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Part two after the jump.

Part two after the jump.

Dan Hardy and Marcus Davis’ war of words elevated their fight from a solid welterweight bout into a full-blown grudge match.

Looks like the DREAM deal fiasco isn’t the only drama to come out of Cro Cop’s potentially very short-lived return to the UFC.

Mostapha Al-Turk is appealing the loss because of the eye-poke.

“We are going to appeal that, we don’t think its right that it should be a TKO. The referee should have got onto the eye poke,” said Al-Turk’s agent Ken Pavia. “Look at Henderson v Franklin at UFC 93 in Dublin. Franklin got a timeout when he got eye-poked.

“With the fight taking place in Germany we aren’t sure what the protocol is, but we will put our appeal in writing and see what we can do.”

At the time of the eye-poke, I think it was pretty apparent how the fight was going to turn out. Hell, it may have even saved Al-Turk from a concussion-inducing head kick. There’s no way of actually knowing if Al-Turk would have made a miraculous comeback or not though, so I suppose he has a somewhat legitimate gripe.

Two problems though.

Hard to blame Dan Miragliota for not stopping it and giving Al-Turk a minute to compose himself when he didn’t see it (who did? happened so fast in real time). Even if he suspected an eye-poke when Al-Turk was bent over holding his face in hands, what happens if he stops it and it wasn’t? He’d be blasted by everyone for that. Best to act off what you see in my opinion.

The other problem is there’s no athletic commission to appeal to in Germany. They’ll have to take the appeal straight to the UFC where you already have one of the majority UFC owners on camera saying it was unfortunate, but everyone felt Cro Cop was probably going to TKO Al-Turk anyways. However, appealing to the UFC could end up working out in their favor if Dana’s still pissed at Mirko. We all know how vindictive he can get when he feels he’s been wronged.

Personally, I gotta agree with Lorenzo on this one. It’s unfortunate, but the result probably wouldn’t have turned out any differently. Much like life, the fight game isn’t always fair.

Update: So, apparently, the UFC has a provision in their contract for this sorta thing. Who knew?

Any and all Bouts that occur in a jurisdiction or country without an Athletic Commission shall be conducted pursuant to the statutes, rules and regulations of the State of Nevada in effect at the time of the Bout, including, but not limited to, the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts (the “Nevada Rules”); for the protection of the health and safety of the Fighter, to promote fairness in the administration of the Bout, and to preserve the integrity of the sport of mixed martial arts. In its sole discretion, ZUFFA may utilize the Nevada Rules in the oversight of any Bouts that occur under this Subsection 4.7. Fighter may appeal any advisory opinion by ZUFFA regarding any violations of the Nevada Rules relating only to Bouts that occur in a jurisdiction or country without an official government mandated Athletic Commission to an independent third-party arbitrator or arbitration panel selected pursuant to the guidelines developed by the American Arbitration Association. All costs and fees associated with an appeal taken pursuant to this Section shall be the exclusive responsibility of the Fighter. Regardless of where a Bout occurs, in no event shall a Fighter have any right to appeal a decision by ZUFFA relating to the UFC Title or the UFC Championship belts.

Basically, the appeal would be contested under the NSAC’s rules, a “third-party arbitrator or arbitration panel” would be required, and Al-Turk would have to pay for it.

Two problems for Al-Turk here. As Fightlinker pointed out, in Nevada, Kevin Burns lost his eye-poke case against Anthony Johnson due to a “lack of remedy.” Ridiculous, but true. Then, as Ben Fowlkes pointed out (I know, everyone beat me to the good commentary…overachievers), does Al-Turk making the peanuts he does in the UFC really want to pursue this and blow all his purse money just to go from 6-5-0 to 6-4-1? Probably not.

Learned a long time ago you have know when to pick your battles.

Update II: Marc Ratner, former head of the NSAC & current UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs, has chimed in, and says Al-Turk can’t appeal something that can’t be overturned.

Marc Ratner, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Monday told MMAWeekly.com an appeal was not possible.

“It’s very simple,” said Ratner. “By the unified rules… first of all the referee didn’t see the foul. What you’re asking is can we go to instant replay. You’re saying now that the fight’s over, can you take a look at it? If the referee had seen the finger and stopped the fight immediately, he could have given a stop for five minutes to recover, and then if (Al-Turk) couldn’t have gone on, it would have been a no-contest.”

Ratner, who headed the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) prior to current Executive Director Keith Kizer, chalked the incident up to a judgment call on Mirgliotta’s part.

“In any sport, a judgment call cannot be overturned,” he continued. “It’s one of those things that happens, but nobody saw it around the Octagon until the replay.”

There you have it. Case closed.

Not that I really care that all the ignorant naysayers in Germany think MMA is only about blood lust, but the Struve-Stojnic fight probably didn’t help change their opinions.

Why? Check out the giant stitched up gash on Stefan Struve’s forehead in the video above.

If you think that’s bad, check out what it looked like during the actual fight after the jump. Haven’t seen one that bad on a UFC card in awhile, so go figure it would happen on this one.

