Remember how we said the guy who replaced Aleks Emelianenko against Mirko Crop Cop at Legends 2 probably stood a better chance of defeating the Croatian than Emelianenko did? Well consider this the saddest “we told you so” in CagePotato history. And quite possibly the first.
But after watching his fight with Alexey Oleinik at Legend 2 last Friday, we think it’s safe to assume that Mirko has officially entered the “Money Up Front” phase of his MMA career.
Remember how we said the guy who replaced Aleks Emelianenko against Mirko Crop Cop at Legends 2 probably stood a better chance of defeating the Croatian than Emelianenko did? Well consider this the saddest “we told you so” in CagePotato history. And quite possibly the first.
But after watching his fight with Alexey Oleinik at Legend 2 last Friday, we think it’s safe to assume that Mirko has officially entered the “Money Up Front” phase of his MMA career.
Sure, it’s not like Mirko showed up at 300+ pounds or anything, and it’s not like he was fighting a scrub. But a neck crank? A F*CKING NECK CRANK?!
I say this as one of the biggest Cro Cop fans out there: Retire, Mirko. Retire for good and stop breaking my heart.
Elsewhere on the Legend card, UFC castaway Paul Daley saw a four fight win streak snapped via unanimous decision at the hands of Alexander “Bad Boy” Yakovlev, a 20-4 Russian who is now 21-4 (I dunno, that’s all I got). While Daley dominated many of the standup exchanges in typical fashion, his achilles heel of wrestling was once again exposed by Yakovlev, who mixed up some takedowns and decent ground-n-pound attacks to neutralize Daley for the majority of the fight.
In the kickboxing realm, Badr Hari picked up a unanimous decision victory over Alexey Ignashov in a K-1 Superfight that was as sloppy at times as it was enjoyable. Here’s a gif of Ignashov just missing a head kick in what looks like a poorly choreographed, B-movie fight scene (via Zombie Prophet).
And finally in people you’ve heard of who fought at this event, Melvin Manhoef was routed by Zabit Samedov en route to a unanimous decision loss in a 205 lb. K-1 sem-final tournament bout. Unfortunately, Samedov was not able to continue in the tournament due to a cut suffered during the fight and was replaced by Agron Preteni. It just goes to show that Melvin Manhoef’s legs are a threat to every living creature on this earth.
We’ve thrown a full video of the fight below. Enjoy.
Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.
CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?
Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.
Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.
CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?
Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.
CP: You fight this weekend in Glory — which has basically replaced K-1 as the biggest kickboxing organization in the world. Some of the very best kickboxers in the world fight there now, but the rules are far from real Muay Thai rules. Extended clinching isn’t allowed and elbows are not allowed, for example. Do you ever wish that the big kickboxing organizations, like K-1 before and Glory now, used real Muay Thai rules?
Spong: Yeah, I grew up training and fighting with those rules. I fought real Muay Thai fights with elbows and everything and did that at the highest level. I’ve been fighting Muay Thai since I was 18. I’ve been in Muay Thai main events since I was 18 years old.
Spong: He’s very strong. Physically strong. And he’s experienced and so is able to put it all together well.
CP: After this fight, what’s next, another MMA fight or another kickboxing fight?
Spong: Well, we have to get through this fight first but I’m actually very active in boxing as well right now and I want to make my pro boxing debut before the year ends.
I’ve been speaking with Ray Sefo for a few minutes now and it doesn’t seem like he understands my question. I asked the multiple time Muay Thai world champion and successful kickboxing and MMA coach why he ever felt the need to step out of his comfort zone and fight under MMA rules.
The former K-1 star, now in his early forties, has fought three times in MMA and will once more tonight on the World Series of Fighting 4 card in California. The striking legend is also the President of WSOF.
I asked Sefo the question and he began to tell me of how he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA by his friend Royce Gracie, the first ever UFC champion, back in 2000 in Japan where they were both competing at the time. He then went on to describe his next step into MMA, then his next, but I felt I had to politely interrupt and reiterate my initial question. I wasn’t asking for a step by step process of how he got into MMA but why he ever decided to.
