights and there arent that many that are willing to put on the show cause afraid it’ll cost em match.
even after mostapha got poked in the eye and covered his face running other way anyone see that cro cop still missed 3 punches hahaha
haha good one ryansmith
i think everyone should look at this as al turk’s second fight and chance because the guy clearly was poked in the eye. IMO he did not lose whatsoever. If anything, he was pushing the pace on cro cop and it was the cro cop that was backign up. Who knows what would have happened if he didn’t get poked?
I don’t think al turk will do anything special @ hw but the guy got poked and should be given a second chance and if he fought it, it would totally get overturned from a loss to a no contest.
Actually, if he fought it it would not get overturned from a loss to a no contest, because there is no rule that allows that. When the UFC holds an even in a place like the UK or Germany where there is no AC, they follow NSAC rules. The first AJ v. Kevin Burns fight was in Nevada, and AJ did appeal that decision to the board. The NSAC has no method by which to overturn a decision based on an illegal strike, so it remained a loss. As a result, the UFC will treat the Al-Turk the same way, following the precedent already set by the NSAC.
NSAC director Keith Kizer is trying to push for a method by which these situation can be avoided and/or overturned, which you can read about here.
Thanks Justin, didn’t know that.
You know what i mean dude, if there was an ac, this would be overturned that’s why the replay is going to be awesome to prevent things like this from happening.
Cro cop looked so washed up…..I also noticed that if you push cro cop he can’t deal with it. My suggestion to cro cop is not to compete in UFC coz it will emberass him and his career. He has lot of popularity and if he doesnt wanna lose it then stay out of UFC.
Al- Turk is a good scrapper and is guaranteed to go looking for a fight.
After the Cro Cop debacle he deserves another good pay day.
He is never ever going to be championship material, but he has balls and the heart of a lion.
I agree, Cro-flop sorry looked pretty much scared in the beginning of the fight. Although when he started to get his timing down he was the aggressor. He needs to fight in Dream or whatever show is not the UFC where the BEST fighters are at cause, he’s not top level anymore I’m afraid.
Side note: The only thing I will defend him on was he had only had a major surgery five months to the day he said at least. That would have to be something physical and mental to deal with I would think. I know they are fighters and have to deal with things.
I think it’s funny what Cro Cop did. He kinda played Dana at his own game, except I’m not sure what he got out of it…..ummm, the chance to never fight in the UFC again. Wow, it’s a win-win situation.
There are more reports coming out that Cro Cop says he actually hasn’t signed with DREAM. But DREAM officials in the US have said that he has (They are known to be non-reliable sources at times), so… its still not clear what’s going on here. I haven’t updated or posted anything new even though stuff is out there because I want to give more time for the actual truth to be found out.
Most people have that feeling in the begining of a fight though Turk …. he just shows it in his face . Once you get that first shot in or take a shot the scared feeling is over . I have fought a dozen times or so and it was like that for me ( 3 amatuer boxing , 9 street style ) .
Is it possible that Al-Turk is still around because he’s a HW, when other fighters at lower weight classes were cut after back to back losses?
Maybe the UFC feels that the HW division isn’t nearly as deep as the other weight classes [which it isn't], so they cut more slack to a HW that drops 2 in a row than a WW or MW?
I also think that having a fight determined by an eye gouge is a pretty crappy deal [just ask Anthony "Rumble" Johnson], regardless of whether or not he was backing up or losing on points or whatever, so maybe thats why they gave Al-Turk another shot.
Hopefully in future fights Al-Turk will live up to some of that potential Dana White saw in him that led to signing him…
That would make sense about the HW div being realy lacking in talent but they cut Werdum after one loss to dos santos, and he had just beat Gonzoga and Vera. The UFC does some wierd things.
dude, i usually agree with you on things, but Werdum deserved to get cut, did you see how he just dropped his head way before the punch landed on him(dos santos) AND his fight against Vera was stopped WAY to early, he didn’t land one punch on Vera, as far as the Gonzaga fight i’m not taking anything away from him there because it wasn’t his fault that Gonzaga just dropped to the ground and quit.
I actually think that Dana saw Werdum as a problem and Dos Santos fixed it. Cause he was a due for a title shot at some time but hes a boring hard to market fighter. Thats why lesnar got the shot before him. And when asked why he got cut from the UFC dana said “because he lost two fights” arlovski like 2 years ago and now Dos santos. Ya like that makes sense. Then supposedly Affliction was gonna pick him up but didnt, so either companies arent interested in him from a promotional standpoint or hes asking for to much money. Cause i herd that after the loss to Junior Dana wanted to renegotiate werdums contract(obviously pay him less)next thing you know hes gone. The cut i was most dissapointed about was Rich clementi. Hell he actually made Gray Maynard look like an average fighter.
dude your right, i didn’t even think of those things. And i agree with you about Roch Clemeti, he’s a good fighter with lots of potential and they simply let him go too soon AND Werdum was problably asking for more money than he deserves, but thanks for clearing that up for me.
I think that shortly before the Dos Santos fight Werdum had gotten a raise, and then after that fight Dana wanted to take some of that back. Werdum wouldn’t back down on his asking price, I guess he thought he could get the same or more from Affliction. He got the boot, then called up T~Shirt guy and said, “Hey, I’d like to fight for you guys and I want to make this much money.” Then T~Shirt guy said, “That’s nice, good luck with that,” and moved on without him.
I say give Al-Turk Gabriel Gonzaga. They are both coming off a loss and hey…Gonzaga won’t poke you in the eye Al-Turk, but he can problably right kick “Cro-cop” your ass.
Good call on the Gonzaga matchup, that dude needs a win and hes one of the bigger names in the WH div. so it could be a good comeback fight for him. Ya gonzaga by decapitation
I’m certainly not trying to fighter-bash here, or start any unfounded rumors, but sometimes in other pro sports when strange decisions come down, or a talented player gets released for what seems like a weird reason and a less talented player is retained, commentators and other media-types refer to it as a “citizenship” issue, by which they usually mean the athlete in question has some sort of personal and/or attitude problem, or maybe an undisclosed injury, or something of that nature.
As this relates to Werdum, maybe there was some sort of legitimate “behind-the-scenes” issue that on the surface appeared unreasonable but had some basis in fact for the promotion. Or maybe this is really all about money, but I can’t recall reading about Werdum asking for some sort of insane contract, and I would think that in order to promote/market a fighter of Werdum’s caliber all that need be done would be to place his damn name on the media materials in clear letters…
I sort of responded to this here before I read your comment.
Thanks for the clarification. It sounds from what you’re saying like Werdum basically talked himself out of a job.
Too bad for the UFC HW division…