Debunking Jordan Breen's Article on Mirko Cro Cop

Debunking Jordan Breen's Article on Mirko Cro Cop
November 26, 2015
By Ryan Porzl

On November 13, MMA reporter, journalist, and host Jordan Breen wrote an article on the recently retired MMA legend Mirko Cro Cop. The article could pretty much be considered a hit piece criticizing Cro Cop's career and his achievements at a time when Cro Cop announced his retirement after admitting to using human growth hormone to treat a shoulder injury for his November 28th fight against Anthony Hamilton before pulling out. Being a Cro Cop fan, I decided to debunk the article because I refuse for a legend I'm a big fan to be tarred and feathered as he potentially retires which could damage his legacy to newer fans.



The first false claim to target is Breen's claim that Cro Cop got "preferential treatment" in PRIDE and later the UFC. While Cro Cop fought the occasional can, they were few and far between as he only fought four during his 24 fight run in PRIDE which were Nobuhiko Takada, WWE wrestler Alberto Del Rio, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and Shungo Oyama. His other fights were against Wanderlei Silva (two times), Kazushi Sakuraba, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, former King of the Cage Super Heavyweight Champion Ron Waterman, Kevin Randleman (two times), former PRIDE Middleweight (205 pounds) title contender Hiromitsu Kanehara, Alexander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett (three times), Mark Coleman, Former M-1 and 2 Hot 2 Handle tournament winner Ibragim Magomedov, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Minowaman, and Hidehiko Yoshida. If that's not a murderer's row then I'd like to know what one is. If PRIDE wanted to give Cro Cop preferencial treatment then there were plenty of freak show fighters and cans they could've given him to practice his recycling skills like Akira Shoji, Daijiro Matsui, Henry "Sentoryu" Miller, Zuluzinho, Yosuke Nishijima, and Giant Silva.

Speaking of some of the cans Cro Cop fought, there's a big reason. In the case of Takada, this was Cro Cop's second MMA fight ever and PRIDE probably put it together because both were draws and this was the Tokyo Dome. The Shungo Oyama fight was because there wasn't many other options. The fight took place in July 2004 which meant Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira, Sergei Kharitonov, and even Naoya Ogawa were unavailable as they were still in the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix with the semifinals being a month away. Meanwhile, Semmy Schilt, Heath Herring, and Kevin Randleman just fought a month earlier as they got bounced from the grand prix while Cro Cop already defeated Herring and was already bounced himself by Kevin Randleman in April. However, the biggest reason Cro Cop was given a can at times was because he was very active. If you look at Cro Cop's record during his PRIDE years, he was easily one of the most active fighters. His busiest year was 2004 where he fought eight times. This is a thing about PRIDE most fans don't understand. If PRIDE fighters were given cans then a lot of that was because of scheduling. In the UFC, it's easy for the top fighters to always fight top fighters because most UFC fighters only fight 2-3 times a year unless they're filling in. PRIDE fighters usually fought 4-6 times a year and when you have fighters fighting that much, you're going to run out of elite fighters for them to fight or maybe you don't want to exhaust all the big money fights so quickly. Not to mention that PRIDE held grand prixes and if a fighter was eliminated early or wasn't participating in one then that means there's not a lot of options for them as was the case for Cro Cop as he remained active through out 2004 despite being eliminated in the first round.

