("I took many lessons from this fight. For example, not all Americans are as affectionate as Pat Barry.")

If you were one of the poor bastards who suffered through UFC 119‘s woeful main event, you may have noticed Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Frank Mir having a little chat in the third round. Mid-fight trash talk, perhaps? A friendly "is that all you got, bitch?" maybe, or the ever-reliable "you ain’t shit"? Not exactly. As Cro Cop explained to Index.hr (translated by Fighters Only), he was asking if Mir would be kind enough to let go of their clinch so they could stand and bang. The exchange basically went like this:

Cro Cop: Let me go, let’s go to the center and fight.
Mir: Let’s go to the mat.
Cro Cop: OK — if I’m on top.
Mir: We’ll stay in the clinch.

Eventually the ref broke them up and Cro Cop got his wish, even though he was knocked out by a knee to the jaw shortly after. Filipovic now joins the super-exclusive club of whacked-out MMA fighters who try to negotiate better positions during a fight, only to be refused by their opponents and then lose in humiliating fashion. At this point, the only other member of that club is Paulo Filho.

After returning to Croatia, Filipovic did another interview in which he flagrantly violated a recent CagePotato Ban — bad Mirko! — and assured everyone that he’ll be returning to the UFC. Twice, in fact…



(Props: 10crocop)

Excerpt — "I prepared as much as I could with all these injuries that have followed me…[I] lost 6.5 KG since arriving in Indianapolis. Also I was a bit sick there…Before fight I had injuries with back and knee. I need to fix that. This year of course I will not fight (again). I have option for two more fights, knowing myself I will do both.”

His bizarre submission win over Pat Barry notwithstanding, Cro Cop’s UFC career has been marked by uninspired wins against outmatched opponents (Eddie Sanchez, Mostapha Al Turk, Anthony Perosh) and embarrassing losses to contenders (Gabriel Gonzaga, Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir). To assume that Dana White would bring Mirko back for another sure-to-disappoint performance seems like a stretch. Especially in the UFC’s current "one strike and you’re out" era…