Opponent Announced For “Cro Cop’s” DREAM Debut
Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Nakao has been named as the opponent for Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a heavyweight match to take place in Japan on March 15 in the newly formed DREAM promotion, according to MMA Junkie. News of Cro Cop’s opponent first broke earlier today via his web blog:
“A little over an hour ago I was contacted by DREAM officials. They informed me that my opponent on March 15 will be Yoshihiro Nakao from Japan. It was very important for me to fight as soon as possible and I’m happy that DREAM was able to find the opponent for me.”
Yoshihiro Nakao has competed in K-1 and Pride FC since 2003 and is currently 6-1-0 in his professional MMA career. Nakao has notable wins over Don Frye and Wesley Correira, with his only loss coming from Kazuhiro Nakamura.
DREAM’s March 15th event will mark Cro Cop’s return to the world of mixed martial arts, following a pair of disappointing losses in the UFC to Gabriel Gonzaga, and most recently to Cheick Kongo at UFC 75.
Loading ...
im not too excited by cro cops return to fighting.i hope he can recapture what he had but unless comes back into octagon and shows up then it wont really matter how many wins he picks up.
Excellent news! Got this from Sherdog.
Confirmation Thursday of a rumor that circulated for weeks has made Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) the most sought-after free agent in mixed martial arts … again.
The move by Emelianenko, first reported by ESPN, immediately rekindled talk of the Russian heavyweight fighting in the UFC, perhaps even against Randy Couture (Pictures).
I hope Cro Cop can return back to his winning ways and his destructive form. All it takes is the right couple of wins over the right people and in impressive fashion and people will be talking about him again. That’s just how this sport is. Let’s just say “hypothetically” he somehow fights Fedor, Barnett, and Couture and KOs them all. Everyone will be talking about him again and how he’s regained his “fire”. The same thing has happened to Liddell, Couture, Penn, & GSP where they have been down in the public eye after some disapointing loss, but after a few impressive wins they were right back up again.
FixXer,
Really? You’re right, that is GREAT news! I sure hope the UFC can land him this time and then maybe Randy will be willing to work something out with UFC and come back as well. I just hope that somehow a Fedor-vs-Couture fight can be put together soon!!!
Thanks for the info FixXer!
The thing I hate most about Cro Cop leaving the UFC is that there were still some really interesting fights for him there that if he won, he would have been right back in the spot light very easily. I would have loved to see the following match ups: Cro Cop-vs-Tim Silvia…..Cro Cop-vs-Arlovski…..Cro Cop-vs-Werdum…..Cro Cop-vs-Vera….Cro Cop-vs-Randy Couture
i read about fedor but i think for him to join ufc a lot would have to happen a return to japan is more probable i think although everybody should hope he joins! saying hypothetically that cro cop kos all of them is one thing but in reality he looked woeful in the ufc. im not saying i dont or didnt rate him just that he needs to look a lot sharper and then show his best in then ufc to impress me.
THAT WOULD SWEET IF UFC CAN PICK HIM UP. I JUST WANNA SEE RANDY FIGHT 1 MORE TIME WIN OR LOSE. THANKS FOR THE NEWS
I swear i heard that Fedor signed up with M-1
He did and now he is a free agent… Cro Cop is not good in the cage, so its good he got to DREAM…
Cro Cop will return to the UFC. In an interview he stated that he is not under contract with Dream and is just fighting fight to fight. He claimed that the UFC couldnt arrange a fight for him for awhile and he didnt want to break his training routine so he will fight three fights this year with them, but plans to return to the UFC in the fall. I like him and really think he will have a come back now that he has the desire to fight again.
Cro Cop admitted he was not himself in his last two fights, an also stated that he will be training in the octagon he bought for his gym threwout the duration of his Dream fights. So dont be surprised if late this year when he returns to the UFC he gets a rematch with either Gonzaga or Kongo. An trust me when I say he will be the Mirko Cro Cop that won the 06 Grand Prix.