Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic Also Going Under the Knife
There must really be a PRIDE curse going around. First we learned that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua needed surgery to repair a knee ligament injury and now news have surfaced that yet another former PRIDE fighter is scheduled to go under the knife. Vecernji List is reporting that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will undergo surgery to correct a severely deviated septum. In short, this is a condition that may cause impaired breathing due to the narrowing of the nasal passage.
The article states that Mirko was seen by surgeon, Dr. Vladimir Bedekovic. According to Cro Cop, “When I came to the examination and when he saw how closed my nose canal was, the surgeon was shocked. He could not believe that I could be a top athlete with that deviation. It seems that this problem took away 50 percent of the stamina in my fights.”
If this is true, then it could possibly help explain one of the reasons why Mirko looked so gassed in his fight against Kongo.
Loading ...
Shogun is supposed to be giving a demonstration at a local gym here in Chicago. I don’t think he’ll be making it with the surgery.
I find it strange that all of these newly signed fighters are getting their old injurys fixed now. The UFC must have a killer insurance plan. I think that Pride left them injured and broke, now the UFC has to rebuild all of them. The UFC might want to look into making sure a fighter isn’t signing just to put on a lame showing to get some surgery on an old ACL or something like that. I am glad the UFC takes care of their fighters, but that’s kind of lame.
i hope cro cop can get back to somewhere near his best.his last 2 fights have been so dissapointing from his point of view.
Hopefully Cro Cop comes back stronger and more determined. I still believe he can be a threat in the UFC Heavyweight Division. I assume there are many fans that would buy a UFC PPV, if it consisted of Cro Cop vs. Arlovski; I know I would.
that sounds a great match up.i still think hes a threat to just gotta get back to winning ways.maybe a drop in weight class? who knows but still a great striker.
crocop——-light heavyweight division……do work
Here’s an idea I’ve been thinking. Since Mirko has been weighing in around 220, Dana should propose to him to drop to 205. Mirko is a difficult sell at heavyweight since he’s dropped his last two. No one wants to pay to see Mirko a second teir heavyweight. However, since there is no clear cut contender to Rampage, you could offer Mirko an instant title shot at 205. Much like what Dana did with Randy Couture. Just think if he would have lost to Silvia he would have been done. It allows Dana to hype up Mirko again and give him the same opportunity Randy had, to reistablish himself as a big time fighter. It’s a no lose situation. For Mirko gives him a chance to redeme himself and be back on top if he would win. If he loses, so what he’s pretty much done at heavyweight anyways. For Dana it allows him to hype a falling fighter. If he loses, so what, he’s lost 2 in a row, hasn’t looked good and no one would really care. If he wins, than you just added another top fighter to 205, and revived Mirko’s career.
Just because he’s in a slump doesn’t mean he’s done at heavyweight.
This could be very good news! Mirko should be 100% when he comes back and perhaps he’ll reconsider retiring for now. He can still kick ass at heavyweight. The LHW division is deep enough as it is.
I respect Mirko, and have been very disappointed at his performances since he made the transformation from Pride to the UFC, I do feel that when a fighter does not live up to the hype then they will always blame there bad performance on this or that, I think Mirko has had some very hard fights in Pride which must take its toll on any fighters body, and to keep injury free is near on impossible, the reason the UFC wants fighters like Mirko, Henderson, Silva etc is because they are exciting fighters to watch but all these fighters have been through battles and by the time they reach the UFC there bodies are battered through training and the severe fights they have been in so it is hardly surprising that some were along the line they require some sort of surgery.
[...] Mirko Cro Cop recently underwent surgery for a deviated septum. In his last fight with Cheick Kongo he made comments to referee Big John McCarthy that he was getting too old for this after being kneed twice in the groin. His future with the company remains up in the air. For more on the surgery, click here. [...]