Mirko Cro Cop Talks About The Time He Put Fabricio Werdum To Sleep

Here’s an interesting story of how Mirko Cro Cop sent Fabricio Werdum packing home to Brazil from Croatia….

Pride FC legend and K-1 kickboxing champion Mirko Cro Cop became the first man to fail the newly mandated USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) drug test this year. It wasn’t his proudest moment, and was made all the more sketchy by the fact he was ‘injured’ and retired before the news of his pop for HGH (human growth hormone) went public.

In the months leading up to his failed test and subsequent scratch from the UFC Fight Night 79 co-main event, Cro Cop had been making a lot of appearances on Croatian news and chat shows. He gave his first interview about retiring while on TV in his home country, further discussing his career-long injuries and reasons for no longer competing in mixed martial arts. One interview that not too many people have seen is his discussion on Fabricio Werdum, as kindly translated by Luca Toni:

Very interesting. There’s a few ways you could read in to this too. Maybe Werdum was so distraught by being tapped against a pure striker, that his shame led him to follow a vow he made in jest, or the UFC heavyweight champion had reached his goal in helping Cro Cop become a better grappler. Perhaps he’d set that milestone as a goal for Filipovic, rather than a failing on his own part. I’d like to believe the latter.

Cro Cop has made many friends during his time in combat sports, and out of all the famous steroid cheats in MMA, you’d hope that the amiable Pride fan favorite was clean for the most part of his career.