http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=Av7XjQHRM.or03X2DOFtIKaMFI14?slug=ki-crocop060910 On doing interviews: I dont like it, but its part of the job and I will swallow it, Filipovic said. If you think Im unhappy I dont want to be a star, I dont want to be in the magazines. I just dont like it. I just want to be a normal family man. Im doing this sport because I like it. I started in this sport as a kid, when I was 12, 11 years old. I enjoy fighting. On joining the UFC: It was a bad time for me, I was sick of everything, of training. Id just won the Grand Prix in PRIDE. To tell you the truth, the money attracted me here. The money attracted me because I knew PRIDE was going to be finished. But that is the worst motivation, to fight only for money. I trained some, but not the way I should have. Then, I underestimated the phenomenon called the cage. Its a huge difference in your career. The cage is twice bigger than the ring; there are no ropes. Its different rules. It was a shock for me. Its also a different kind of public. That was a shock for me. In Japan when youre fighting, you feel like youre in Vienna at a concert listening to some opera. Everybodys quiet. They keep quiet. When you do some moves, they go, Ooooh. Here, people are screaming and this and that. Its a different mentality. All those things are small, but put them together and it was a big thing for me. On the fans: I respect the people, Filipovic said. Im aware many people like me and like my way of fighting. I respect that. Sometimes, it is hard. Sometimes, it is hard to be polite all the time. I can sign one, two, three hundred times. Three hundred times, I can not [sign that many autographs]. Im nervous. I want to get my rest. I want to have my peace. Thats why most of the time, Im in my room. It doesnt mean I hate fans. No, no, Im aware of everything. We are here because of fans. Im paid because people buy tickets to see me fighting.
:good Crocop is one of my all time fave. It suck that he struggled in the ufc but he is right. If he wasn't motivated and only did it for the money then its the wrong mentality. The cage is different from the ring he is used to in pride and k-1. He said in his loss to gonzaga that he was still dizzie from the elbow he recieved that's why he got KTFO.
he, along with rich franklin are my favourite fighters in the ufc. opening up like that was great and it did show another side to him. it also showed people that he is extremely serious about his fighting.
Unfortunately Cro-Cop is such a shadow of his former self these days. So even if he came to the UFC at the wrong time, that was a good few years ago, when the **** is he going to come good again?
