Recently in Mirko Filipovic Category

Thanks to Robert K. from BigOddsMike for the story, which he gleaned from Croatian site index.hr. Make sure to go there for all your UFC 100 odds.

After making a successful UFC comeback against Al Turk, Mirko Cro Cop's next fight will most likely be on September 19th , at UFC 103, in Dellas, Texas. Although we're still awaiting an official confirmation, Mirko's opponent will likely be 24-year Brazilian Junior Dos Santos.

The rising star exploded into the heavyweight division against former UFC contender Fabricio Werdum. The fight lasted only 81 seconds.

Dos Santos, known as "The Gypsy" in Brazil was set to fight in August, but UFC organizers cancelled the bout planned for UFC 102 in favor of a possible main event with the Croatian.

"I think I'll fight September 19. They took me off the August 29 show," he said, also announcing he will no longer be facing the same opponent. "My opponent's changed. I'll probably face Cro Cop. If I beat him I'll be in really good standing. If that's truly the case, I'm guaranteed on the main card and in the main event of the evening. If I were to fight now it wouldn't be on the main card," he said

After UFC 99, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic drew the ire of the MMA community when he announced he was leaving the UFC, although it had been reported he was supposed to fight several more times there. Most speculated he was jumping back to DREAm, the Japanese promotion he had fought under after leaving the UFC the first time. here's an exclusive from Robert K from Big Odds Mike who translated an article from the Croatian site index.hr.

Exclusive UFC owner visiting Cro Cop in Croatia

Index understands that Lorenzo Fertitta, the head honcho and part owner of the UFC flew to Zagreb with his own private jet earlier this morning. He was driven to Mirko's residents shortly after, where he stayed for two hours talking with the Croatian fighter. He returned to the airport afterwards, smiling, where his private jet flew off in to an unknown destination.

One of the top MMA Web sites out there, bloodyelbow.com, ran a post featuring a few MMA artists, including Al Youl, whose work can be seen on this Web site. Al has done some work for Hanover-based fightwear company Tap or Sleep. Here's the drawing Al did of Pennsylvania welterweight pro Charlie Brenneman:

Charlie's next fight is headlining the WKU Warrior Challenge in the Poconos later this month.

Here's the one bloodyelbow featured, of Cro Cop:

By the way, looks like the rumors are true - Cro Cop, who skulked out of the UFC like a thief in the night, does have a fight in Japan.

by Kevin Iole, mmajunkie.com:
COLOGNE, Germany - Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic's return to the UFC was a short one.

Not long after stopping Mostapha Al-Turk in the first round of UFC 99 on Saturday at Lanxess Arena in his first fight in the UFC since back-to-back losses in 2007, Filipovic informed UFC president Dana White that he had signed a three-fight contract with the Japanese-based DREAM organization.

White had signed Filipovic less than a month ago to a one-fight deal, the first time in more than nine years that he'd done that. He had worked out terms on two additional fights, but said he'd only put pen to paper for Saturday's bout.

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

Mirko Filipovic joined the UFC two years ago amid more hype and expectation than perhaps any fighter in mixed martial arts history - and Cro Cop flopped.
After three desultory fights forced Filipovic into a yearlong retreat for mental adjustments and knee surgery, he returns to the octagon at UFC 99 on Saturday night in Cologne, Germany, against Mostapha Al Turk. The former anti-terrorist policeman in his native Croatia should have plenty of countrymen cheering the start of his second run toward the UFC heavyweight title.

from mirko's Web site:

These days the boys from Cro Cop team are training in full force. After a long break and highly demanding recovery process, Mirko Cro Cop is ready to fight in MMA again.

All problems with injuries are history and Cro Cop is very optimistic to start another chapter in his career:
"I feel great, the recovery process is going well and we train at high intensity now. I never had such a strong desire to prove myself and I'll climb up again, or die trying."

Mirko's next fight is set for June 13th in Germany, which means that he's back in the UFC, a place that he didn't have his best moments:
"I decided to fight in the UFC again, because of the stronger competition in the heavyweight division. My next opponent will be Mustapha Al-Turk. I didn't do well in my first three appearances - I wasn't myself. By returning to the cage I want to prove that I can still fight at highest level, no matter when or where," he said.

UFC 99 will be Cro Cop's first fight this year with the possibility of three fights coming by years end.
"It's hard to talk about concrete plans, but I would really like to fight at least three times this year. I wish to fight against quality opponents and to fight my way up to a title shot but for now, I'll focus only on my next fight and after that we'll see what's going to be on the menu next," says Cro Cop.
Although the UFC 99 card looks stacked, it seems that the UFC officials can see the benefits of hiring a top European fighter for their first ever UFC show in Germany.

"I want to say thank you Mr. Dana White for your interest and for an invitation back to the UFC. I owe you a lot from our first deal, and I'll make it up to you," promises Cro Cop.

