June 13 — Cologne, Germany
UFC 99 – Heavyweights (3 rds.)
MIRKO FILIPOVIC -400
MOSTAPHA AL-TURK +250
MIRKO “CRO COP” FILIPOVIC (24-6, 18 KO’s), the -400 favorite in the BetUS UFC betting odds, has had a long career in the martial arts, starting things out in the kick-boxing ranks in 1996. He compiled a record of 16-7, which culminated in a first-round KO of Bob Sapp in April 2003. He entered the Pride organization in 2001 and soon was fighting with many of the sport’s best. Within his first ten bouts he had a draw with Wanderlei Silva and wins over Kazushi Sakuraba, Igor Vovchanchyn and Heath Herring. A fight for the Pride interim heavyweight title followed, but Mirko could not keep the bout in the stand-up, getting submitted with an armbar after being taken down by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. After a first-round KO loss to Kevin Randleman in the Pride heavyweight Grand Prix in April 2004, his fighting career was a little uncertain. That is until he improved his ground game and went on a serious winning streak, beating the likes of Josh Barnett, Mark Coleman and Randleman in a rematch. That put him in the ring with perhaps the sport’s premier fighter, Fedor Emilianenko, in another Pride heavyweight title bout. Mirko hung in there well, but lost the unanimous decision. He later attributed his losing effort to the fact that the time difference in Japan, where he had fought twenty times before, adversely affected him.
Despite the faux pas, Mirko continued to prove his mettle, winning in open-weight competition twice more against Barnett, as well as Wanderlei Silva, in a rematch of their previous draw. After winning the Pride Openweight Grand Prix, he entered the UFC, debuting with a TKO of Eddie Sanchez, then losing to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo. Filipovic moved over to the Dream organization in Japan and after beating Tatsuya Mizuno, fought to a no-contest with Alistair Overeem, having been kneed repeatedly in the groin until the referee stopped it. Cro Cop was formerly part of an anti-terrorist organization in Croatia, and has also served in Parliament there.
MOSTAPHA AL-TURK (6-4, 4 KO’s), the +250 underdog at BetUS, originally comes from Beirut, and lives in London. His background is with an organization called the London Shootfighters, and he made his MMA debut in March of 2002, competing in the Xtreme Fighting Championship. Al-Turk lost his first two fights. He then went on a four-fight winning streak, including a win over Mark Kerr, known as the “Smashing Machine,” but that was also on the tail end of Kerr’s five-fight losing streak. Al-Turk was the British Cage Rage champion in the heavyweight division by virtue of beating James McSweeney in July of 2008, but he gave that title up to sign on with the UFC. He’s had only one bout with them, a first-round TKO loss last December to Cheick Kongo, where he was dropped suddenly and recieved a vicious ground assault before the referee was able to stop it. He is currently working with the Wolfslair Academy, which includes Michael Bisping, Quinton Jackson and also Kongo.
This is pretty much a do-or-die situation for Cro Cop (derived from the term “Croatian Cop”) as far as a serious career in mixed martial arts is concerned.
Cro Cop is a fighter that has a massive edge in terms of experience. When you have been in combat with his all-star roster of opponents, there is very little you’re going to encounter that you haven’t seen before. There’s a flip side, of course, which is that he has more wear and tear on his body, and that no doubt becomes a factor. He had knee surgery in January, and only returned to training about a month ago. He had postponed that surgery to fight Hong-Man Choi in a New Year’s Eve fight. He has said that he had to completely reconstruct the knee, and I’m wondering if he has recovered enough from that to be able to throw his trademark high left kick.
The question is, does that outweigh the fact that he has demonstrated his ability against some of the great fighters in the world and has a “catalogue” of experiences to call on? I think it just might. I am skeptical about the guy getting into action this soon. I know that he was originally supposed to fight in Japan in July, but this bout is supposed to be more or less a “tune-up” among a few fights that leads to a final title shot. This wouldn’t be the first time a fighter looked upon an opponent as a stepping stone only to be surprised unpleasantly.
Mirko has said that he just doesn’t like fighting in a cage. A psychological effect, maybe? Well, there’s no escaping it here. He’s in an Octagon, and that’s all there is to it. If this is the Cro Cop of old he would win this bout easily. But if this is an “aged” Cro Cop and one who is not in the kind of shape he should be in, this becomes interesting.
Perhaps interesting enough to take a price on the underdog Al-Turk, posted at +250 in the BetUS UFC betting odds.
OUR PLAY: AL-TURK TO WIN (+250) **
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