If you ever wanted to know why Dana White and the UFC don’t do one-fight deals, or verbal ones for that matter, here’s why.
In a surprising turn of events, Cro Cop informed White following his win over Mostapha Al-Turk that he had signed a three-fight deal with DREAM, meaning he won’t be coming back to the UFC to honor the two remaining fights him and White had worked out verbally. Also, it’s come out now that Dana originally wanted Cro Cop to fight Cain Velasquez but he turned that fight down and ended up with Al-Turk instead. Here’s what Dana had to say about it.
“Isn’t that a dirty [expletive] thing to do?” White asked rhetorically after being queried about Filipovic’s deal with DREAM. “He [expletived] me. The first time in the history of the company I do one over the phone. He promised me a three-fight deal and he [expletived] me.”
“He didn’t keep his word,” White said, who 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.
“He fed me this bull [expletive] about wanting to take a run for the title, and what I think he did was, he went out and did this. He turned down every other [expletive] fighter I offered him, because I needed him to fight Cain. He didn’t just poke Al-Turk; he poked me, too.”
After all the talk about only being motivated to prove everyone wrong and make a run at the title, who saw this coming? Obviously not Dana. Without any sort of legal obligation, Cro Cop’s free to do what he wants, but even as a big fan of his, I can’t help but be disappointed. I can get over Cro Cop screwing Dana and the UFC, quite frankly they had it coming after all the fighters they’ve released after one fight, but I’m not cool with Mirko essentially lying to his fans about his motivations and intentions.
There’s two sides to every story though. Maybe Mirko had good reason (although I can’t think of even half of one), and if he did, he needs to explain, because his legacy just took a pair of Kongo knees to the nuts.
Update: Cro Cop’s locker room post-fight interview is up on UFC.com. Here’s what he said.
I don’t know what will happen next. Believe me I don’t know. All I know is tomorrow I’m going home and the day after tomorrow I’m going on a holiday for one week on the coast and that’s all I know for certain. I will speak to Dana White after that. But, definitely there are a few fighters I want to fight—Randy, Nogueira. They’re the top projects for me now, but we’ll see after I speak to Dana.
Not that what he said definitely means anything, but I find it odd that even after the fight he was talking like he definitely had a future in the UFC. He’s never struck me as the type who would just flat out lie outside of one of his pranks. It just seems like we haven’t heard the whole story yet. Or maybe as a fan I’m just hoping that’s the case.
Update II: There’s a lot more to this story. Cro Cop is denying he signed with DREAM. More here.
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I don’t know what to say, but I hope he comes out with a statement soon!
I don’t know either. The only acceptable excuse I can think of is the Yakuza kidnapped his family and holding them for ransom to go back to DREAM. But that’s probably not it.
He’s done fighting that’s all.
He took an easy fight and has got another 3 fight deal to fight 3 more tomato cans in Japan.
Not taking Velasquez fight makes this very obvious.
he never seemed 100% comfortable in the UFC – this looks like the puss way out !
(Seems that way)
i think mmaninja hit the nail on the head !
Jmsdevils
Here is my theory.
He originally wanted to fight for the UFC and prove he is one of the best heavy weights.
He had an offer on the table from DREAM but he knew if he wants to fight the best heis place is in the UFC.
So he has not signed it yet with DREAM waiting for his second run UFC experience.
Then he wins against Al-Turk and then he goes back to the locker room and watches Cain against Kongo who he was offered to fight.
Then he is like, Dude these big guys with excelent wrestling skills will ruin me and destroy my name and reputation.
So he starts considering the DREAM promotion and signs with them.
Pete, i think youve just condradicted your thoughts there, Cro Cop joins the UFC to fight the best and then when he see’s the best he jumps ship?? Does’nt sound right, i reckon he just did it for airtime and to call DREAM’S hand into giving him a better contract?
the whole story is false,and mirko made his statement. by the way and he has not signed anything, but he has possibilities to go to dream, and he is thinking about it only coz of thicker fight program, coz as he say, he is 35 and has no time to do fights every 5-6 months. he needs more fights in less time.and that is his decision, and dana white shows one more time how low he can go, and i dont trust him one bit when he said that mirko chose turk over few better fighter, coz im pretty sure mirko , or anybody is in possition to chose.
so, shame on you, dana white.
i hope the god mirko goes for dream now.
mirko said for croatian newspapers that he wish dana spoked to him before he said all those things and jumped to conclusion.
I want to see how this pans out. I don’t think Cro Cop would do that, but who knows what’s happening now. UFC 99 was a drag.
What I meant is that he really considered fighting the best.
But then he saw Cain beating Kongo, who actually beat him before.
And then he changed his mind because he knew his reputation is on the line.
I think that his fame would be changed if he would start losing to some well rounded new generation youngsters like Cain.
I think in DREAM he will face some average fighters who he will beat no problem.
The fact of the matter is that MMA is evolving so much. As Randy said one time it is like there are three generations of fighters out there. The first one is like Mirko who might have been great but with his one dimensional style his future is limited at this point.
The new generations are hybrids kind of knowing all aspects of MMA.