He had made a name and good living from kickboxing. He transitioned into a full-time career coaching other elite fighters and now Sefo is a top executive at a major MMA organization.
He understands me quite well. Turns out that I was the one that didn’t understand Ray Sefo. “Listen, I’ve always fought,” he explains patiently.
“I’ve been boxing since I was a kid. I did Kung Fu for years. Back home when I started kickboxing my family all thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were suspicious of it because boxing was so big. But then they saw me fight and their minds changed. I love to learn and love to develop and challenge myself as a martial artist and fighter. MMA was the next natural step in that.”
I had been confused. To Ray Sefo, fighting isn’t a means of procuring and then protecting status at all costs. He wasn’t afraid of stepping out of his strength and comfort zone and fighting MMA. He isn’t afraid to continue to fight MMA now, in his forties and against younger opponents and risk losing.
I’ve been speaking with Ray Sefo for a few minutes now and it doesn’t seem like he understands my question. I asked the multiple time Muay Thai world champion and successful kickboxing and MMA coach why he ever felt the need to step out of his comfort zone and fight under MMA rules.
The former K-1 star, now in his early forties, has fought three times in MMA and will once more tonight on the World Series of Fighting 4 card in California. The striking legend is also the President of WSOF.
I asked Sefo the question and he began to tell me of how he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA by his friend Royce Gracie, the first ever UFC champion, back in 2000 in Japan where they were both competing at the time. He then went on to describe his next step into MMA, then his next, but I felt I had to politely interrupt and reiterate my initial question. I wasn’t asking for a step by step process of how he got into MMA but why he ever decided to.
He had made a name and good living from kickboxing. He transitioned into a full-time career coaching other elite fighters and now Sefo is a top executive at a major MMA organization.
He understands me quite well. Turns out that I was the one that didn’t understand Ray Sefo. “Listen, I’ve always fought,” he explains patiently.
“I’ve been boxing since I was a kid. I did Kung Fu for years. Back home when I started kickboxing my family all thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were suspicious of it because boxing was so big. But then they saw me fight and their minds changed. I love to learn and love to develop and challenge myself as a martial artist and fighter. MMA was the next natural step in that.”
I had been confused. To Ray Sefo, fighting isn’t a means of procuring and then protecting status at all costs. He wasn’t afraid of stepping out of his strength and comfort zone and fighting MMA. He isn’t afraid to continue to fight MMA now, in his forties and against younger opponents and risk losing.
For Ray Sefo, fighting is breathing. He fights, that’s it. The particular rules he does so under are incidental.
Even though Sefo always respected MMA enough to view it as a new and unique challenge, at first he says he underestimated certain elements of it.
“I always had respect for submissions because of my friend Royce Gracie but when I started training for MMA I honestly kind of dismissed wrestling at first. I thought that stuff was easy,” he says with a chuckle, acknowledging the profound ignorance of his old attitude.
“Then I met Randy [Couture] back in 2005 and started training with these guys in wrestling. Man, wrestling is one of the hardest workouts you can do. There’s so much skill involved in it.”
Sefo tells CagePotato that, heading into tonight, he’s gotten a full training camp behind him. He’s had a chance to work on just those skills and others needed to fight his opponent, twenty five fight veteran Dave Huckaba. He partially blames an abbreviated training camp for his 2011 Strikeforce loss to Valentijn Overeem.
Sefo says that the plan is for this bout to be the final fight of his career. He says a sense of finality has not permeated his training camp, however.
“This possibly being my last match isn’t something that I’ve been thinking about each day. It’s the same thing it always is,” Sefo says.
“I go into the gym and train with the guys each day like always. I do that when I’m not fighting, I do it now training for my own fight and even if this is my final fight, I’ll do it every day afterwards. I first put on a pair of boxing gloves when I was a kid. I put them on today and I’ll keep putting them on the rest of my life.”
I’ve been speaking with Ray Sefo for a few minutes now and it doesn’t seem like he understands my question. I asked the multiple time Muay Thai world champion and successful kickboxing and MMA coach why he ever felt the need to step out of his comfort zone and fight under MMA rules.
The former K-1 star, now in his early forties, has fought three times in MMA and will once more tonight on the World Series of Fighting 4 card in California. The striking legend is also the President of WSOF.
