So it's finally confirmed. And i guess if Crocop ****s it up again , will it even be a surprise anymore ?...I don't think so. by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Oct 29, 2008 at 12:20 pm ET After struggling against Alistair Overeem (28-11) at the Sept. 26 DREAM 6 event -- only to be saved by a no-contest after being struck with a fight-ending knee to the groin -- former PRIDE and UFC fighter Mirko "Cro Cop" (23-6-2) says the rematch is set for Dec. 31 in Japan. Filipovic confirmed the rumored K-1 DYNAMITE!! 2008 bout with Croatian site dnevnik.hr. Filipovic also confirmed that he'll enter the fight with a knee injury and will undergo surgery soon after the event, which is scheduled to feature five MMA bouts and five K1 kickboxing matches. The event takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. In their first meeting in September, Overeem connected with early knees from the clinch and easy takedowns. He then tagged Filipovic and caused a cut near his left eye, but it was checked and hw was cleared to continue. In subsequent exchanges, though, Filipovic was caught with two knees to the groin. Overeem was issued a warning, and after the second, Overeem was issued his second yellow card of the fight. During a lengthy recovery time, Filipovic's corner alerted Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten, who were calling the action for HDNet, that Filipovic's right testicle had been knocked up and inside his body. For a full 10 minutes, the fighter lay on the mat while grimacing in obviously agonizing pain. Eventually, the pain was too much, and the fight was ruled a no-contest. "I'm sorry this great fight had to end this way," Overeem said after the fight. "It was a mistake to make early in the fight. I wanted to finish the fight with Cro Cop with a KO or submission in a fair way." Since signing with the UFC in late 2006 and debuting with a first-round TKO of Eddie Sanchez in February 2007, Filipovic is 1-2 (with one no-contest), which included a knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga and a unanimous-decision defeat to Cheick Kongo. His lone victory was over little-known Tatsuya Mizuno (4-4) at DREAM 1 after Filipovic left the UFC. Overeem, meanwhile, has rebounded from a three-fight losing streak in early 2007 with a 4-1 record (with one no-contest) in his past six fights. In November 2007, he defeated Paul Buentello with a second-round submission via strikes to win the first-ever Strikeforce world heavyweight championship. http://mmajunkie.com/news/13121/cro-cop-says-alistair-overeem-rematch-set-for-new-years-eve-in-japan.mma
Overeem probablly stops him id like to thank Gonzaga for exposing this overatted hype job. I know Randleman also KOed him but noboddy had taken Cro Cop down easily battered him with elbows then almost killed him with his favorite weapon. Gonzaga you are the man.
uh , no...you gotta be kidding Jimmie , i'll agree on the fact that he looks like **** today , but saying that it's because he was an overrated hype job (this means..since day 1 ) , is absolutely bull****. and you know it. an overrated hype job doesn't achieve the things he did in K1 nor mma. it's impossible to label him as such , since he's beaten legit top opponents before. a hype job generally gets exposed as soon as he starts fighting top fighters. It wasn't the case in crocop's career. On the contrary , the likes of Kongo , Gonzaga , weren't anything special. Before all this bull**** happened , my personal critic was that he was inconsistent from time to time... but today it's a whole different story...
Hes accomplished alot thats true but he was always made into much more then he ever was. I was sick of hearing after he beat Barnett agian and Wanderlei that he was going to **** Fedor in a rematch ahh why ? Fedor completely dominated ground and standing. He came to the UFC and all I heard is Randy is dead Cro Cop is going to kick his head off. Are you kidding me ? Gonzaga is a great Jiu-Jitsu fighter but I seriously doubt hes the wrestler and GNP guy Couture is and Gonzaga mauled him totally. He wasnt shot physically and still isnt hes more likely to be shot mentally. He was coming off the biggest run of his career when Gonzaga totally destroyed him and knocked him out cold with a high kick. Cro Cop didnt look like he wanted to be there in any fight since and has looked terrible this guys confidence was shattered that night.
Cro Cop has been avoiding Sergei Kharitonov. He won't take the fight. Dream tried to set up the fight at Dream 1, Dream 4 and Dream 6. Cro Cop said he wants an easier opponent at the time. Even for Sergei's last fight , Mighty Mo pulled out on with only a few days notce. Cro Cop needs to get his act together, it looked like he was loosing the first fight to Oveereem and got lucky he was DQ'd.
I always thought professional fighters (boxers, MMAers) wore cups so that their testicles wouldn't be kneed or punched up into their body?
Overeem was tooling Crocop last time, Crocop looks crap nowadays, Overeem should win this comfortably so long as he avoids the balls.
I take it you never watched much of CC`s career then? Didnt you watch the OWGP? CC has had a fantastic high light reel MMA career but to **** on him now that his best days are clearly gone is just infantile.
i love that overeem is on an upswing in his career but its sad to see CC go down so much. overeem will overwhelm in the clinch and i think get a takedown and gnp for the win.
