While there have been no official reports that would suggest it directly, a new promotional poster for the upcoming September 25th Rizin FF event has many speculating about the possibility of a rematch between two legendary MMA heavyweights.
It should be noted, however, that the 9/25 event features the beginning of the promotion’s innagural “Grand Prix” event, which is a tournament that is expected to feature participation from the likes of Wanderlei Silva, as well as the aforementioned Fedor and Cro Cop.
In fact, Rizin FF officials have also expressed desire in obtaining the services of another familiar face from PRIDE’s past, the promotion responsible for some of the best “Grand Prix” tournament events in history, as former PRIDE executive Nobuyuki Sakikibara has offered an invitation to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to compete in the tourney.
Rizin FF’s Open Weight Grand Prix tournament kicks off with their 9/25 event. Other fighters included in the tournament will be former PRIDE heavyweight star Kazuyuki Fujita and sumo champion Kaido Hoovelson. Four of the 16 fighters who will compete in the tournament will be receiving an automatic bye to the quarterfinals, which is scheduled to take place as part of the December 29 event. The tournament is scheduled to wrap-up at the big year-end New Year’s Eve event, a national tradition in Japan, on December 31.
Non-tournament matches scheduled for the opening round show on September 25 includes Daron Cruickshank vs. Andy Souwer, as well as women’s fights with Gabi Garcia and Kanako Murata fighting different opponents in individual bouts.
While there have been no official reports that would suggest it directly, a new promotional poster for the upcoming September 25th Rizin FF event has many speculating about the possibility of a rematch between two legendary MMA heavyweights.
It should be noted, however, that the 9/25 event features the beginning of the promotion’s innagural “Grand Prix” event, which is a tournament that is expected to feature participation from the likes of Wanderlei Silva, as well as the aforementioned Fedor and Cro Cop.
In fact, Rizin FF officials have also expressed desire in obtaining the services of another familiar face from PRIDE’s past, the promotion responsible for some of the best “Grand Prix” tournament events in history, as former PRIDE executive Nobuyuki Sakikibara has offered an invitation to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to compete in the tourney.
Rizin FF’s Open Weight Grand Prix tournament kicks off with their 9/25 event. Other fighters included in the tournament will be former PRIDE heavyweight star Kazuyuki Fujita and sumo champion Kaido Hoovelson. Four of the 16 fighters who will compete in the tournament will be receiving an automatic bye to the quarterfinals, which is scheduled to take place as part of the December 29 event. The tournament is scheduled to wrap-up at the big year-end New Year’s Eve event, a national tradition in Japan, on December 31.
Non-tournament matches scheduled for the opening round show on September 25 includes Daron Cruickshank vs. Andy Souwer, as well as women’s fights with Gabi Garcia and Kanako Murata fighting different opponents in individual bouts.
Former PRIDE and UFC mega-stars Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Wanderlei Silva will be making their MMA returns in exciting fashion, as both have been officially announced for the upcoming Rizin FF Open Weight Grand Prix tournament.
Nobuyuki Sakakiba…
Former PRIDE and UFC mega-stars Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Wanderlei Silva will be making their MMA returns in exciting fashion, as both have been officially announced for the upcoming Rizin FF Open Weight Grand Prix tournament.
Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the former president of PRIDE, announced the two MMA legends and other plans for the tournament, which is set to start on September 25 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Other fighters included in the tournament will be former PRIDE heavyweight star Kazuyuki Fujita and sumo champion Kaido Hoovelson. Sakikibara also announced his intentions to try and get Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to compete in the tournament.
Four of the 16 fighters who will compete in the tournament will be receiving an automatic bye to the quarterfinals, which is scheduled to take place as part of the December 29 event. The tournament is scheduled to wrap-up at the big year-end New Year’s Eve event, a national tradition in Japan, on December 31.
Non-tournament matches scheduled for the opening round show on September 25 includes Daron Cruickshank vs. Andy Souwer, as well as women’s fights with Gabi Garcia and Kanako Murata fighting different opponents in individual bouts.
Four months after Mirko Cro Cop scored a doctor’s stoppage TKO against Satoshi Ishii at Inoki Genome Fight 2, the two heavyweights met in a rematch on New Year’s Eve at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014 in Tokyo. This time, Cro Cop’s victory was even more decisive, as the 40-year-old MMA legend smashed Ishii with his trademark left high kick then finished the Japanese judoka with punches just as the second round ended.
After the fight, a weird pro-wrestling-style brawl took place, in which Kazuyuki Fujita barked some noise at Cro Cop, Cro Cop shoved him, Fujita ripped his shirt off, and a bunch of people (including Bob Sapp?!) rushed the ring…
At the 0:20-0:21 mark, you can see legendary PRIDE announcer Lenne Hardt clutching Fedor Emelianenko‘s arm for safety. Japanese New Year’s Eve MMA, man. This is what our lives have been missing.
