Mirko vows an impressive fight at UFC 115 on Saturday
Ahead of the pair’s UFC 115 fight on Saturday, Pat Barry has branded Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic one of the “scariest guys on the planet. Filipovic is an open weight Pride FC Grand Prix champion and he is a two-time K-1 World Grand Prix runner-up. However, in 2007, since his head-kick knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga, his fortunes have taken somewhat of a downward spiral. He suffered a detached a ligament in his knee.
“When I switched over to MMA he was like the No. 1 guy on my list. I blame Mirko for the evolution of MMA; he caused the rest of us to evolve. I’ll say this, same thing I said to everybody else, Cro-Cop is still the man he’s always been. He’s still the monster that he’s always been. He’s still as deadly as he’s always been, so he’s not older or slower, weaker, nothing. It’s everybody else got better is what has happened. So anybody who says that Cro-Cop is out of his prime can feel free to fight him for me next Saturday. I don’t mind”, said Barry.
Whether Filipovic, a former Policeman, secures an extension to his UFC contract, the outcome of the fight is likely to determine and the Croatian fighter is fully aware of the difficulty he faces to forge a successful future for himself.
“I will keep fighting as long as I can, as long as I’m going to feel fit, as long as people would like to see me fighting and that’s it, MMA is growing and the fighters are becoming more and more complete than before, but to get to victory today in this competition you also must have your day. It doesn’t mean that I’m looking for an excuse but sometimes you just don’t feel good, you just don’t feel, yes, you want to fight”, said Filipovic.
Filipovic had a UFC-sized cage built in the private gym in his home in Zagreb, Croatia, shortly after his first UFC losses. For him it has been a great challenge to find suitable training partners. the Croatian fighter returned to Amsterdam to prepare with retired kickboxing great and longtime coach Ivan Hippolyte at the Vos Gym, prior to his February bout against Perosh (Filipovic was originally slated to face Ben Rothwell).