A great example of Cro Cop not getting special treatment is his participation in the 2004 Heavyweight and 2006 Openweight Grand Prixes. For the 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix, there was some great fighters on there but also some freak show fighters like former sumo wrestler Henry Miller, kickboxer Stefan Leko, and pro wrestler Giant Silva. There was also an undersized Murilo "Ninja" Rua as well. I should also point out that neither Miller or Leko had ever competed in MMA heading into the grand prix while Silva was 0-1. So having said all that, PRIDE decided that with three freak show fighters, an untested Hirotaka Yokoi, and an undersized Murilo Rua in the grand prix that Cro Cop would face in the first round.....Kevin Randleman. Yes, Dream Stage Entertainment (the parent company of PRIDE) decided to protect Cro Cop by giving him a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, a great athlete, a two time NCAA Division I champion, and someone with power. Even better is that if Cro Cop was able to advance than he would've faced the winner of the Fedor Emelianenko/Mark Coleman fight. As for the 2006 grand prix, Breen downplayed Cro Cop's biggest moment by mentioning he defeated "inflated middleweights" in Minowaman and Hidehiko Yoshida and then writes about Cro Cop knocking out Wanderlei Silva while Barnett and Nogueira went the distance. However, he writes it in a way that it's Cro Cop or DSE's fault that Cro Cop finished his fight in five minutes while Barnett and Nogueira went twenty. It's written like Cro Cop is some vulture flying over them and then swoops in for the remains afterwards or like pro wrestling where poor Barnett went through a grueling gauntlet only for a fresh Cro Cop to immediately run out and finish him off. To be honest, looking at the participants, Breen would've complained regardless unless Cro Cop fought Nogueira or Hunt again. He would have an excuse for everybody else. Alistair Overeem was a light heavyweight at the time so Breen would say that Cro Cop didn't beat him at heavyweight and was undersized for the fight. Fabricio Werdum was still a one dimensional brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter so he would say Cro Cop didn't beat him in his prime and when he was well-rounded like he is now. Zuluzinho and Yosuke Nishijima were tomato cans with Nishijima being 0-1 at the time. James Thompson has a bad chin so he would say DSE put him with Cro Cop cause they knew Cro Cop would knock him out. Josh Barnett, Alexander Emelianenko, and Kazuyuki Fujita already lost to Cro Cop (Barnett and Fujita lost twice) so he would say DSE put Cro Cop with them because they knew he would beat them. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was arguably past his prime so Cro Cop wouldn't have beat him at his best. The funny thing is that you could argue Cro Cop had one of the tougher routes out of the final four. Sure, Minowaman is known for his freak show fights where he beats bigger opponents with a lot being tomato cans but he is still a talented grappler and he's a former Pancrase Neo-Blood Tournament Winner and Pancrase Light Heavyweight Title contender while getting a few good wins. He's no tomato can and it doesn't matter if he's undersized because his whole thing is fighting opponents far bigger or heavier than Cro Cop. Hidehiko Yoshida is a light heavyweight but Cro Cop was never a big heavyweight. Not to mention that Yoshida fought a lot of heavyweights during his career as defeated Don Frye in his debut, Mark Hunt in Hunt's debut, Tank Abbott, Naoya Ogawa, Maurice Smith, and Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii in Ishii's debut while falling to Olympic gold medalist Rulan Gardner, James Thompson, and Josh Barnett. Yoshida not only held a gold medal in judo but had a good chin as he was never knocked out leading up to the Cro Cop fight (even Wanderlei Silva wasn't able to knock him out in their two fights). As for the others, it's not like they went through a murderer's row. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had Zuluzinho as his first opponent with Zuluzinho coming off his 26 second submission loss to Fedor Emelianenko and then faced a one dimensional Fabricio Werdum. Josh Barnett had a tough first round against Alexander Emelianenko but then faced a one dimensional Mark Hunt who had no ground game at the time and was an arm submission magnet which made him a perfect stylistic opponent for Barnett. Wanderlei Silva (replacing an injured Fedor Emelianenko) got a bye to the quarterfinals where he defeated gatekeeper Kazuyuki Fujita. Not to mention that if Cro Cop wanted easy fights or DSE wanted to protect Cro Cop then why not put him with someone like Zuluzinho or Yosuke Nishijima or put him with fighters he already beat like Alexander, Fujita, or Barnett (The latter being the one he did beat in the finals)?

Another thing is that if PRIDE wanted to protect Cro Cop then why let him have the schedule he had? For example in 2004, he fought 8 times which is extremely active. Why would PRIDE let Cro Cop have such an active schedule and potentially exhaust himself or go into fights not at 100% or a full training camp? Another great example would be the Ibragim Magomedov fight. Cro Cop's previous fight which was against Mark Coleman was on February 20, 2005. His title fight with Fedor Emelianenko was on August 28, 2005. The fight with Magomedov was on June 26th and by that point, they knew the fight between Cro Cop and Emelianenko would happen in August. So my question is, if PRIDE wanted to protect Cro Cop then why let him fight two months before a huge title fight against Fedor Emelianenko? Why not sit him aside, tell him to sit out from February to August, and recover then go to a full training camp? Surely if PRIDE was protecting him then they wouldn't let him risk suffering a loss so close to the title fight or get injured.

