MMA legend Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is a man of many skills. Before he was a world class MMA fighter, he was a top kickboxer. Before that, he was a special forces officer in the military of his native Croatia. He also later became an elected member of his country’s parliament.

Filipovic is also no stranger to making ridiculous videos and posting them on the internet. He’s made videos of darkly humorous, (or sometimes just dark) pranks where he’s laughing like a hyena at the end of them. Case in point, the video after the break of him punking the very worthy subject of then Pride television broadcast commentator Mauro Ranallo. There’s also my favorite video with “Cro Cop” refereeing an impromptu boxing match between two aging, drunk men at a backyard cookout, that has unfortunately been taken down from youtube and may be lost to future generations.

Just as he insists is the case with his fight career, however, Filipovic isn’t done with goofy internet videos yet, nation. The above video reveals a basketball hoop installed in his home gym. What “Cro Cop” and his teammates do with that situation is nothing short of awesome.

May we present, Croation MMA-Basketball. There’s dribbling, shooting, pink singlet guy, arm bars, knees and lots of choking. And then “Cro Cop” speaking Croatian at the end in a high-pitched voice, perhaps mocking someone.

Enjoy.

(To prove he still has “it,” Cro Cop conducted the entire interview from this position)

Fighters have to fight, we suppose. Ultimately, that’s the reasoning kickboxing and MMA legend Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic gave when he recently told USA Today that he wants to return to MMA despite retiring from the UFC after his most recent loss to Roy Nelson at UFC 137 in 2011.

“If you ask me, when I look deep into my soul, of course I would like to fight MMA again,” Filipovic revealed. “People don’t get it. Martial arts is my life.”

Cro Cop has lost his last three MMA bouts, all in the UFC, by either KO or TKO, and was 4-6 in his ten total UFC bouts. Cro Cop also fought two dozen times in the now defunct Pride promotion out of Japan, where he took part in one or two fights that you may remember. Filipovic is still fighting for the kickboxing organization where he first made his name, K-1, and most recently picked up a second round knockout victory over Loren Javier Jorge at K-1 Rising, which we’ve added after the jump for your enjoyment.

(Allow us to introduce you to Nelson Roy III, the brilliant hedge fund manager who has absolutely no relation to that fighting hillbilly you saw on Saturday. / Photo via MMAJunkie.)

By Jason Moles

If you decided to play the new CagePotato drinking game this weekend, you’re probably way too hung over to think about your financial future right now. But now that the dust has settled from UFC 137, you owe it to yourself to study our insightful and highly opinionated rundown of where to direct your hypothetical MMA investments. It’s “Buy, Sell, Hold” time once again, Potato Nation…

“The Prodigy” BJ Penn – Sell

Even if Baby Jay is pulling a Jamie Varner (man I hope that’s not a euphemism) as Mr. Falvo so eloquently put it, the writing on the wall has been there for a while now even if the majority of fans didn’t bother to read it. BJ announcing his retirement Saturday night may have been a moment of weakness when his emotions got the best of him which led to a rash decision, but let me remind you (just like every other single story you read today about “The Prodigy”) that Penn has went 1-3-1 in his last five fights. The Hawaiian may fight again to collect another paycheck but there is no more money to be made as a shareholder.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Oliboz)

It usually takes a lot to upset Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, but the Croation fighter seemed to have reached a boiling point while doing a live chat on Croation sports news website Gol.hr this week. Although he made mention a handful of times during the interview of the fact that he wasn’t mad at Chael Sonnen for the recent comments “The American Gangster” made about PRIDE fights being fixed, you can tell that Chael struck a nerve with his offhand remarks.

“There is an old proverb that says: ‘Don’t argue with a fool. People won’t be able to tel the difference.’ I’ve always upheld to that. I never wanted to lower myself to that level…I’m not the first one he has taken a shot at. I had the opportunity when I was in the United States to ask some people who work for the UFC, ‘Is this man crazy or is he just craving attention?’ A man higher up in the UFC told me, ‘He’s both,’ which means he is crazy and is also craving attention,” Filipovic explained. “I’m not mad at him. I’m really not mad at this Sonnen character.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/GregInsco)

We’re not sure what he’s been blowing his exotic dancing and mascot pay checks on, but apparently Shark Fights mascot Greg Insco needs some fast cash bad.

I had Hardcore Pawn on in the background on my office TV earlier today when I thought I heard someone tell Les, the shop owner, that he had “two choices: left fist hospital or right fist cemetery.” I rewound the PVR to make sure I wasn’t hearing things and sure enough I wasn’t. You know MMA is reaching the mainstream when you see stuff like this on shows not at all related to the sport.

