Poll: Will Cro Cop Ever Be A UFC Heavyweight Contender?
This Saturday (April 11, 2015) former Pride Grand Prix and K-1 Champion Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC Fight night 64 from Krakow, Poland, to take on skidding No. 14-ranked Gabriel Gonzaga in a rematch of their historic first battle at UFC 70 in 2007, where Gonzaga famously upset Cro Cop with his own move – a massive head kick.
Since losing his final three UFC bouts to not exactly the cream of the crop in Roy Nelson, Brendan Schaub, and Frank Mir, Cro Cop has rebounded by winning three out of his past four mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts, including his two latest knockouts of Satoshi Ishii for the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) heavyweight title.
While that may not be the most impressive resume (or even one that constitutes a second UFC return), the formerly feared champion has shown that he still has it in the striking arena by winning the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix Finals. True, that certainly won’t be enough to contend with the elite of the division like Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Junior dos Santos, Travis Browne, Mark Hunt, and Stipe Miocic, the UFC’s top weight class is significantly thin after that, meaning that Cro Cop could be just one or two impressive knockout wins away from fighting a big-name challenger.
He’ll get that chance against Gonzaga this weekend, who should be looking to prove he can still defeat world-class opposition after two consecutive defeats to Matt Mitrione and Miocic. Neither Filipovic nor Gonzaga would be in that position in any other division save for perhaps flyweight; but they are, and that’s the reality of the situation.
We’ve seen it happen recently in former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski’s shocking return to top 10 status. Can Cro Cop pull off the same comeback?
