Legend 2, an MMA event in Moscow, saw Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic pick up his first combat sports loss since leaving the UFC in 2011.
The Croation fan favorite fought in the main event, opposite two-time world combat Sambo champion Alexey Oleinik.
The fight saw Cro Cop immediately get Oleinik deep into a guillotine choke. Oleinik escaped and secured a takedown while maintaining precious top position for minutes on end with modest ground and pound. Cro Cop worked his way out, but found himself taken down yet again. This time Oleinik would lock up an ugly neck crank that forced Cro Cop to tap at 4:42 of Round 1.
In 2011, Cro Cop seemed to be content in ending his career following his technical knockout loss to Roy Nelson at UFC 137. However, he surprised many by coming out of retirement to return to kickboxing in 2012, beating Ray Sefo (who, in turn, seemingly retired himself to start the World Series of Fighting promotion before making a comeback of his own at WSOF 4). He followed that up with a return to MMA with the Japanese Inoki promotion, submitting sumo wrestler Shinichi Suzukawa (who was making his MMA debut).
Immediately after that, Cro Cop teased fans with a possible return to relevance by winning the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix.
While this loss seems to put a damper on any hopes of a true reemergence by the Croatian, Alexey Oleinik is no amateur and advances to 48-9 in his MMA career. Oleinik is a staple of the European heavyweight circuit, and he has beaten many past or future fighters from major American promotions including Dion Staring, Jeff Monson, Marcelo Alfaya and Adlan Amagov.
The win sheds some light on Oleinik’s lengthy record of success and, given the UFC’s invasion of the event (which drew the ire of Cro Cop), hints that the fighter may have a call from Joe Silva in his future.
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