Sep-16-2009

Mirko Cro Cop – Back on Track

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By Thomas Gerbasi

For a while, things were fairly simple for Mirko Cro Cop: Get a fight, train, show up at the venue, knock someone out. And for most of his five years in Japan’s PRIDE organization, things went according to plan more often than not. Of course there were losses sprinkled among the highlight reel wins, but when the Croatian entered the ring, he basically knew what he was in for.

But then came the demise of PRIDE and Cro Cop’s ballyhooed arrival in the UFC. His career in the Octagon started innocently enough in 2007 when he halted Eddie Sanchez in a single round, but then came the head kick heard ‘round the world by Gabriel Gonzaga that knocked him out, and then a lopsided three round decision loss to Cheick Kongo. Just like that, one of the most feared heavyweights in the world was 1-2 and out of the UFC, never looking like the fighter he was in the Land of The Rising Sun.

Now, two years later, he’s back, one win into his second life in the UFC, and he seems to have figured out what went wrong the first time.

“I underestimated the cage,” he said during a recent media teleconference. “I had trained my whole life in the ring.”

So Cro Cop had a cage brought into his gym in Croatia, trained in it daily, and while he wasn’t back to his 2006 form yet, he did look more relaxed at UFC 99 in June when he halted Mostapha Al Turk in the first round.

“I feel much more comfortable in the cage,” he said. “I train all the time in the cage, I have my own cage in the gym, and I felt really good in my last fight in Germany. I think I’m on the right way and I think I’m just like I used to be in my old days.”

While a return to the “old days” would be an exciting prospect for fight fans and would throw another name into the growing title contention hat, the proof will be in Cro Cop’s performance this Saturday night, when he takes on rising star Junior Dos Santos in the UFC 103 co-feature in Dallas. Dos Santos, 2-0 with two knockouts (including one of Cro Cop’s former training partner Fabricio Werdum) knows that a win over the veteran striker zooms him up the rankings and in public perception. The protégé of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has also stated that he plans on going for the knockout on Saturday night. Cro Cop understands what he’s up against this weekend.

“Dos Santos is definitely one of the young lions in the UFC,” he said. “He’s a good fighter and he had two fights in the UFC, won both of them by KO in the first round. It will be a tough fight. I trained hard but it will definitely be a tough fight.”

These days, every fight is a tough fight in the heavyweight division, especially when the stakes get higher. That may be the way Cro Cop wants it though, considering that one of his requests when negotiating a new deal with the UFC was that he stay more active. Now he’s back in action three months after his last bout, and he hopes to keep that momentum going should he emerge from the Dos Santos bout relatively unscathed.

“If everything goes well, I expect to fight before the New Year, or at least in January,” he said. But we’ll see. It depends on injuries.”

Injuries are what plagued Cro Cop since his first departure from the UFC, but with wins in three of his four bouts since then (with one no contest against Alistair Overeem), he is starting to get back on track, leading to a high demand for his services. In the end though, he decided that the UFC was the place for him.

“I’m happy to be back,” he said. “I wanted to go to the hardest and only global organization today, and that’s UFC. With all respect, I made my career in Japan, and I liked PRIDE more than anything, but those days are gone, and UFC is the main one on the MMA market, and I think my place is to fight in the UFC.”

But with the paycheck and prestige that a spot on the UFC roster provides, there is also the fact that now all the top fighters in the game will be gunning for you. Cro Cop, who recently turned 35, is well aware of what’s in store for him, beginning with Saturday’s bout.

“The UFC’s heavyweight division is very hard at the moment,” he said. “Some new fighters are coming, like Junior, (Shane) Carwin, and (Cain) Velasquez, and it’s getting stronger and stronger every day. As the sport of MMA is spreading around the world, new fighters are coming from different sports and training, and it will be tougher and tougher to take the belt. But I don’t want to think too much about the future. I want to go step by step. First I want to concentrate on my fight against Junior, and then we’ll see.”