April 10, 2015
By Ryan Porzl
This Saturday will see the return to the UFC of one of the greatest fighters in Mixed Martial Arts history. Mirko Filipovic (known in the MMA World as Mirko Cro Cop) will begin a third campaign in the UFC when he reenters the Octagon on Saturday and will have a memorable return as he faces the man who handed him one of the most crushing defeats in his career: Gabriel Gonzaga. For Cro Cop and his fans, this run is important as he gets to right some wrongs. After earning a legendary reputation as one of MMA's most dangerous strikers in PRIDE Fighting Championship, Cro Cop entered the UFC in 2007 where he had two tenures over the next four years. Unfortunately, the two runs were disappointing as Cro Cop not only failed to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship but he never even got into title contention. Will the third time be the charm? Can Cro Cop finally have the UFC run people thought he was capable of having?
On December 30, 2006, UFC President Dana White announced at the UFC 66 post-show press conference that Mirko Cro Cop had signed with the promotion. To say the very least, this appeared to be a huge signing. Cro Cop was coming off departing the Japanese based PRIDE Fighting Championship where he established his legend but with the promotion on it's last legs and the UFC making an incredible offer, Cro Cop made the jump. At the time, things couldn't be better. Cro Cop had a 21-4-2 record. He had wins over some of the best fighters in the world including Kazuyuki Fujita two times, Kazushi Sakuraba, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Ron Waterman, Alexander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa (the future Minowaman), Hidehiko Yoshida, and Wanderlei Silva. He was coming off winning the 2006 PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix and his title fight with Fedor Emelianenko can be considered the biggest title fight in MMA History.
The signing also appeared to be huge for the UFC. Their heavyweight division was never a strong division and their heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia was not popular especially with his (then) recent two performances in the third encounter with Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson. By getting Cro Cop, the UFC got themselves a legend of the sport and a well-known fighter who could bring prestige to the division. Best of all, if he was able to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship, the UFC would have an exciting champion who his known for his highlight reel knockouts. He's the type of fighter that casual and hardcore fans could get into. He was also big in his native Croatia and in Japan so he could've been used to get footholds in those countries. Unfortunately, what the UFC and their fans got was one of the most disappointing runs in UFC history.
Cro Cop began his UFC run at UFC 67 on February 3, 2007 where he defeated Eddie Sanchez by TKO. It was no where near his biggest win or a great one but it served it's purpose in introducing Cro Cop to UFC fans not familiar with PRIDE. His second fight was at UFC 70 on April 21st and was where everything went south. Facing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion Gabriel Gonzaga, the thought among people was that this was another tune up fight where Cro Cop scores another win to set up a huge dream fight between himself and new champion Randy Couture. The fight went as expected at first with Cro Cop preferring to strike and Gonzaga preferring the ground. After a period on the ground, the referee stood them up and the fans cheered as if they knew a knockout was imminent. While one indeed was, it wasn't from the person they thought as Gonzaga landed a shocking head kick that knocked Cro Cop out. To say the least, the win and the way it happen has been considered one of the most shocking upsets in MMA history. Many fans and people in the MMA industry have considered the loss to have begun Cro Cop's decline as he was never the same. Attempting to bounce back, he took on Cheick Kongo at UFC 75 on September 8th but lost by unanimous decision which marked the first time Cro Cop was on a losing streak.
With a disappointing UFC run, Cro Cop spent 2008 back at his old stomping grounds in Japan with the newly formed DREAM organization. He bounced back with a 2-0, 1NC record though the competition was a far cry from the best he fought during the PRIDE days. He defeated future 2010 DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix runner up Tetsuya Mizuno at DREAM 1 by TKO. He followed up with a no contest against future DREAM Heavyweight Champion and UFC Fighter Alistair Overeem due to two accidental groin strikes from Overeem. He finished his DREAM run at the New Years Eve Dynamite 2008 show where he defeated the 7'2 Hong-Man Choi by TKO.
Having gotten back on track, Cro Cop agreed to a one fight deal with the UFC and returned at UFC 99 on June 13, 2009, where he defeated Mostapha Al Turk by TKO. Following this fight, Cro Cop hinted at a return to DREAM where he would take on Mighty Mo at DREAM 10. Instead, he agreed to a three fight deal with the UFC. His next fight saw him take on future heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 103 on September 19th which he lost due to verbal submission. Following the Dos Santos loss, there were questions regarding Cro Cop's hunger and killer instinct. He ultimately bounced back and had a good 2010, scoring wins over Anthony Perosh and Pat Barry at UFC 110 and 115, respectively. The wins marked the first time Cro Cop had a win streak in the UFC and the latter win earned him a submission of the night bonus. Unfortunately, following the two fight win streak, Cro Cop would suffer a three fight losing streak. His replaced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as Frank Mir's opponent at UFC 119 on September 25th and lost by KO. He then fell to Brendan Schaub by KO at UFC 128 on March 19, 2011. In his recent UFC fight, he would lose to Roy Nelson by TKO at UFC 137 on October 29th. Following this, his contract expired and it looked as though Cro Cop's days of fighting were done.
