Fedor Emelianenko Says UFC 110's Mirko Cro Cop Is “Broken”
Once considered one of the deadliest strikers in all of MMA, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has looked like a shell of his former self while putting together an unimpressive 2-3 record inside the Octagon.
Strikeforce’s Fedor Emelianenko was recently asked about Cro Cop’s drastic decline since taking a decision over the Croatian at “Pride Final Conflict 2005,” and MMA’s best heavyweight answered quite candidly about his former foe.
“There is something that broke in him and he is not the same fighter as he was before,” the former Pride heavyweight champion stated .
When the pair met back in August of 2005, Cro Cop was the clear-cut No. 2 heavyweight in the world behind Emelianenko and was riding a seven-fight win streak into their contest, with only one of those bouts going to a decision.
“You know when a person goes into the ring to win, or at least not to lose. I mean, when a fighter is ready and goes to fight than it can be seen by his look. Regardless of whether he gets hit or not, he goes forward and regardless of whether he wins or loses, he wants to go forward, and it is clear from his burning eyes,” Fedor continued. “But it also happens that a fighter does not want to — not even to win, but he wants to get out of here so quickly as possible, out of the ring, out of the cage, with any result of the fight.”
Cro Cop will face Ben Rothwell at “UFC 110 : Nogueira vs. Velasqeuz” this Saturday night in Australia, it’ll be his first bout since getting TKO’d by Junior dos Santos at UFC 103 .
Please click on the YouTube player below if you would like to hear Emelianenko’s interview. The questions regarding Cro Cop begin at the 7:30 mark; however, the entire interview is in Russian.
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