I asked Sefo the question and he began to tell me of how he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA by his friend Royce Gracie, the first ever UFC champion, back in 2000 in Japan where they were both competing at the time. He then went on to describe his next step into MMA, then his next, but I felt I had to politely interrupt and reiterate my initial question. I wasn’t asking for a step by step process of how he got into MMA but why he ever decided to.
He had made a name and good living from kickboxing. He transitioned into a full-time career coaching other elite fighters and now Sefo is a top executive at a major MMA organization.
He understands me quite well. Turns out that I was the one that didn’t understand Ray Sefo. “Listen, I’ve always fought,” he explains patiently.
“I’ve been boxing since I was a kid. I did Kung Fu for years. Back home when I started kickboxing my family all thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were suspicious of it because boxing was so big. But then they saw me fight and their minds changed. I love to learn and love to develop and challenge myself as a martial artist and fighter. MMA was the next natural step in that.”
I had been confused. To Ray Sefo, fighting isn’t a means of procuring and then protecting status at all costs. He wasn’t afraid of stepping out of his strength and comfort zone and fighting MMA. He isn’t afraid to continue to fight MMA now, in his forties and against younger opponents and risk losing.
I’ve been speaking with Ray Sefo for a few minutes now and it doesn’t seem like he understands my question. I asked the multiple time Muay Thai world champion and successful kickboxing and MMA coach why he ever felt the need to step out of his comfort zone and fight under MMA rules.
The former K-1 star, now in his early forties, has fought three times in MMA and will once more tonight on the World Series of Fighting 4 card in California. The striking legend is also the President of WSOF.
I asked Sefo the question and he began to tell me of how he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA by his friend Royce Gracie, the first ever UFC champion, back in 2000 in Japan where they were both competing at the time. He then went on to describe his next step into MMA, then his next, but I felt I had to politely interrupt and reiterate my initial question. I wasn’t asking for a step by step process of how he got into MMA but why he ever decided to.
He had made a name and good living from kickboxing. He transitioned into a full-time career coaching other elite fighters and now Sefo is a top executive at a major MMA organization.
He understands me quite well. Turns out that I was the one that didn’t understand Ray Sefo. “Listen, I’ve always fought,” he explains patiently.
“I’ve been boxing since I was a kid. I did Kung Fu for years. Back home when I started kickboxing my family all thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were suspicious of it because boxing was so big. But then they saw me fight and their minds changed. I love to learn and love to develop and challenge myself as a martial artist and fighter. MMA was the next natural step in that.”
I had been confused. To Ray Sefo, fighting isn’t a means of procuring and then protecting status at all costs. He wasn’t afraid of stepping out of his strength and comfort zone and fighting MMA. He isn’t afraid to continue to fight MMA now, in his forties and against younger opponents and risk losing.
For Ray Sefo, fighting is breathing. He fights, that’s it. The particular rules he does so under are incidental.
Even though Sefo always respected MMA enough to view it as a new and unique challenge, at first he says he underestimated certain elements of it.
“I always had respect for submissions because of my friend Royce Gracie but when I started training for MMA I honestly kind of dismissed wrestling at first. I thought that stuff was easy,” he says with a chuckle, acknowledging the profound ignorance of his old attitude.
“Then I met Randy [Couture] back in 2005 and started training with these guys in wrestling. Man, wrestling is one of the hardest workouts you can do. There’s so much skill involved in it.”
Sefo tells CagePotato that, heading into tonight, he’s gotten a full training camp behind him. He’s had a chance to work on just those skills and others needed to fight his opponent, twenty five fight veteran Dave Huckaba. He partially blames an abbreviated training camp for his 2011 Strikeforce loss to Valentijn Overeem.
Sefo says that the plan is for this bout to be the final fight of his career. He says a sense of finality has not permeated his training camp, however.
“This possibly being my last match isn’t something that I’ve been thinking about each day. It’s the same thing it always is,” Sefo says.
“I go into the gym and train with the guys each day like always. I do that when I’m not fighting, I do it now training for my own fight and even if this is my final fight, I’ll do it every day afterwards. I first put on a pair of boxing gloves when I was a kid. I put them on today and I’ll keep putting them on the rest of my life.”