In 2012, Cro Cop defeated Ray Sefo in a kickboxing fight at "Cro Cop Final Fight" on March 10th. While it originally appeared to be his retirement fight, Cro Cop decided to continue fighting. He spent the next year focusing on kickboxing as he competed in K-1. On March 15, 2013, Cro Cop won the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix. While K-1 was a nowhere near as huge as it once was, the 2012 World Grand Prix will still be considered the greatest honor in Cro Cop's kickboxing career. After going 5-0 in K-1, Cro Cop signed with GLORY where he went 1-1 in 2014 as he lost to fellow K-1 legend and WGP winner Remy Bonjasky by majority decision on March 8th at GLORY 14: Zangreb. In his most recent kickboxing fight, Cro Cop defeated Jarrell Miller by unanimous decision at GLORY 17; Los Angeles on June 21st. While competing in kickboxing, Cro Cop would eventually return to MMA. His return fight was a win over former sumo wrestler Shinichi Suzukawa by submission at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye on New Year's Eve 2012. His following fight was the only loss between his UFC runs as he lost to current UFC Fighter Oleksiy Oliynyk by submission at Legend Fight Show 2 on November 8, 2013. He then bounced back by defeating Satoshi Ishii by TKO at IGF Fight 2 on August 23, 2014 to win the IGF Championship. He would then retain it and score his 30th MMA win in a rematch against Ishii on New Years Eve at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014.
Now on Saturday, Cro Cop reenters the UFC and will have the chance to avenge arguably his worst loss. Going into this fight and beyond, there's definitely a question of what kind of future Cro Cop has in the UFC. Right now, it's safe to say the odds are against him. He's 40 years old, he's competed in 44 MMA fights, 120 combined fights (amateur boxing, kickboxing, and MMA), he's not as healthy as he once was, his chin is questionable, and he's been competing in combat sports for 21 years. Not to mention that Cain Velaquez has looked good as heavyweight champion, Fabricio Werdum has been on a role as his striking has improved which makes him more well-rounded, and the company has some prospects including Travis Browne, Stipe Miocic, and Derrick Lewis.
To Cro Cop's credit, he does have some things going for him. For one, the heavyweight division has changed a lot since he left in 2011. Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin have retired. Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos have been riddled with injuries and very long layoffs while Dos Santos looks like he's begun to decline. Frank Mir was on a four fight losing streak that he recently snapped. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is on the verge of retirement. Roy Nelson looks like he's declining and Josh Barnett is MIA. Alistair Overeem's UFC run has been disappointing. Bigfoot Silva has shown signs of declining after being forced off TRT and having gotten two surgeries on his pituitary gland. Daniel Cormier has since dropped to Light Heavyweight.
Other benefits Cro Cop has is the fact that he admits in previous fights to have trained with only kickboxers and jiu-jitsu fighters. For his fight with Gonzaga, Cro Cop has brought in Stipe Miocic which allowed him to have actual MMA sparring with an MMA fighter. MMA is an evolving sport and at times, it seemed like Cro Cop had outdated training. Now it seems like he's trying to evolve. He also comes off as motivated which he admitted he wasn't in his last two runs as he mostly did it for money. If Cro Cop is truly motivated then that will make a big difference. Finally, let's face it: stranger things have happened in the UFC. In recent years, we saw Mark Hunt and Matt Brown go on long losing streaks and were throught to be done for only to rally back and rack up long win streaks with Hunt even getting an interim heavyweight title shot. Then there's Robbie Lawler who went from a has-been in Strikeforce to UFC champion. Fabricio Werdum was mostly a talented jiu-jitsu fighter that was once cast aside by the UFC only to now become a well-rounded fighter who is the interim heavyweight champion.
Overall, we won't know how Cro Cop will fare in his third outing until it happens but it will be interesting to see if Cro Cop can right the wrongs of his previous runs and have a good run. Even if he never wins a title, it will be interesting to see if he could at least have a Mark Hunt or Matt Brown like run. Will third time be the charm or is Cro Cop destined to never have big success in the UFC? Time will tell.
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