All news related to Mirko Cro Cop's career are posted on Mirko's official MMA-ID profile on http://www.mma-id.com/CROCOP and Mirko's official homepage http://www.mirko-crocop.com.

Yours truly,
The CROCOP Team

from Robert K of Internet sports betting blog betwwx.com:
Interviewer: How is your knee?
Cro Cop: Well every thing is all right. They didn't amputate my leg so I guess the operation was a success. (Joking) I'm satisfied with the recovery. Its getting better every day. I'm doing some light work.

Interviewer: You're doing some weight work/upper body work at the moment?
Cro Cop: That's right. I'm mostly working from my back. I cant use my legs. I plan to start boxing in April.

I was better prepared than your average knee reconstruction patient. I was putting off the operation for quite some time and in the mean time was doing the required exercise for recovery. So my comeback will be ahead of schedule. Six days after my operation I was already doing some exercises. I plan to be using both my hands and legs in sparring and ground work in May.

Interviewer: Where will you make your comeback?
There is a great possibility that I will be fighting for the UFC in Cologne, Germany. I don't know my opponent yet. But I'm very confident that we'll come to an agreement with the UFC and that I'll fight for them in June. There are other offers on the table also.

Interviewer: Do you have any idea as to who you'll face?
I've heard that I could be facing Randy Couture. That would a great. Then again its not up to me or him but management so we'll have to wait and see. But I'm sure he'd also be interested in that fight.

I'd most prefer to be a free agent and fight up to six times a year but that is unlikely.

Cro Cop's nemesis, Alistair Overeem, has undergone quite the transformation since his days in PRIDE. Robert K at freefightvideos set up this timeline:

You probably can't see it too well, but this time line goes from 2003 to 2008.

Overeem, although he is 6'5", used to fight at 205. Apparently, he weighed in at 250+ for his Dynamite!! fight with Badr Hari. That is a lot of weight to gain, without adding much in the way of fat, even for a professional fighter. It just makes me wonder if it will affect his cardio, which wasn't great to begin with. As far as I remember, his fights at HW have been short ones - what happens when someone takes him into "deep waters" as they say?

from Robert at freefightvideos:
The whole world wanted and expected to see Cro Cop fight Alistair Overeem at Fields Dynamite, however he is being presented with an entirely different challenge this NYE. Cro Cop will fight giant Hong Man Choi, a man still very new to MMA. His height is what has made him a dangerous opponent in the ring.

Cro Cop is yet to face Choi in MMA or K1. The Korean is 7'2" tall and weighs 330 pounds. Those numbers exceed even that of Russian boxing champion Nikolaj Valujev.

"Bob Sapp is little heavier than Choi but never the less much shorter. It was the organization's wish that I fight him and I take my orders from them," said Mirko.

After a successful career in Korea's national sport, a combination of Sumo and Wrestling, Choi made the transition to K1. He amassed a record of 17 fights, 12 victories and only 5 loses. He holds victories over the likes of Semmy Schilt, the only person ever to win three straight K1 World GP titles.

"A man his size is very dangerous even without MMA experience. He is skilled, relatively mobile for his height and very strong," explained the Croatian fighter.

Choi's record in MMA stands at 1 and 1. His loss coming the world top ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko exactly one year ago.

"He displayed his incredible strength in the Fedor fight. When Fedor got a hold of his arm he was twice able to simply shrug him. He had him in some difficult positions," Cro Cop said.

Cro Cop holds only one victory in his last four matches. Hong Man Choi is a must-win opponent for him. Should he be successful he'll need to recover from his numerous injuries and hope that 2009 is a lot more like 2006 rather than the past two years.

from Robert K at freefightvideos:
It looks like Overeem's only chance to fight Mirko Cro Cop this year will really be in the Croatians basement. In yesterdays press conference for Fields Dynamite FEG executive Sadaharu Tanigawa made it official that Mirko Cro Cop would not be fighting Alistair Overeem.

"Alistair is begging for this fight but this fight will not go ahead on NY eve at Fields Dynamite. We will look to mach them up on a different card."

Mirko Cro Cop is a huge star in Japan and this match-up clearly doesn't interest the Japanese public at moment. I'm sure FEG is looking to match him up with a bigger name. As for Overeem a rubber match with Sergei Kharitonov looks likely.

Mirko Responds to Overeem
After another jab by Alistair Overeem over the weekend, Cro Cop contacted Nova TV to tell us his side of the story. In a short phone interview Cro Cop tells us why the NYE rematch hasn't been signed yet.

The accusations keep coming from Overeems camp. The Dutchmen claims that Mirko is deliberately refusing to sign the contract that would make the NYE bout official.

The Croatian fighter vehemently denied those accusations to us.

"Overeem is a fool. He knows too well that is up to the individual organizations to set-up any match-ups. I'm in a difficult situation as I don't know who to prepare for in this upcoming bout. I'm not sure with which sparing partners to go with."