As far as the UFC goes. Breen decends into dishonesty when he claims that Cro Cop and his crew asked for easy fights and then names Eddie Sanchez, Mostapha Al-Turk, and Anthony Perosh as examples. While I admit not knowing if the first two were softballs Cro Cop and his team wanted, the problem is with that last name: Anthony Perosh. Anybody that has a good memory knows that Cro Cop and his guys had absolutely nothing to do with Perosh as Perosh stepped in to replace Ben Rothwell at UFC 110 with only 48 hours notice. Not to make accusations but given what I've heard from Breen on Sherdog podcasts, he comes off as someone with a lot of knowledge in MMA history and would likely not forget something like that. If that's true, then the Perosh one is a lie that he hoped no one will look up even though it's easy to look up as all you have to do is pull up the Anthony Perosh wikipedia page. While I don't know much about Al-Turk, Cro Cop is justified with Sanchez as this was his UFC debut. Think about it, going into the UFC, Cro Cop had never fought in America before, never fought in a cage, and never fought under unified rules all the while coming off foot surgery. Can you blame him for wanting a decent but not elite opponent for his first UFC fight so he could get used to the time zone difference, cage, and different rules? Not to mention that while Cro Cop never beat anyone significant in the UFC, a lot of his opponents weren't "easy". Pat Barry looked like he had potential when they fought, Junior Dos Santos was a prospect on the rise, Brendan Schaub was considered a potential prospect, Roy Nelson was an Ultimate Fighter winner and IFL Heavyweight Champion, and Frank Mir is a UFC legend. Then there's Cheick Kongo who Cro Cop fought after his infamous loss to Gabriel Gonzaga. Why on Earth would Cro Cop agree to face a talented and decorated striker who's two inches taller and has an seven inch reach advantage after getting knocked out by a jiu-jitsu grappler if he wanted a "softball"? Speaking of Mir, Cro Cop took that fight on short notice as he was a replacement for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. So the $64,000 question is that if Cro Cop wanted easy fights, why take a fight on short notice against a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and Interim Heavyweight Champion? Sure, Mir was coming off a brutal loss to Shane Carwin but he's still not an easy opponent.

During his article, Breen also began making comparisons to Dan Henderson. One thing he states is that while Henderson did occasionally get a tomato can, he fought a murderer's row. However, the Henderson comparison is apples and oranges. First of all, I've already pointed out that Cro Cop himself got a murderer's row to compete against. Second of all, while Henderson fought two cans to Cro Cop's four, Cro Cop had a far more active schedule than Henderson. As of 2015, Henderson has been competing for 18 years. Out of those years, only two of those years featured Henderson fighting more than three times (2000 & 2005 where he fought four times) while 5 out of his 18 years saw him fight 3 times (2001, 2006, 2011, 2013, and 2015). However, 11 out of the 18 years saw him only fight 2 times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014). I should point out Henderson didn't fight at all in 2012 due to recovering from injuries. As for Cro Cop, out of his 14 years in MMA, 4 of those years saw him fight more than 3 times a years (4 fights in 2003 & 2006, 8 fights in 2004, and 5 fights in 2005). Meanwhile, 5 out of his 14 years saw him fight 3 times a year (2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, and 2010). The other years saw him fight 1-2 times a year (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015). However, in some years, Cro Cop wasn't just doing MMA as he was still kickboxing which meant he was even more active. Ultimately, Henderson is a bad comparison because he had a smaller schedule which meant he was always able to have more elite fighters because PRIDE didn't have to worry about him cleaning out his division quickly and gave them chances to find prospects and allow them to climb the ladder. Not to mention that Henderson went back and fourth in weight class as he fought for both the 183 pound Welterweight Division and the 205 pound Middleweight Division. This gave Henderson more opportunities to elite competition since he could jump back and forth so DSE didn't have to worry about him cleaning out any division. Not to mention that in PRIDE, heavyweight didn't have the 265 pound limit like in North America which meant there was more chances for freak show fighters like Henry Miller, Butterbean, Zuluzinho, and Giant Silva who were each around 350-430 pounds. It's also common in combat sports for heavyweights have many talented and great competitors but they also have lumbering freak shows since the smaller the weight class, the more technical the fighters are. The smallest fighters are the fastest, have the best reflexes, and are the most technical while a lot of heavyweights aren't fast or have the best reflexes and rely more on one punch power. That's not to say heavyweights aren't talented but there aren't as many technical fighters as the smaller divisions possess.