“Pezao” absolutely earned the title shot he received Saturday night – he has a list of victims that include two former UFC heavyweight champions, former long-time pound for pound kingpin Fedor Emelianenko and, most recently, Alistair Overeem – but Velasquez once more proved that the combination of his quickness, relentless pace and striking power are very hard to beat. In the post fight press conference, Silva objected to the stoppage by referee Mario Yamasaki, saying it was premature and that he allowed Velasquez to hit him to the back of the head illegally.
“I do agree the fight was stopped too early,” the Brazilian said.
“It’s clear watching it that I took several illegal blows to the back of my neck.”
It was also clear that Silva was out of the fight altogether before he hit the ground, after Velasquez clipped him with a left and hammered him with a right. Strikes to the back of the head being illegal is one of the least clearly defined, hard to enforce and altogether counterproductive to realistic sport fighting rules that exists in MMA, besides. At the least, fighters should not be allowed to hide behind the rule while laying prone, face down.
Yamasaki did his job and protected Silva from taking more damage by stopping the bout after it was clear Antonio could not move himself out of danger but before the brave fighter was beaten senseless.
Grant vs. Maynard Goes On Too Long
The referee officiating TJ Grant and Gray Maynard’s lightweight contender’s bout can’t say he did the same. Grant dropped Maynard with flush punches and knees to the chin multiple times and delivered more clean punishment to a defenseless Maynard while on the ground before the referee stepped in all too late and called a halt to the bout.
Maynard was out of the fight from the first nasty jaw shot that he took and did nothing to avoid or mount his own offense during many, many shots afterwards from Grant. It all happened quickly but when a fighter does nothing but fall over and over again, he’s been done for awhile and the referee should have recognized this earlier than he did.
The “stakes” of a fight, whether it is a number one contender’s fight like Maynard’s and Grants, or a title bout, shouldn’t matter when it comes to deciding how long a fighter should be allowed to take a beating.
“Pezao” absolutely earned the title shot he received Saturday night – he has a list of victims that include two former UFC heavyweight champions, former long-time pound for pound kingpin Fedor Emelianenko and, most recently, Alistair Overeem – but Velasquez once more proved that the combination of his quickness, relentless pace and striking power are very hard to beat. In the post fight press conference, Silva objected to the stoppage by referee Mario Yamasaki, saying it was premature and that he allowed Velasquez to hit him to the back of the head illegally.
“I do agree the fight was stopped too early,” the Brazilian said.
“It’s clear watching it that I took several illegal blows to the back of my neck.”
It was also clear that Silva was out of the fight altogether before he hit the ground, after Velasquez clipped him with a left and hammered him with a right. Strikes to the back of the head being illegal is one of the least clearly defined, hard to enforce and altogether counterproductive to realistic sport fighting rules that exists in MMA, besides. At the least, fighters should not be allowed to hide behind the rule while laying prone, face down.
Yamasaki did his job and protected Silva from taking more damage by stopping the bout after it was clear Antonio could not move himself out of danger but before the brave fighter was beaten senseless.
Grant vs. Maynard Goes On Too Long
The referee officiating TJ Grant and Gray Maynard’s lightweight contender’s bout can’t say he did the same. Grant dropped Maynard with flush punches and knees to the chin multiple times and delivered more clean punishment to a defenseless Maynard while on the ground before the referee stepped in all too late and called a halt to the bout.
Maynard was out of the fight from the first nasty jaw shot that he took and did nothing to avoid or mount his own offense during many, many shots afterwards from Grant. It all happened quickly but when a fighter does nothing but fall over and over again, he’s been done for awhile and the referee should have recognized this earlier than he did.
The “stakes” of a fight, whether it is a number one contender’s fight like Maynard’s and Grants, or a title bout, shouldn’t matter when it comes to deciding how long a fighter should be allowed to take a beating. Many of these guys and girls are too brave, too well trained to stop moving, even if only flailing, even when their brains have already been shut down by strikes.
