Zimooya

Source: http://weblogs.newsday.com/

Moments after eye-poking his way to victory over Mostapha Al-Turk at UFC 99 in Germany, Mirko Cro Cop bolted from the UFC to the Japan-based Dream, according to Yahoo! Sports.

“He didn’t keep his word,” UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! MMA writer Kevin Iole.

White said he’d had a two-hour talk with Filipovic on the day Filipovic texted and asked to be able to return. “He talked about honor and all this other [expletive] and he [expletived] me.

Pretty chump move to call White and beg for a one-fight deal — but only against a tomato can — then turn around and leave for another MMA organization. Should this be true, it looks like Cro Cop learned a lot from his time in Croatia’s parliament.

If it’s just a money move, I can’t blame Cro Cop since I’m fairly certain everyone of us would leave our current job if an offer to do the same thing for more money came along. Still, it comes off as sketchy, at best. It’s a WWE good guy turns bad guy move. Remember when The Rock joined the Corporation?

We’re predicting that Cro Cop winds up on the same side of Dana White’s brain as Tito Ortiz.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/

Mirko Filipovic joined the UFC two years ago amid more hype and expectation than perhaps any fighter in mixed martial arts history — and Cro Cop flopped.

After three desultory fights forced Filipovic into a yearlong retreat for mental adjustments and knee surgery, he returns to the octagon at UFC 99 on Saturday night in Cologne, Germany, against Mostapha Al Turk. The former anti-terrorist policeman in his native Croatia should have plenty of countrymen cheering the start of his second run toward the UFC heavyweight title.

And the 34-year-old Cro Cop insists he’s better prepared to put on the show many expected when he first joined the UFC. After tinkering with his training and clearing his mind, he’s ready to show off a new approach still built on the superb kickboxing and standup fighting that made him a star in Japan and an international attention-grabber.

“I’ve spent much time thinking about it,” Filipovic said. “Maybe I was empty after (Japan). Maybe I wasn’t adapted for the cage. Maybe I wasn’t hungry enough, I don’t know. I don’t mean blood for real, but I just couldn’t smell the blood as I could in my previous fights. I just wasn’t the old one.”

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