For Mirko Cro Cop Fans

Off Topic
22

[quote]TheWookiee wrote:
I’m not one to claim a fight was fixed, but several people I know, and that I trust, say the Gonzaga fight was fixed or at the very least Cro Cop is just cashing paychecks now.[/quote]

Virtually impossible.

Mirko is a freaking hyper-competitive egomaniac.

A couple of years ago I was brought with some other guys as cannon fodder to Mirko for a training session. They were looking for big guys with judo/wrestling background for wrestling and ground training.

Anyway, when we came there, Mirko was doing some light sparring in which he should have practiced evasion and defence. Seeing the new guys come in, he proceeded to maul each of his sparring partners. He couldn’t stand that we might think that those guys were somehow “better” than him.

Also, there were threats and hysterical antics to PRIDE executives after the Hunt fight decision went against him.

Not to mention that immediately after the Randleman loss, he breached his contract with our national TV network in order to prevent his KTFO loss being shown to all of Croatia the next day.

The guy tried (simultaniously) to be a MMA fighter, a member of Parliament, an actor, and a soccer player.

After each loss there was the usual hysteria, threats of retirement and depression until the hangers-on convinced him yet again that he’s unstoppable and unbeatable(hopefully this has changed with Ziza’s return)

And you’re telling me that this guy would voluntarily work a fight?

23

For you MMA Experts,do you think Crocop would ever consider going back to K-1 if he wanted to? Is he even still a threat?

25

[quote]TheWookiee wrote:
I know I sounded like I was calling him out like that, but honestly, I said it innocently. I know little about the politics of the UFC or the fortitude and ethics of Cro cop. The people that suggested it to me claim no inside knowledge beyond their experience in covering MMA fights for the sports media (obviously I am not going to name them or their magazines).

One of themy suggested I look at the tape of the kick that dropped Cro cop in the Gonzaga fight and see if I thought he dropped his guard intentionally and took the hit. The other friend wasn’t as cynical about it. He suggested Cro Cop isn’t motivated to fight anymore. I watched the tape a few times and I can’t see it. I can’t speak to his motivation-level though.

loppar wrote:
TheWookiee wrote:
I’m not one to claim a fight was fixed, but several people I know, and that I trust, say the Gonzaga fight was fixed or at the very least Cro Cop is just cashing paychecks now.

Virtually impossible.

Mirko is a freaking hyper-competitive egomaniac.

A couple of years ago I was brought with some other guys as cannon fodder to Mirko for a training session. They were looking for big guys with judo/wrestling background for wrestling and ground training.

Anyway, when we came there, Mirko was doing some light sparring in which he should have practiced evasion and defence. Seeing the new guys come in, he proceeded to maul each of his sparring partners. He couldn’t stand that we might think that those guys were somehow “better” than him.

Also, there were threats and hysterical antics to PRIDE executives after the Hunt fight decision went against him.

Not to mention that immediately after the Randleman loss, he breached his contract with our national TV network in order to prevent his KTFO loss being shown to all of Croatia the next day.

The guy tried (simultaniously) to be a MMA fighter, a member of Parliament, an actor, and a soccer player.

After each loss there was the usual hysteria, threats of retirement and depression until the hangers-on convinced him yet again that he’s unstoppable and unbeatable(hopefully this has changed with Ziza’s return)

And you’re telling me that this guy would voluntarily work a fight?

[/quote]

You need new friends. NO ONE would willingly take such an extremely dangerous, possibly career ending(comeon, when you saw that fight you thought he was dead) head kick. That is absolutely ridiculous.

I refuse to post on Sherdog, and I hope to God the MMA threads on T-Nation don’t go as crazy as they do over there.

And yes, he had taken shots to the balls and had a broken rib and a breathing problem. I’m sure that had something to do with his takedown defense, but I doubt Mirko has ever had a fight where he wasn’t injured at all.

I just love fights though, and i love the fighters, I got no hate for anyone on this topic.

27

Fighting in the UFC is not just “work” to him. He clearly stated he wanted the title and we’re lucky enough here to have someone who has actually spent some time around him.

As far as Gonzaga. He was not lucky, in his next fight he broke Randy’s arm with a high kick, and against Werdum a couple weeks ago he put him down twice with leg kicks. He’s got monster power in those kicks and it was just his night. It could go either way if the two fought again. That’s just the way fights work.

Example: Fighter A beats Fighter B who beat fighter C who then beats fighter A…then B and A have a rematch, A loses, and so on and so on.

28

[quote]TheWookiee wrote:

No hate here either. I dig the fights too. Would you agree that when a fighter’s head isn’t 100% into it, it shows? Let’s say the one guy I know that says he took the hit is full of crap, which I tend to think he is. I didn’t see him drop his hands or brace himself like this guy suggested. However, the other guy suggested that Cro Cop has already proven himself in other promotions, and that his UFC work is just that - work. Not that he is throwing fights. If that was the case, perhaps his motivation wasn’t there. Was Gonzaga lucky? Is he a better fighter? I don’t have the answer.

All I know for sure is that every single one of those guys could pummel me into next week. [/quote]

Mirko said in an All Access show I think that the reason he didn’t block the kick is because he couldn’t really see after the elbows to the face. If you watch the Gonzaga kick you see him bring his arm up a bit like to block a body kick but instead the kick went up top and it was lights out CroCop.

It’s pretty easy to take away Mirko’s game plan. He is dangerous as hell, no one doubts that, but you can really irritate him in the ring/cage by being aggressive and it shuts him down mentally. Just about every guy that beats Mirko does so by running at him at the bell and getting in his face. I think he just expects everyone to be afraid of him and wait to be decapitated. And from what I hear about his (former)camp, that’s what they would tell him. That’s not working out so well for him. Hopefully that will change.

29

[quote]loppar wrote:
TheWookiee wrote:
I’m not one to claim a fight was fixed, but several people I know, and that I trust, say the Gonzaga fight was fixed or at the very least Cro Cop is just cashing paychecks now.

Virtually impossible.

Mirko is a freaking hyper-competitive egomaniac.

A couple of years ago I was brought with some other guys as cannon fodder to Mirko for a training session. They were looking for big guys with judo/wrestling background for wrestling and ground training.

Anyway, when we came there, Mirko was doing some light sparring in which he should have practiced evasion and defence. Seeing the new guys come in, he proceeded to maul each of his sparring partners. He couldn’t stand that we might think that those guys were somehow “better” than him.

Also, there were threats and hysterical antics to PRIDE executives after the Hunt fight decision went against him.

Not to mention that immediately after the Randleman loss, he breached his contract with our national TV network in order to prevent his KTFO loss being shown to all of Croatia the next day.

The guy tried (simultaniously) to be a MMA fighter, a member of Parliament, an actor, and a soccer player.

After each loss there was the usual hysteria, threats of retirement and depression until the hangers-on convinced him yet again that he’s unstoppable and unbeatable(hopefully this has changed with Ziza’s return)

And you’re telling me that this guy would voluntarily work a fight?[/quote]

nice post!