Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s brief, disappointing career with the UFC has officially ended.
At a press conference earlier today in Japan, it was announced that Cro Cop has left the UFC and signed with a new Japanese fight promotion called DREAM.
DREAM is a new organization by the Fight Entertainment Group. You will remember the FEG crew as the guys who run the K-1 promotion and where in charge of Pride Fighting Championships prior to their demise.
Cro Cop only fulfilled three of his six contracted fights in the UFC defeating Eddie Sanchez in his debut at UFC 67, and then losing back-to-back fights against Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70 and Cheick Kongo at UFC 75.
With the new DREAM promotion, the existing K-1 HEROs promotion is being halted. The first official DREAM show is scheduled for March 15 at the Saitama Super Arena and a match between Gesias Calvancante and Shinya Aoki is the only fight currently announced. Cro Cop is expected to fight on the March 15 card as well.
Naturally, the new DREAM promotion owners announced they also had a business agreement with M-1 Global, which most likely means that former PrideFC Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko will fight in the DREAM events as well.
Other names suspected to be signing with the DREAM promotion include Kazushi Sakuraba, Caol Uno, Masakatsu Funaki, Kid Yamamoto, Royce Gracie, Hayato Sakurai and Yoshihiro Akiyama.
It looks like PrideFC is back boys… and this time its not just a “DREAM”.
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First… I was the first person on this site to break all this yesterday.. thank you thank you… lol…kidding.. anyways.. Cro Cop couldn’t hack it in the UFC.. he leaves with a tarnished and shamed rep in my opinion.. it looks to the one who would make unfounded accusations that he was unable to juice therefore he was unable to win against REAL heavyweights… I mean Cheick, Gonzaga, ect these guys are big. really big.. and testing.. and Cro Cop has been whipped SEVERELY in his last 2 fights.. and and and… I am excited about DREAMS.. however I don’t have the same respect for Mirko now.. and I won’t because its obvious he is running back to the “wild west” of MMA where there is no testing, and the opponents are usually smaller in the HW division..
The other side to this is that it’s possible that he was so used to the STRUCTURE of Pride that he was apathetic in his term at the UFC therefore he didn’t care what happened, so he was happy to go HOME to the Japanese org.. but that doesn’t matter at this point..
Hopefully this will take off and give some serious, legitimate competition to the UFC
good move mirko… it just wasnt meant to work out….
I think there are a lot of factors that went into Cro-Cops lackluster appearance in the UFC. One of them is not lacking steroids. Cro-cop’s physique doesn’t seem fit the profile, nether does his background or personality…but you never know. The usage is so rampant in the sport that there really is no telling. I was really hoping he could re-group and come back to the UFC, but going to Dream is fine by me as well. Hopefully they regain wht ride had. I’m excited, since I prefer the japanese rules and the ring…can’t wait.