After the jump:Shinya Aoki walks out to some truly awful entrance music at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014, submits random journeyman Yuki Yamamoto with a twister in 81 seconds, then flips the crowd his middle fingers on his way out of the building.
Four months after Mirko Cro Cop scored a doctor’s stoppage TKO against Satoshi Ishii at Inoki Genome Fight 2, the two heavyweights met in a rematch on New Year’s Eve at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014 in Tokyo. This time, Cro Cop’s victory was even more decisive, as the 40-year-old MMA legend smashed Ishii with his trademark left high kick then finished the Japanese judoka with punches just as the second round ended.
After the fight, a weird pro-wrestling-style brawl took place, in which Kazuyuki Fujita barked some noise at Cro Cop, Cro Cop shoved him, Fujita ripped his shirt off, and a bunch of people (including Bob Sapp?!) rushed the ring…
At the 0:20-0:21 mark, you can see legendary PRIDE announcer Lenne Hardt clutching Fedor Emelianenko‘s arm for safety. Japanese New Year’s Eve MMA, man. This is what our lives have been missing.
After the jump:Shinya Aoki walks out to some truly awful entrance music at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014, submits random journeyman Yuki Yamamoto with a twister in 81 seconds, then flips the crowd his middle fingers on his way out of the building.
(“And he’s nothing without his ground-and-pound. And he’s nothing without his groin strikes, which still haunt my nightmares.”)
After Alistair Overeem‘s upset knockout loss to Antonio Silva at UFC 156, it seemed like every MMA fan on Twitter wanted to be the first to say “Called it!” Overeem, as the narrative goes, has a cat-heart, folds under pressure, doesn’t have the cardio to go three 5-minute rounds, his monstrous physique came from unnatural means, it was just a matter of time before he was exposed as a fraud, and everybody knew it all along. Well, you can add Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to the list of notable Reem-haters. As the legendary striker explained in a recent interview with fightsite.hr, he predicted Bigfoot would beat Overeem, partly because Overeem wasn’t fighting with his usual chemical enhancements. Here’s what Mirko had to say (translation via BloodyElbow):
“I wasn’t surprised by Silva’s victory at all and I had believed he would win. I don’t want to come off as a smart-ass or say I knew it all along, so I’ll explain why I’d believed so. First, Silva is a big tough guy with a huge heart who had demolished Fedor and he needs no better reference than that, and Alistair hugely underestimated him and belittled him with his arrogant statements, so this mobilized Silva in the best possible way. Second, Silva is a natural heavyweight, and Alistair — for the first time since way back in 2007, when he began to gain huge weight — fought without the drugs he had used constantly for years, including testosterone and all the other shit that goes with it.
“Watching the weigh-in, I saw that his muscles mass was nowhere near his usual, he had the weight, but he wasn’t nearly as carved out and defined, since he couldn’t take anything because he was watched by the Athletic Commission. This also reflects on the psyche of a man who’s been using stuff to increase his strength, endurance, pain tolerance and aggressiveness for years, and now there was none of that. Alistair is an excellent fighter, but he still owes that excellence to something that’s dirty and unpermitted, and, in the end, very dangerous to health.
(“And he’s nothing without his ground-and-pound. And he’s nothing without his groin strikes, which still haunt my nightmares.”)
After Alistair Overeem‘s upset knockout loss to Antonio Silva at UFC 156, it seemed like every MMA fan on Twitter wanted to be the first to say “Called it!” Overeem, as the narrative goes, has a cat-heart, folds under pressure, doesn’t have the cardio to go three 5-minute rounds, his monstrous physique came from unnatural means, it was just a matter of time before he was exposed as a fraud, and everybody knew it all along. Well, you can add Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to the list of notable Reem-haters. As the legendary striker explained in a recent interview with fightsite.hr, he predicted Bigfoot would beat Overeem, partly because Overeem wasn’t fighting with his usual chemical enhancements. Here’s what Mirko had to say (translation via BloodyElbow):
“I wasn’t surprised by Silva’s victory at all and I had believed he would win. I don’t want to come off as a smart-ass or say I knew it all along, so I’ll explain why I’d believed so. First, Silva is a big tough guy with a huge heart who had demolished Fedor and he needs no better reference than that, and Alistair hugely underestimated him and belittled him with his arrogant statements, so this mobilized Silva in the best possible way. Second, Silva is a natural heavyweight, and Alistair — for the first time since way back in 2007, when he began to gain huge weight — fought without the drugs he had used constantly for years, including testosterone and all the other shit that goes with it.