Honestly, if Breen wanted to give an apples and apples comparison then he should've compared Cro Cop to another heavyweight like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira who was not only a heavyweight but also debuted in PRIDE in 2001 and his last fight was in 2006 all the while having a busy schedule as well. However, Breen likely didn't make a heavyweight comparison because regardless of the heavyweight, all the long term ones each had at least one can to their resume or a freak show fight. Seriously, look up Mark Kerr, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Coleman, Ken Shamrock, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Don Frye, Mirko Cro Cop, Fedor Emelianenko, and even later fighters like Alexander Emelianenko, Sergei Kharitonov, Josh Barnett, and Mark Hunt have had at least one can or freak show opponent. In fact, if you look at someone like Nogueira who has had an amazing run in PRIDE but he too either fought cans like Zuluzinho, opponents like Pawal Nastula who debuted against him while he was fighting his 30th fight, and undersized opponents like Enson Inoue & Kiyoshi Tamura.

Finally, Breen then brings up on Cro Cop's supposed retirements and questions whether he shows as much love as fighters like Henderson, Wanderlei, and Nogueira do. He compares him again to Henderson by saying Henderson wants to finish out his UFC contract and perhaps fight beyond that. First of all, despite his claims about Cro Cop "dipping in and out of retirement", Cro Cop has only officially announced a retirement once which was this year. While Cro Cop has contemplated it many times and made statements hinting at it, I don't remember him ever officially announcing a retirement until this year. Second of all, is it bad to consider retirement when you're beat up and possibly lose the hunger? Breen almost implies it's admirable that some of these guys want to keep fighting even after people want them to retire but is it? Personally, it almost looks like an addiction or obsession. Honestly, there's nothing admirable about fighters fighting way after their prime and suffering unnecessary damage. If anything, it's sad. When you look at Henderson, he's 45 years old, has been fighting for 18 years, had one of the greatest careers of all time, and a future hall of famer. Yet, he's clearly well past his prime and shouldn't be fighting anymore but still insists on it. Even worse is that Henderson was known for having a great chin and was never knocked out for the first 16 years of his career only to be getting knocked out three times in the last two years. With all due respect to Henderson, there's nothing admirable about a 45 year old man insisting on fighting when they not only can't do it anymore but now is going to leave permanent damage. It's also not just Henderson as there's plenty of other examples. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is only 34 but has had three knee surgeries, has been fighting for 12 years, a lot of mileage, and his chin is gone. Yet, in spite of his wife and mother wanting him to retire, he won't do it. Look at Chuck Liddell and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria who were also fighters who once had iron chins only to go on bad losing streaks while suffering brutal knockout losses and both were forced to retire after the UFC would no longer grant them fights. In fact, Chuck Liddell has become a verb in MMA as a company forcing a fighter into retirement is considered Chuck Liddelling them. Finally, you have BJ Penn who should've retired after 2012 but convinced the UFC to give him a third fight with Frankie Edgar in 2014 despite just about everybody thinking it was a bad idea. In the end, it was bad as Penn had to take an unnecessary beating and then admit in a post fight interview that he never should've come back. While Cro Cop's retirement is not a great storybook ending as he did get caught trying to use HGH to heal a torn shoulder, it's still far better than getting beaten and repeatedly knocked out to the point where his employer had to force him into retirement or for him to give an interview where he admits he never should've come back. It's also nice that he can realize that he shouldn't do it anymore as opposed to being delusional to the point where he thinks he can still go when his body is shot. Not to mention that we now live in a world where we have Gary Goodridge suffering from dementia pugilistica due to too many knockouts in MMA and kickboxing and now has no short term memory.

As for his love of martial arts, Cro Cop has already proven that. If he truly is retired then he will have competed in some form of combat sports for 19 years. He's done kickboxing, amateur boxing, and mixed martial arts. He's had 121 fights in his career with 45 being amateur boxing, 45 being MMA, and 31 being kickboxing. There had been certain years where he even juggled two as he did both kickboxing and MMA from 2001-2003 and again from 2012-2014. Ultimately, I think Cro Cop has shown just as much love for combat sports as the Hendersons, the Wanderlei Silvas, and the Nogueiras.

While Cro Cop is no saint or the greatest fighter of all time, he is a legend and proved it for two decades. He deserves far more than to have his legacy torn apart with accusations and his achievements being downplayed. Jordan Breen is entertaining to listen to and is knowledgeable on MMA but he can do better than continuing the tar and feathering of a MMA organization that's been gone for nearly 9 years and the fighters that fought in it.