(“You kick one little girl at a birthday party and nobody ever lets you live it down.”)

In an effort to constantly increase and improve our interactive offerings to the Potato Nation, we’ve come up with a new concept for a series of ongoing articles that will give our readers the opportunity to interact with some of MMA’s biggest stars.

We dubbed the series, “Breakfast With a Champion,” because we will be posting them early in the morning for you to read and because the concept is that you send us your questions for various titleholders and we forward them and post the replies here when we get them back.

The beauty of it is that you get to ask questions that typically don’t get asked by journalists and you get to contribute to the content you want to read in one of two ways: By posting questions for future guests and by suggesting which champs you want to take your questions.

We’ll do our best to get in touch with as many of them as we can and to answer as many of your questions as possible. All we ask is that you keep your questions respectful and that you spread the word about the series.

So without further adieu, check the first instalment of Breakfast With a Champion, featuring Alistair Overeem after the jump.

(Man, those were the days.)

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic responded yesterday to recent comments Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s boxing coach Luis Dorea made in which the Brazilian trainer called for a rematch between his fighter and the Croatian PRIDE veteran.

Dorea told Tatame last week that he would love to see the two former PRIDE legends square off one more time before they retire and that the match-up would be a perfect first bout back for Nogueira, who has been sidelined several months after undergoing double-knee surgery in 2010.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has never been a fighter who holds his tongue when he disagrees with something even if his choice of words might land him in hot water.

The live video chat he did with the Croation sports news website Gol.hr last night was no exception.

During the hour-long segment on the episode of F2F Sport, Mirko touched on a number of topics including his upcoming UFC 128 bout with Brendan Schaub, the possibility of retirement, his thoughts on Dana White and the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in MMA.

Check out what he had to say after the jump.

I remember watching Mike Tyson calling out Bob Sapp (*Editor’s note: How the hell is Bob Sapp only 35?) after "The Beast" beat Kimo Leopoldo at K-1 World Grand Prix event in Las Vegas in 2003 and thinking, "Man, I wish Tyson would fight somebody good in MMA."

Well, it turns out that  in 2003 "Iron" Mike had a contract with PRIDE and was supposed to fight two of the Japanese promotion’s best heavyweights: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Fedor Emelianenko.

The bouts never came to fruition for several different reasons, but if they had, Dana White likely wouldn’t have had any interest in bringing James Toney into the UFC to solve the, "Who would win between a boxer and a mixed martial artist?" question.

Imagine how differently each man’s career would have turned out if Tyson had knocked Emelianenko and Filipovic out in the 2004 PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The translation of the story from  PRIDE: Secret Files courtesy of MMA-Japan.com is after the jump:

(If a fighter’s going to strut like that, Dana wants them to at least have something to strut about.)

To say Dana White is a bit upset with the two fighters from Saturday night’s UFC 119 main event would be a major understatement. A more appropriate statement would be that the UFC president is pissed right off with the lethargic performances put in by Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic and Frank Mir at the Conseco Field House in Indianapolis last weekend.

White spoke to ESPN today and took aim at one half of the duo that made up 119′s final fight — former heavyweight champion, Mir who he hinted that he hasn’t decided whether or not fans will see fight again in the Octagon.

 
(If only…)

Our talented UFC 119 photographer and comment section regular Jason "J-Dog" Wright was back at the Conseco Field House in Indianapolis Saturday night to snap some exclusive photos for us.

Except for one scary incident prior to the Mitrione-Beltran fight (which Ariel Helwani touched on in this interview with Meathead) that nearly cost us some danger pay, J-Dog made it home in one piece with some wicked shots and some great stories to tell the grandkids some day.

Jason was situated by one of the Octagon doors and as such was able to get some candid shots before, during and after each of the fights.

Check out part one of our exclusive UFC 119 photo gallery after the jump.

 
Just a reminder that the UFC 119 post-fight presser is live and can be watched right here.

Will Mirko retire? Will Dunham swallow the loss to Sherk? Does Bader get to be killed by Jon Jones Next? 

All this an more will be answered. Giddy up!

UFC video player is after the jump.

 
(A Croat, an asshole and a Brazilian walk into a bar…)

Frank Mir weighed in 25 pounds heavier than opponent, Cro Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at today’s UFC 119 weigh-ins, dispelling any rumors that he is over his loss to Brock Lesnar and he will drop to light heavyweight any time soon.