“Watching the weigh-in, I saw that his muscles mass was nowhere near his usual, he had the weight, but he wasn’t nearly as carved out and defined, since he couldn’t take anything because he was watched by the Athletic Commission. This also reflects on the psyche of a man who’s been using stuff to increase his strength, endurance, pain tolerance and aggressiveness for years, and now there was none of that. Alistair is an excellent fighter, but he still owes that excellence to something that’s dirty and unpermitted, and, in the end, very dangerous to health.
“I don’t think he was concerned by that, he wanted success at any cost. And the third thing is, Alistair had behaved so arrogantly that someone needed to put him back in his place. His belittling of Silva was repulsive, saying that after beating up Silva he’d go for the belt, and at the weigh-in and entering the arena he acted like he invented the fighting sport, and he’s been behaving with so much arrogance lately that I’m glad Silva put him back in his place and taught him a lesson! Congratulations Silva, from the heart!”
Considering how their fight in 2008 turned out, it’s understandable that Cro Cop would still hold a bit of a grudge against Overeem. But according to Tim Marchman on TheClassical.org, there’s also a pot-calling-the-kettle-black element to Cro Cop’s hate-rant. (“Kickboxer-with-sprawl who made a rep smashing tiny dudes in Japan fights under commission testing, grows love handles and loses to decent but unremarkable Brazilian heavyweight? Hmm…“)
Then again, Cro Cop is just saying what many fans were already thinking in the wake of Overeem’s loss. Was the Demolition Man’s hype really warranted? How much of his sudden heavyweight success was earned legitimately? And now that he’s competing under such heightened scrutiny from athletic commissions, will he ever be the same fighter again?
On Sunday at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 Final 16 event in Tokyo, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic learned the hard way that not everyone in the fight business is as sweet as Pat Barry. During the third round of his match against American kickboxer Randy Blake, Cro Cop threw a questionable uppercut at Blake, who was getting to his feet after slipping to the mat. This did not make Randy Blake very happy. The action was called back in, and when Cro Cop moved in to apologize, Blake fired a straight right that put the 38-year-old Croatian on his ass. For the last time: Protect yourself at all times, especially when you’ve just pissed off a former star of the World Combat League.
On Sunday at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 Final 16 event in Tokyo, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic learned the hard way that not everyone in the fight business is as sweet as Pat Barry. During the third round of his match against American kickboxer Randy Blake, Cro Cop threw a questionable uppercut at Blake, who was getting to his feet after slipping to the mat. This did not make Randy Blake very happy. The action was called back in, and when Cro Cop moved in to apologize, Blake fired a straight right that put the 38-year-old Croatian on his ass. For the last time: Protect yourself at all times, especially when you’ve just pissed off a former star of the World Combat League.
As Reddit/MMA reminds us, today is the seventh anniversary of Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic‘s meeting at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005, an instant classic that still ranks among the greatest heavyweight fights in MMA history. Emelianenko had already held the PRIDE heavyweight title for two-and-a-half years by the time he made his belt defense against Cro Cop, and entered the match with a PRIDE record of 10-0 with one no-contest. Meanwhile, Cro Cop had earned his shot at Fedor on the strength of a seven-fight PRIDE win streak that included victories over Alexander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman, and Mark Coleman.
Though both fighters would later complain that they came into the fight less than 100% healthy, Emelianenko and Filipovic put on a thrilling war for the entirety of the three-round, 20-minute fight. Cro Cop started strong, breaking Fedor’s nose with punches and punishing him with kicks to the body, but Fedor regained momentum as Cro Cop’s cardio began to fade, slugging his way to a unanimous decision victory. It was Emelianenko’s toughest fight to that point, and arguably his most entertaining. As for Filipovic, he may have fallen short of the PRIDE heavyweight title that night, but his greatest career triumph was just around the corner.
After the jump: If you have the time to spare, the complete fight is below…
As Reddit/MMA reminds us, today is the seventh anniversary of Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic‘s meeting at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005, an instant classic that still ranks among the greatest heavyweight fights in MMA history. Emelianenko had already held the PRIDE heavyweight title for two-and-a-half years by the time he made his belt defense against Cro Cop, and entered the match with a PRIDE record of 10-0 with one no-contest. Meanwhile, Cro Cop had earned his shot at Fedor on the strength of a seven-fight PRIDE win streak that included victories over Alexander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman, and Mark Coleman.
Though both fighters would later complain that they came into the fight less than 100% healthy, Emelianenko and Filipovic put on a thrilling war for the entirety of the three-round, 20-minute fight. Cro Cop started strong, breaking Fedor’s nose with punches and punishing him with kicks to the body, but Fedor regained momentum as Cro Cop’s cardio began to fade, slugging his way to a unanimous decision victory. It was Emelianenko’s toughest fight to that point, and arguably his most entertaining. As for Filipovic, he may have fallen short of the PRIDE heavyweight title that night, but his greatest career triumph was just around the corner.
After the jump: If you have the time to spare, the complete fight is below…