They need corners and ref who understand in the moment far better than they themselves do when they are done. Reffing is a hard job – one that I’m not qualified to do – but it needs to be said that Maynard took too much damage for too long last night.
The Tyson Effect
None of that is a poor reflection on either fighter’s performance. Grant has come out of nowhere to make a great case for himself as the most dangerous challenger to Benson Henderson’s lightweight title reign. Grant proved that he could hang with the best at welterweight (including number one contender Johny Hendricks) before dropping down to lightweight. Now, he’s got five fight win streak and just finished the perennial #1 lightweight contender in Maynard, and he’s even got Mike Tyson’s stamp of approval.
After last night’s event, UFC President Dana White told the media that he was set to give Junior Dos Santos the KO of the night bonus but Mike Tyson, who was UFC 160’s guest of honor, it seemed, told him that it should go to Grant. White went with “Iron Mike” and Grant is $50,000 less poor now.
White also said that Grant may get to fight for Henderson’s belt as early as August in Boston at the first Fox Sports 1 card. With his size and power, he may be the man to push Henderson to the limit.
Dos Santos Prevails Over K-1 Level Striking
Two-time heavyweight champion Velasquez now has his first successful title defense out of the way and looks towards a rubber match with Junior Dos Santos. “Cigano” earned another shot at the belt he once took from Cain by knocking Mark Hunt out in the UFC 160 co-main event.
Early in the first round, television analyst Joe Rogan remarked at how Hunt’s striking abilities were on a whole other level compared to Dos Santos. Moments later, Dos Santos sent the former K-1 World Grand Prix kickboxing champion careening to the canvas, face-first with an over hand right.
The moment, and much of the rest of the fight – Hunt survived until the third round when a spinning heel kick from JDS floored him and a right hand taken to the jaw while on his back knocked him out – demonstrated once more what a bad idea basing MMA match up assessments on resumes in different fight sports instead of using actual analysis of skills, tendencies and mechanics can be.
There was no particular reason to believe that Hunt was a “better” striker than Dos Santos, leading into their fight simply because he was a former kickboxing champion anymore than there was reason to assume that JDS was the “better athlete” because he has a six pack. I would argue that Hunt’s success as a fighter, and striker in particular, are not due to being far more slick and technical than his opponents, but rather to his incredible athletic gifts and mental toughness.
Anyone with eyes and a memory knows that Hunt doesn’t knock people out with technical combinations. He throws one strike at a time but when you pack the natural power he does, one strike at a time can be enough. Hunt doesn’t avoid getting knocked out by using great head movement or tight footwork – he simply absorbs ungodly amounts of punishment without going down, giving his power shots a chance to do their magic.
The former UFC champ took advantage of predictable technical mistakes that Hunt always makes, not in wrestling or ground work, but in the stand-up striking department.
Hunt often shoulder rolls and turns his head away with his lead hand down to avoid punches. His sense of distance and durable block head allowed him to do this without devastating consequences until last night. Dos Santos continually hammered away at Hunt’s exposed jaw and back of the head with the punch that won him the UFC heavyweight belt – his over hand right. All of Hunt’s big punches, even those that landed, left him out of position to follow up.
The best strikers are not the ones in boxing rings, where referees break fighters up if they grab one another. The best strikers are not in kickboxing rings, where they can kick without fear of being taken down and put on their backs.
The best strikers are in the Octagon – where more realistic fighting takes place. The value of a punch, kick, knee or elbow isn’t in it’s prettiness – fighting isn’t a Wu Shu Kung Fu forms demonstration or Capoeira dance – it is in its efficacy. The guys that manage to land strikes on opponents who are not only also striking, but trying to take them down, choke them out or tear a limb a up, are the ones I want to learn from.
Hunt’s rise through the MMA ranks has been amazing, considering all this. He began fighting the very best MMA fighters nearly a decade ago with virtually no other skills other than his limited kickboxing ones yet managed to win early and often.
After his career took a downturn and the UFC bought his employer, Pride, they offered to let the New Zealander cash out and walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars without having to fight any longer. He rejected the offer, saying he wanted to fight for his money.
He proved everyone wrong by beating some of the best heavyweights in the world and coming one fight away from a shot at the title. Heck, he came within a breath a number of times against Dos Santos.
