Jul 15 2009
Mirko Cro Cop Returns to the UFC and Signs a Three Fight Deal
UFC President Dana White said that MMA legend Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovich has signed a three-fight contract extension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship after a very thorough meeting with UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta sometime last week.
Cro Cop’s future in the UFC was placed in major jeopardy when it was reported that Cro Cop, after making a verbal agreement with Dana White to fight at UFC 99, instead signed to fight for DREAM Fighting Championship for the rest of 2009.
What’s bizarre about this story is that DREAM confirmed that Filipovic would fight on the July 20th, DREAM.10 show against Mighty Mo (Saila-Mou Siligia). I’ve heard from one source that the fight has since been scrapped after Mirko signed with the UFC, but I can’t confirm that just yet. We do know for sure that Cro Cop is under contractual obligation to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 103. But again, the story gets even STRANGER as the UFC recently released the poster for UFC 103 and neither that fight nor Cro Cop were featured, despite it being the HEAVILY rumored main event.
Cro Cop is one of my favorite fighters and was at one time the most feared man in the entire heavyweight division. Mirko won the 2006 PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix after defeating former UFC Champion Josh Barnett, Olympic Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida, and then-PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva. A fight with him and UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar would bring incredible WORLDWIDE interest with Mirko being a hero in both his homeland of Croatia as well as Japan.
We will keep you updated.
Sources: MMAJunkie, Wrestling Observer
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Cro Cop! If anything he adds quality talent to the heavyweight bracket that has become the most popular weight class for UFC.
The reason why he’s not on the poster is because he’s the “main event coming soon!” I imagine they didn’t put him on there yet because the fight wasn’t quite yet signed.
Now that it’s signed, look for a new poster.
Still, that card is going to suffer big time. There are very interesting fights on there, but Cro Cop and Santos isn’t going to draw, and it’s not Cro Cop’s fault.
No this is definitely a card that suffers because of stacked cards at 100 and 101.
Some serious talent here though.
Yeah, itll prob still do 300-400,000 buys though.
Yep, that’s their low end.
Some future top contenders on this card though. For the hardcore fans definitely.