Cro Cop unretires

I could watch Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic head kick highlights all day. In describing his powerful kicks, he’s said “right kick hospital, left kick cemetery.” In fact, his left leg could have it’s own 24-hour TV channel. Of course, it would all be reruns because that leg hasn’t done much damage since Gabriel Gonzaga’s right leg had a close encounter with Cro Cop’s head at UFC 70. I wonder if Cro Cop’s had that leg insured the way movie stars and models have their tits and asses insured. But I digress.

When Cro Cop found himself crying uncle in a shockingly timid performance at UFC 103 last weekend it looked like he was heading toward retirement. His infamous left leg already seemed to be sitting in a rocking chair enjoying its golden years even before the run-in with a hungry Junior dos Santos. Afterward, Cro Cop admitted his heart wasn’t in the fight and that his head had gone fishing and that we’d probably seen the last of him in those colourful Croatian flag man-panties.

Turns out the former PRIDE FC headhunter has had a change of heart and mind. He has two bouts remaining on his UFC contract and he tells Croation newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija that he’ll likely honour them. “Often things can get on top of you but I cannot say that I don’t love this sport. It’s hard for me to decide now but I think that I will do these last two fights for UFC. This thing is stronger than me. Sometimes the mind says yes but the heart says no.”

Cro Cop has a 25-7-2 (1) MMA record dating back to 2001 and a 16-7 kickboxing record dating back to 1996. And he’s a member of an elite Croatian anti-terrorist unit in a country that has a lot of terrorists. He’s a soldier and a fighter and it looks like he’s having a hard time walking away from the sport.

“Take for example, when a man spends 30 years in prison, you let him out; he robs a store and takes only a pack of cigarettes, just to be returned to prison because they can not live outside. This is my fear,” he says. “The problem is that my way of life is saturated with this military discipline, which does not allow for such things as Christmas or New Year holidays. Training is never a problem – I think I missed five or six sessions in my entire life and never just because I couldn’t be bothered.”

Still, though, the question remains: What happened to MMA’s most fearsome fighter? He made Bob Sapp cry, fer crissake. Cro Cop was supposed to destroy all comers en route to the UFC heavyweight crown and now he’s just trying to salvage a little dignity.