Mirko Cro Cop Returns To MMA With August 23 Bout Against Satoshi Ishii In Japan
‘Retired’ MMA legend Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic has not competed in the cage since being submitted by Oleksiy Oliynyk at Legend Fight Show 2, back in November 2013. The loss was Cro Cop’s second bout since his 2012 departure from the UFC; his only foray into MMA since his UFC 137 TKO against Roy Nelson was a submission win against a debuting sumo wrestler (I’m not joking) at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2012.
News emerged that Filipovic will once again lace up the four ounce gloves, and enter the cage as a mixed martial artist. Satoshi Ishii is the man fortunate enough to welcome the touted knockout artist back to MMA.
Ishii is an Olympic gold medal winning judoka, and his MMA record isn’t actually too bad considering he got KTFO by Fedor the last time anyone heard of him. That was three years ago in Saitama, Japan, and the Japanese Judo expert has actually gotten pretty good at this MMA thing. In fact, Ishii hasn’t lost once since that night against Emelianenko.
Currently riding a seven-fight win streak, including wins over Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Kazuyuki Fujita and Phil De Fries, Ishii will look to take down the former K-1 and Pride FC GP winner on home soil. In fact, you could call Japan home turf for both men; Ishii obviously, but Filipovic because of the amount of time he has spent fighting there, and his incredible fan base within the Eastern world.
Cro Cop vs. Ishii will be the main event of Inoki Genome Fight 2 on August 23 in Tokyo, Japan. Will the Croatian fan favorite be able to rekindle his glory days, or will the Japanese grappler send Cro Cop back to kickboxing and MMA retirement?