HT: Bloody Elbow

Mirko Cro Cop has finally commented on the UFC-DREAM situation, and guess what? He says he hasn’t signed the DREAM contract. The story comes from Croatian site Jutarnji.hr. I haven’t found a full translation yet, but a reader on his MMA-ID site posted this referencing the story.

translation

i havent signed for the ufc or dream.
i dont get why dana white listened for roumor instead talking to me first. but whatever, i am still greatfull for the opportunity.+

Net.hr also posted a story citing the Jutarnji.hr story, and from what I can tell with a bad Google translation is Cro Cop doesn’t like the long period of time between fights in the UFC. He doesn’t want to sit around waiting for someone to call and tell him when he’ll be fighting next. He’s not happy about what Dana said, but he’s still willing to talk about staying in the UFC.

That’s all of course if the translation wasn’t too screwed up. If someone can confirm one way or the other please leave a comment.

There’s probably more to this. Hopefully, we can get a full translation. I’ll update this post with anything new.

Update: Alright, we have a full translation now thanks to someone in the Sherdog forums (via Bloody Elbow):

ZAGREB – The same Saturday night in which Mirko Filipović in only three minutes TKOed Britain Mostapha Al Turk, President of American Organization UFC Dana White without any argument accused the Croatian master of the ultimat fighting for the fraud and hypocrisy.

Ten days ago Dana White and Cro Cop have a phone made arrangements for the duel on the UFC 99 tournament in Cologne Lanxess Arena, leaving open the possibility that cooperation prolongs for the two further tournaments. However, the head of the UFC on Saturday felt fooled because he thought that the Croatian gladiator signed a new contract with the Japanese Dream.

- “Mirko talks about honor and pride, and didn’t hold his word. Told me that he wants to win the UFC’s title, and then he went to the Dream. Tonight I also got eye pocked, not only Al Turk” – White told reporters in Cologne, Germany.

Before we accuse Crocop for hypocrisy, let us see what lays below Dana White’s empty phrase of honor. UFC leader is angry because Mirko, just as Fedor Emilianenko, the best MMA fighter in the world, did not agree to perform only twice in the next 12 months.

However, it is not true that Cro Cop signed with Dream. We have learned that Mirko Crocop still did not sign neither with Dream nor with UFC, and that he is ready to discuss any offer. Moreover, Mirko expected after the victory in Cologne immediate talks with Dana White about the new contract and is surprised by the accusations of UFC’s president.

“I don’t know why White listened to the roumors instead of talking to me. I hoped that we will talk about a continuing of our collaboration, because the only obstacle was the long period between two fights that has been offered to me. I don’t want to sit at home so long and waiting that someone calls me for a figh. However, I am grateful to Dana White for an opportunity to fight in Cologne and despite his harsh words, I don’t see the reason that we don’t prolong the contract – explained Mirko after returning from Germany.

White gave Crocop the opportunity to fight in Cologne to use his charisma of the most popular European fighter and suggested two more bouts, under the condition that he doesn’t fight for other promotions. Because Dream offered him also three-fights contract, but in the next 6 months, why shouldn’t Mirko take some time to consider what is better to him?

The end of this story can be expected in the next few days. With regards to Dana White’s blackout in Cologne, it seems that Mirko is in this moment closer to the Japanese ring then to American octagon.

So basically, we have Iole’s report saying Cro Cop informed Dana he had signed a three fight deal with DREAM, we have Cro Cop denying he signed with DREAM saying he doesn’t know why Dana listened to “rumors” instead of talking to him, we have a post-fight interview of Cro Cop convincingly saying he has no idea yet what’s next, and we have a report in Japan saying he signed the DREAM deal. Obviously, all that doesn’t add up.

Not sure who to believe at this point, but my guess is the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Regardless, with the way Dana reacted, Cro Cop staying in the UFC doesn’t sound too promising. We’ll see.

Update II: Add this to the list. DREAM’s US rep Mike Kogan confirmed to Sergio Non of USA Today yesterday that DREAM signed Mirko. I’m not sure how much stock I’m ready to put into something DREAM says at this point though. I wouldn’t put it past DREAM to feed misinformation in an attempt ruin relations between the UFC and CC. I realize that’s getting into conspiracy theory territory, but there’s still more to this we’re not being told. HT: MMAForReal.com

“We went back and forth on the stand-up, He dropped me with a knee, I think, but I knocked him down with a hook. I also scored more takedowns, more submission attempts and outpowered him the whole fight…He came into my dressing room to talk after and I said I won. He said it was close. And he wouldn’t argue. That took something. I guess he’s not apologized for going too far with the talking. I won the fight.”

—Marcus Davis explaining why he thinks he won the fight against Dan Hardy yesterday at UFC 99.

Davis and Hardy shook hands in the locker room afterwards, but it doesn’t sound like this feud is over as far as Marcus is concerned. It was a close fight, and I don’t know if the UFC will do it anytime soon, but don’t be surprised if Marcus makes it his personal mission to get a rematch booked as soon as possible.

Image courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com

HT: ChicagosMMA.com via MMA Mania