Making weight, Filipovic got the final stamp on his Indianapolis fight license, which made him breathe a sigh of relief after an eye injury he sustained earlier this week in training left the bout in jeopardy.

Shortly after he weighed in, Croatian news outlets who had been asked by the fighter to not release the photo until after he was given the go-ahead to face mir by the commission printed this shot of Mirko’s injury taken immediately after the eye poke occurred.

Amazing how much he has healed in less than five days.

(Amazing what the power of Stevia can do for healing.)

Every fighter on the card checked in at their respective weight limits, thus making all of their fights official for tomorrow night.

Check out the official weights and the replay of the weigh-ins after the jump.

("You want the winner of Koscheck-GSP?")

Here’s another story that illustrates why the Potato Nation is awesome.

Jason Wright (or J-Dog as he is known around these parts) contacted us about a month ago to see if we needed a photographer to cover UFC 119 for us. Since CagePotato had never been credentialed, we figured with the success of our UFC Fan Expo booth (which was due largely to the help of CP’ers ReX13 and Viva Hate) now is as good a time as any to apply.

 
(UFC 119: Mediocre Mean-Muggers)

Will Frank Mir come off as a douche bag? Is Cro Cop motivated and in shape enough to shut his mouth with a headkick? Will Bader or Lil’ Nog say anything bad about each other?

All these questions and more will be answered at 1:00 pm ET today during the UFC’s obligatory pre-fight press conference for Saturday night’s UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop event in Indianapolis, Indiana.

UFC video player is after the jump.

(Video courtesy MMAWeekly)

During a media scrum ahead of his UFC 119 bout with Frank Mir, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic was asked about his career, his future in MMA and whether or not chasing a title is in his plans.

When asked where he sees himself in the UFC’s heavyweight division, Cro Cop danced around the question like a politician.

"I see myself only Saturday night in front of Frank Mir. That’s where I can see myself so far."

(Photo courtesy of wicombatsports.com.)

Much to our dismay, Ben Rothwell says he won’t be rocking an Extenze sponsorship for his bout with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at UFC 110 this weekend.  But that’s not the only thing that Rothwell has changed as he hopes for a better outcome in his second UFC fight.  From his preparation to his overall mental state, everything about this time out looks to be different for Rothwell, and he’s hoping the result will bear that out.

You changed up your training some for this fight. What did you do differently and why did you decide to do it?

I moved my training full-time to Wisconsin, where Duke Roufus is my coach. Instead of only getting him part of the time, now he’s got full control over everything. It’s definitely for the best. There’s a lot of good energy here. I’m not trying to be negative, but the past couple of years that good energy wasn’t there for me. I wasn’t as passionate about training. It was a job and I was doing it because I had to, not because I wanted to. But when I came back here I was working harder and having more fun. That’s what you need. I’m just trying to keep getting better.

(Cro Cop displays the customary Croatian greeting, intended to signal that one is unarmed and will only assault you using his bare hands and/or feet.)

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Dana White were on a conference call today to discuss how it was that the heavyweight who appeared to be one of the biggest UFC busts of all time managed to get back in the Octagon with a fight against Mostapha Al-Turk at UFC 99 this Saturday, as well as how long he might be sticking around for this time.  Turns out the whole thing came about as a result of a whirlwind, verbal deal consummated via phone calls over the course of a few days.  And neither one of them knows for sure exactly what the structure of the contract is at this point:

(Photo courtesy of Fight Sport.)

Now that an eventful 2008 is in the books, Alistair Overeem tells DreamFighters.com that he plans to take a little rest, go on vacation, and maybe even swing on over the Ireland to catch UFC 93 on January 17th.  Lest you think it’s purely a sight-seeing trip, the Dutch fighter says his management team has been in talks with the UFC and Affliction, and Overeem says he’s up for fighting everyone from Fedor Emelianenko to Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir.  

After seeing a very bulky Overeem destroy Badr Hari on New Year’s Eve, we can’t deny that we’d like to see him added to the UFC’s heavyweight stable.  Even signing with Affliction would offer him a fresh list of opponents and probably a nice paycheck, though who knows for how long.  But you put a guy like Overeem into the UFC’s heavyweight division and suddenly you have a lot of interesting match-ups on the horizon, and they’d be particularly helpful in the UFC’s European expansion attempts.

Overeem isn’t the only one thinking about stepping into the Octagon, however, as his old rival Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic says he’ll likely retire in 2009, and would like to have one more fight in the UFC before he does.