There is no objective reason why some of the leaping left hooks that Hunt hit Dos Santos with flush on the jaw, shouldn’t have knocked out the former champion. They didn’t, but that is no fault of Hunt.
He came in and fought as advertised – violently, effectively and with valor. After the fight the rest of the world discovered that Hunt suffered a nausea-inducing toe break in his right foot in the first round. Yet, he fought on and went out on his shield like the soldier he is.
Dos Santos and Hunt earned fight of the night honors for their brutal clash. They earned it. Hunt has also more than earned that Pride money that he insisted on fighting for instead of being given.
“Mini-IceMan” Lives Up To The Hype
Glover Teixeira nabbed his 19th consecutive win and submission of the night honors with a first round guillotine choke win over James Te Huna. The Chuck Liddell protégé is one well-rounded light heavyweight and even if he falls into the same category as every other 205 pound contender out there (not having much of a chance against champion Jon Jones) Glover has already done something nearly as difficult as beating “Bones” – living up his pre-UFC hype.
Glover had a ton of expectations placed on him when he entered the UFC a year ago. Others, like Hector Lombard, have had similar pushes and not been able to justify them in the Octagon.
Teixeira, however, has taken the light heavyweight division by storm, winning four times in a year, including multiple finishes and a win over former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Who knows how far he can go but Glover has already accomplished a lot.
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has finally achieved something he never had up this point in his legendary fight career and has become a world champion. Cro Cop defeated Ismael Londt yesterday in the finals of the 2013 K-1 Grand Prix, held in Zagreb, Croatia.
Prior to the finals, Cro Cop also decisioned Pavel Zhuravlev and Jarrell Miller – a win with some controversy because many observers felt Miller deserved to get the nod from the judges. There was not controversy in the finals, however, as Cro Cop scored a knockdown via left high kick (!) in the second round.
The thirty eight year-old kick boxer, former special forces member and member of Croatia’s Parliament, first fought in K-1 seventeen years ago. He got close but never managed to become champion of the organization’s vaunted Grand Prix before last night. Cro Cop moved on to fight in MMA in Pride and once more got close, twice, to becoming a world champion but on two occasions lost in world title fights – once to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in an interim title bout and once to Fedor Emelianenko.
After the UFC purchased Pride, Cro Cop would go on to fight ten times in the American organization, compiling a 4-6 record and leaving after three straight losses. He has since fought and won once more in MMA competition, this past New Year’s Eve against Shinichi Suzukawa in Japan.
Cro Cop decided to make another run in kickboxing and last night’s home-town win vindicates his decision. Watch his full finals bout in the above video and then highlights of some of our favorite Cro Cop moments after the jump.
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has finally achieved something he never had up this point in his legendary fight career and has become a world champion. Cro Cop defeated Ismael Londt yesterday in the finals of the 2013 K-1 Grand Prix, held in Zagreb, Croatia.
Prior to the finals, Cro Cop also decisioned Pavel Zhuravlev and Jarrell Miller – a win with some controversy because many observers felt Miller deserved to get the nod from the judges. There was not controversy in the finals, however, as Cro Cop scored a knockdown via left high kick (!) in the second round.
The thirty eight year-old kick boxer, former special forces member and member of Croatia’s Parliament, first fought in K-1 seventeen years ago. He got close but never managed to become champion of the organization’s vaunted Grand Prix before last night. Cro Cop moved on to fight in MMA in Pride and once more got close, twice, to becoming a world champion but on two occasions lost in world title fights – once to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in an interim title bout and once to Fedor Emelianenko.
After the UFC purchased Pride, Cro Cop would go on to fight ten times in the American organization, compiling a 4-6 record and leaving after three straight losses. He has since fought and won once more in MMA competition, this past New Year’s Eve against Shinichi Suzukawa in Japan.
Cro Cop decided to make another run in kickboxing and last night’s home-town win vindicates his decision. Watch his full finals bout in the above video and then highlights of some of our favorite Cro Cop moments after the jump.
Cro Cop Knockouts:
Cro Cop refereeing backyard fights between old dudes (and yes, one of them gets hurt – bad):
