UFC 128 Fight Card: How Will Mirko Cro Cop Be Remembered?

As Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic prepares for his heavyweight battle with Brendan Schaub at UFC 128, one can’t help but look back at what has been a very tumultuous run in the American-based promotion.

Once considered the consensus No. 2 heavyweight on the planet, Filipovic has appeared to be a mere shell of his former self in the UFC.

His 4-4 record makes him sound like the kind of fighter who merely fills the middle of the card with a moderate fight, picks up a paycheck and goes home.

But for half a decade, Mirko Cro Cop was perhaps the most feared striker in the entire sport.

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that has been his MMA career leaves a very open question: How will Mirko Cro Cop be remembered?

In order to answer that question, we have to look back at the entire body of the man’s work.

A former K-1 kickboxer, Filipovic made his MMA debut in August 2001 when he defeated former pro wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita, who boasted a 7-1 record going into the fight. This would just be the beginning of what would end up being one of the greatest runs in mixed martial arts history.

Cro Cop faced the absolute best of the best in the world for the next five years in PRIDE. Filipovic crushed top-ranked fighters like Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Coleman, Igor Vovchanchyn, Alexsander Emelianenko and Josh Barnett on his way to what many consider to be the biggest heavyweight fight in mixed martial arts history, when he faced PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko.

Though he fell short, losing a decision in the enormous fight against Emelianenko, very few doubted that Mirko was still the No. 2 fighter in the world.

He went on to prove it at the PRIDE 2006 Open-Weight Grand Prix tournament. In a bracket filled with some of the most highly touted fighters on the planet, Filipovic was the star.

Cro Cop won his first-round fight against the highly touted former pro wrestler Ikuhisa Minowa just 1:10 in. The knockout put the tournament on notice that the Croatian kickboxer was back.

Less than two months later, it was Olympic judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida who wouldn’t make it out of the first round. Cro Cop chopped Yoshida down at the base with powerful leg kicks that caused the referee to stop the fight.

While those two fights were good starts to the tournament, what Filipovic did on Sept. 10, 2006, was the crowning achievement of his career as a mixed martial artist.

In back-to-back fights, Cro Cop defeated PRIDE 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva and fellow top heavyweight Josh Barnett to become the PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix Champion.

It was during this tournament that Cro Cop coined the phrase, “Right leg: hospital, left leg: cemetery” to describe his unbelievable kicking power.

In perhaps the most devastating knockout he ever dealt, Cro Cop caught Wanderlei Silva with a thunderous left high kick that ended the fight in an instant.

After the tournament, Mirko admitted that it would have been the last fight of his career if he would not have won the tournament.

When a rematch between Filipovic and Fedor Emelianenko failed to materialize in December 2006, UFC President Dana White would make it official on Dec. 30 of that year that the company had signed the world’s No. 2-ranked heavyweight.

The MMA world watched in awe as the PRIDE veteran made his debut at UFC 67 in February 2007, using the PRIDE FC theme song as he walked to the cage.

Living up to his billing as the most dangerous heavyweight striker in the sport, Filipovic destroyed Eddie Sanchez on the feet, eventually knocking him out with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first round.

Unfortunately, his run on top of the heavyweight division would end there.

In a now-famous highlight reel knockout just two months later at UFC 70, Brazilian heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga “pulled a Cro Cop,” knocking the Croatian kickboxer out with one of the most heinous looking head kicks ever seen. Many believe this was the night that the entire career of Mirko Filipovic changed.

In his next fight, Cro Cop seemed timid at times against French kickboxer Cheick Kongo, losing a unanimous decision in what was a very uncharacteristic fight from two normally very dangerous strikers.

Though it was later found out that he had suffered a cracked rib during the fight, the fighter we saw that night simply did not look like the same person that we saw during Cro Cop’s run in PRIDE.

After the disappointing loss, Filipovic temporarily left the UFC to fight again in Japan. He went 2-0-1 in three fights, including a no-contest against current Strikeforce/Dream/K-1 champion Alistair Overeem that ended when Overeem connected on numerous knees to the groin.

Cro Cop made his UFC return at UFC 99 when he knocked out Mostapha Al-turk in the first round of their fight. But a loss to Junior Dos Santos just three months later would kill any momentum that had been created from his return to the promotion.

He went on to defeat Anthony Perosh and Pat Berry with impressive back-to-back stoppages, but then we saw the most disappointing performance of Mirko Filipovic’s career against Frank Mir in the main event at UFC 119.

The fight was originally scheduled to be Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but Cro Cop stepped in as a replacement for Nogueira, as the Brazilian was unable to compete due to injury. With two fighters who enjoy striking, most fans and experts alike expected to see fireworks on the feet.

What we got was anything but that.

After two of the most boring, uneventful main event rounds in UFC history, neither fighter had really done much damage. The fight was looking like it was going to go the distance. But Mir had other plans as he connected with a knee that knocked Cro Cop out in the final minute of the fight.

Filipovic had been beaten before, he had even been knocked out before, but he had never looked as careless as he did that night in September 2010.

Whether it was his age, an injury, or just a general lack of desire to continue fighting, it was something that we had never seen before and never wanted to see again.

UFC 128 could very well be Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s last stand in mixed martial arts. He will face a very tough, young and hungry Brendan Schaub, who went 3-0 in 2010.

Win or lose, the door is closing on 36-year-old Cro Cop. The chance for him to cement his legacy is hanging in the balance; he just needs to take it.

If he does lose on Saturday night, it is my personal feeling that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will retire as one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time and a true legend in the sport of mixed martial arts.

He may have had a rough patch to end a great career, but fans don’t remember athletes for what they did at the tail end of their careers. We remember them for what they were in their prime.

We don’t remember Brett Favre on the Vikings or Jets, Greg Maddux on the Dodgers, or Michael Jordan on the Wizards. We remember Favre winning a Super Bowl for the Packers, Maddux winning Cy Young awards and a World Series with the Braves, Jordan making last-second shots with the Bulls and we will always remember Mirko Cro Cop knocking people’s heads off with his left foot.

UFC 128: Shogun Rua vs. Jon Jones: Results, News and More