Left Kick, Cemetery: Mirko Cro Cop’s Greatest Hits

(I dare you to mock this picture.) 

It’s hard to define someone like Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, a man who is perhaps the most multi-faceted, not to mention intriguing figure in MMA. Aside from his incredible list of credentials including time in both the Croatian elite Special Forces Unit and Parliament, the man has amassed a mixed martial arts and kickboxing resume that reads like a Hall of Fame list in either sport.

But come Saturday night at UFC 137, Cro Cop will simply be fighting for the right to continue his career, or maybe just to end it on his own terms. In a way, Filipovic is kind of like the Metallica of the heavyweights, with his 2006 Pride Grand Prix win being his Master of Puppets. And, like Metallica, everything since then has been well…just kind of downhill. The devastating loss to Gabriel Gonzaga was his ReLoad, the bittersweet win over Pat Barry his Death Magnetic, and the back-to-back knockout losses to Frank Mir and Brendan Schuab his Lulu. Except, unlike Lulu, those losses only felt like an hour and a half of pure shit.

But as fans of the sport, we are pulling for Cro Cop to put on a hell of a performance on October 29th. Even at the cost of our parlays, it would be awesome to see some flashes of the old “Cro Cop” in what could be the last fight of his incredible career, which Old Dad has already promised us Mirko will do.

Look at me, blabbering on like some school girl. Let’s take a look and a listen at Cro Cop’s greatest hits, “California Dreamin‘” aside.

Cro Cop vs. Herring – A Glimpse of Things to Come

Cro Cop vs. Igor – Video Proof of the “Left Leg, Cemetery” Theory

(Check out the ref cam angle here.) 

Cro Cop vs. Aleks Emelianenko – The Theory Becomes Fact 

(Watch Fedor’s reaction here.)

Cro Cop vs. Coleman – Making it Look Easy

Crop Cop vs. Silva – 2006 Pride Grand Prix Semis

Pride FC Cro Cop vs Silva by kenja95

Cro Cop vs. Barnett 2 – 2006 Pride Grand Prix Finals

(Fight starts at 10:30)

-Danga