“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).

Diabaté is a new fighter to the UFC and should present Luiz Cane with a good opportunity to bounce back from his most recent loss. This will be his first fight in the UFC, but he has had success in his other professional fighting. Diabaté has not lost a match since September 2006. He is an older fighter at 36, but is very skilled. This fight will be the first of the 4 fights that he signed up for in the UFC.

Cane, UFC 114 lines favorite, will take part in his 6th career UFC fight. In his previous 5 fights he has won 3 and lost two. His career record is 10-2-1. He loves to put people into submission early, ending the fight in the first round twice recently. He uses Muay-Thai in his fighting very effectively. Before losing his most recent match he had won 3 consecutive matches.

Diabaté is known for his kickboxing abilities. He also loves to put people into submission early, ending the fight in the first round twice recently.

Though Diabaté is new to the UFC, he is a veteran nonetheless. Don’t expect Diabaté to back down now that he has been promoted to this level of fighting. This fight looks to be a good one.