Heavyweight veteran Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has signed a three-fight contract with the UFC, ending weeks of speculation about whether the popular Croatian fighter would return to the UFC or ink a deal with Japan-based DREAM.
UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta announced the signing on Saturday during a Q&A with fans at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas before UFC 100.
Nearly two years after leaving the Octagon following back-to-back losses to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo in 2007, Cro Cop (25-6-2) returned to the UFC in June, defeating Mostapha Al-Turk via first-round TKO at UFC 99. Filipovic’s future in the UFC was jeopardized when he reportedly signed with DREAM following the victory, his third-straight, but UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta was apparently able to convince the popular veteran to return to the Octagon by offering him a contract he “couldn’t refuse”.
Cro Cop is rumored to meet heavyweight prospect Junior dos Santos in a featured bout at UFC 103 on September 19 in Dallas, Texas.
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dos santos vs cro cop is a gonna be a tough fight for cro cop if it ends up being true…..dos santos has a great ground game and he like to push the action on his opponents…which is cro cops biggest weakness..its hard for mirko to strike when someone is bull rushing him and pushing the fight…mirko is not a counter fighter and if dos santos pushes the pass cro cop shouldnt have an answer for cigano
Agreed Gun, but Mirko is going to test that chin of his for sure.
I’m glad to hear this because i’ve always been and always will be a Cro-cop fan, of course i disagree with what he dod after the Al-Turk fight, but now everything seems to have worked out. I want to see Cro-cop make a run at the title, i know it’s a very difficult task being that guys like Velasques and Carwin are nightmare matchups for Cro-cop because he hasn’t done to well against guys that can put him on his back. But Cro-cop has shown decent takedown defense in the past that can allow him to score a tko or ko on some guys. I definitely feel he has the talent to make a run at the title due to his experience and the fat that he has fought great competition in the past. Even though he’s towards the end of the road, he can still score that left kick on guys like Velasques(who has a suspect chin-Kongo fight) and Dos Santos who is short for a Heavyweight. Either way it would be awesome if Mirko-Lesnar were to ever happen…just images Cro-cop dropping Lesnar with that kick, how fu*king awesome would that be. Hope to see good things from Cro-cop.
I’m totally stoked that he decided to sign another contract with the UFC but he just hasn’t looked the same in this recent performances, even in the Al-Turk fight. I hope he comes back strong and makes a run at the title. MK4, that would be eff-ing awesome to see Lesnar dropped by a head kick.
what do you think was so great great about the contract???
they’ll only show him getting kicked in the head by Gonzaga on highlight reels 50% of the time instead of every time =]
Even though his most recent preformances have been sub-par, he has an amazing resume and having him on cards will sell more PPV, esp in Europe/ Asian.
Great job by the ufc to get cro cop back in the ufc. Cro cop for the most part is an exciting fighter and with the hw division being the best it’s been in years, i expect to see him in exciting matches against great fighters. I like cro cop and i hope to see a glimpse of the old mirko when he returns to the cage.
If he fights dos santos, he can’t afford to look the way he did against al-turk. Dos santos is a hungry, well rounded young gun who’s ready to do him like kongo did.
IMO, I’ve never seen the HW division in the UFC this stacked. It’s going to get hella commpetitive for the battle to be #1 contender over the next year or so, ’bout time too.
Cro-cop dropped Fedor’s brother Alexander who is a tall dude, i just hope to see that left kick kand one more time on anyone. He needs to come in better shape though cuz Dos Santos will Werdum his a$$ if he doesn’t come in prepared. I havn’t seen Dos Santos ground game yet so i can’t say anything but his stand-up is sick and he has powerful punches and is not scared to engage which can pose problems for Cro-cop, but Cro-cop is fu*king “Cro-cop” so he has a chance no matter what with his deadly left kick.
I wonder if the winner of this fight gets a vicious KO, and Velasquez wins an uneventful decision if theyd give the title shot to the winner of that fight instead. Unlikely but possible
It seems like I’m in the minority, but I just don’t understand the point of bringing Mirko back to the UFC. I could understand if the HW division was floundering, and needed a name draw for the box office and PPV side of things, but as some of you have pointed out it’s the most stacked the HW division has been in years.
Also, Mirko has shown a disturbing lack of either attitude or aptitide [or maybe both] to adjust to UFC cage-fighting from the PRIDE ring-fighting. His performnces have looked pretty average, and I haven’t heard anything to make me think he’s re-tooled his skillset to better survive his next go-around in the UFC.
Or does he think his opponents will not test his takedown defense almost immediately?
Mirko to me has always looked like the prototypical MMA Euro-fighter, in that he has good [in his case excellent] stand-up and ring fundamentals, average cardio and defense, and zero ground game. In the ground-pounding caged environment of the UFC, his outlook for success is pretty dim with his current skillset.
dos Santos might lack the experience to beat Mirko, but then again the unfavorable style clash might make the point irrelevent. Even if Mirko manages to gets past a younger, hungrier cage fighter with reportedly a quality ground game, what’s next?
Caveman Carwin? Lesnar himself?
Please. You can forget all that “right kick hospital, left kick cemetery” jazz, because against either of those Neanderthals Mirko would be lucky to leave the Octagon under his own power.
It is conceivable that Mirko might do better against a lighter, more athletic HW like Cain Velasquez, or against Frank Mir if Mir stupidly comes to the cage again with a strike-first gameplan, but thats about it. If Mir were to take Mirko to the ground, it would be all over save for the tapping.
Heath Herring would also be a good matchup for Mirko, because neither of them have got a ground game, or interest in acquiring one from what I can suss out.
Maybe a good fight back for Mirko would be the winner of Couture-Nog or something. I’m sure Mirko wouldn’t mind a crack at avenging his earlier loss to Nog, and if Couture Captain America’s his way past Nog, I could see a Mirko-Couture bout getting some traction with the fans.
Also at Couture’s age and size, he might have trouble Couture 101′ing a guy the size of Mirko. From the looks of things, the Natural is never going to weigh in at more than 225, so a fitter, stronger Mirko might have a good chance at a “W”.
And Nog hasn’t looked like Nog for awhile now, thats for sure.
Nonetheless I wish Mirko well, and ultimately view his return as a positive for the sport. While I’m sure he’ll one day return to Japan for a farewell tour, we’ll be treated to supposedly 3 more Mirko outings, most likely one of them a title shot if he can put together a decent win over a quality opponent.
I wish him luck, because in the Land of the Lesnar, he’s going to need it…
great news.
but yea,
i sure hope he’s fixed the holes in his ground game, dealing with elbows, and big opponents who can control the ground.
his tdd and striking are glorious but,
Gonzaga’s elbows trumped all that, starting with catching a body kick.
it’ll be interesting to look back and see how many months or years the present wrestler dominant UFC HW era lasts.
surprising news about filopovic.
i’d be shocked if he survived anything like a lesnar at this point, but would like to to see another fight with Kongo.
who is he training with?