VID What's next for Cro Cop?

[Splinty]

Some talk from the man himself:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or0_VGh85bM


Some analysis from mmajunkie:
In the purgatory between totally finished and all the way back, there’s Mirko Filipovic | MMAjunkie

Here’s where anyone who loved watching that old “Cro Cop,” couldn’t help but get that sinking feeling. He wasn’t doing terribly. He wasn’t doing much of anything. Was Filipovic going to make us sad? Even worse, was he going to use all five rounds to do it?

Then in the third, without warning, this outburst of elbows. One shuddering explosion of short, swift violence, and suddenly Gonzaga’s legs were failing him. You could almost feel his confusion. How did this happen? Where did it come from?

He recovered his senses just long enough to regain his guard and take a breath. There now, maybe it was over. Maybe that was all the old man had. Soon he discovered that Filipovic was just focusing his energy, which he would then direct with great force and efficiency through the point of his elbow and straight into Gonzaga’s skull.

By the time referee Leon Roberts finally stopped it, Gonzaga had rolled to his side and wrapped his arms around the leaking hole in his head, all thought of fighting back now vanished. The blood poured down his forearms and onto the canvas. Filipovic was so happy, he seemed to almost forget about the deep, dark hole on the side of his own head.

A win like this, I suppose it’s redemption. It’s a nice story, is what it is, or at least it would be if it ended right this instant, which it won’t.

Perhaps no single person symbolizes Filipovic’s underachieving UFC years better than Gonzaga. He was the opponent the first time they met, there to help sell Filipovic’s impending UFC title shot. He’s the guy we started paying attention to only after he Cro Cop’d “Cro Cop.” That knockout loss to Gonzaga marked, if not the beginning of Filipovic’s decline, then at least the end of his ascent.

To come back and beat him now, at this late stage in his career, how could it not feel a little like exorcising a demon? It’s just, if you cared about Filipovic’s long-term health, you might be tempted not to read too much more into it than that.

Personally? I'd love to see Cro Cop vs Nog II. I think either should not be spending their last combat days fighting young guys. These young fighters are either good enough to have a future and will beat them, or shouldn't be fighting in the UFC and it will be a fight with the same level of competition minus the historic value.

Thoughts? Should he go for his health and let this show he closed out the most dramatic of losses? Or if he can be competitive against lesser competition should he try?

 

[La Paix]

Id love to see Crocop call it a career as far as MMA. I think at this point his health should be priority over anything else, he's had a legendary career and is 40 and I'm sure there's tons of people like myself who have supported him throughout and want to see him stop on a high note.

 

[SongExotic2]

Did you know his names not really Mirko cro cop???

I found out yesterday


It's actually Michael cro cop


Mind= blown!

 

[Zeph]

 

[Zeph]

Crocop vs Nelson or Big Nog would be good. Shit or Schaub.

 

[jason73]

mirko vs rampage is the fight to make if rampage ever gets his shit together. they both stand and bang and its not like page isnt walking around at 250lbs right now. they both are pride guys at the end of their careers and it would be a good fight for either man.
mirko vs big nog is another great match up and you can bet that barnett would love a chance to finally win one against crocop.
i would also be happy if mirko called it a day and left on a high note.

 

[Wild]

I was hoping he would ride off into the sunset after that win, but it seems like he thinks he's got some more fight left in him. Respect.

 

[MoomBah]

Big Nog or Arlovski.

 

[Wild]

Big Nog or Arlovski.

Nog makes sense. Nog/Barnett makes sense as well. Why they have him matched up w/ Struve is beyond me. That fight makes no sense.