Cro Cop Is Back In The UFC
According to various reliable sources, including his own personal website, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović will be returning to the UFC at UFC 99 on the 13th of June.
Cro Cop hasn't been seen in the octagon since the "highlight reel" head kick from Gabriel Gonzaga and many believed that it would be the end of his MMA career. He has since had three fights in Japan and Germany with two wins and one no-contest and seems to be back on track.
He will be fighting British fighter Mostapha Al-turk, who relinquished his Cage Rage heavyweight title to sign a contract with the UFC, is in my opinion, a weak opponent to give Cro Cop a good KO victory.
If you have only seen him in the UFC, you would be forgiven for not realising that he is up there with the best of the best. He is in the class of Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko as heavyweight legends. I assume that he will be fed a few more fighters and if he performs like the old Cro Cop, he will soon be inline for a dream match with either Brock Lesnar or Frank Mir.
Do you think we will see the Cro Cop of old that was destroying people in Pride? Or are those days over?
It’s great to see Cro Cop back in the UFC but he hasn’t looked great since leaving, his only victories were over some Japanese can and the freakshow Hong Man-Choi in a K-1 match and he was losing the fight with Overreem before it was declared a no-contest. Hopefully his recent knee surgery as well as renewed focus will help bring back the Cro Cop of old because at his best he’s a killer.
Al-Turk should be a routine win as he looked poor against Kongo and is seemingly a class below UFC standard. An early KO win would be the popular result, as Mirko is huge in Germany and the Anglo-German rivalry will probabaly make Al-Turk an unpopular figure. Depending on his performance at 99, Mirko could make a suprising return back to the top of the HW division.