(Cro Cop vs. Al Turk Props: MMA Linker)

Dana White’s over-the-phone verbal contract with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic prior to UFC 99 was the first time he’d done a deal with a fighter without getting it in writing, or negotiating in person. We’re guessing it’ll also be his last. The big scandal coming out of Germany after yesterday’s show is the surprise news that Cro Cop had already signed a new three-fight deal with DREAM by the time he stepped into the Octagon against Mostapha Al Turk (video above). Though Cro Cop had previously told White that he wanted to officially sign for two more fights in the UFC and make a run for the heavyweight title, the truth came out following Mirko’s TKO victory via eye-pokes. As you can imagine, DW was seeing red in the post-show press-conference:

(Come on, man — think of all the good times you had here! Photo courtesy of daylife.com)

UPDATE, 12:35 p.m. ET: Cro Cop is official for UFC 99.

The UFC’s quest for foreign expansion is hitting some spike-strips, with two big-name fighters potentially slipping out of their grasp. First off, despite his blog-post enthusiasm that led everyone to believe he’d be returning to the Octagon at UFC 99, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic still hasn’t signed a contract with the UFC. As Dave Meltzer explains:

(Mirko celebrates his 2002 K-1 victory over King Hippo.)

Holy crap! It seems that scoring wins over Tatsuya Mizuno and Hong Man Choi — and getting his nuts kicked in by Alistair Overeem — was enough to earn Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic an invite back to the UFC; the Croatian legend ended his first Octagon run in early 2008 after becoming the biggest bust in UFC history. Here’s the word directly from Cro Cop’s MMA-ID blog:

#7: MAC DANZIG

A five-time King of the Cage lightweight champion with appearances in PRIDE and the WEC, Mac Danzig was one of the most seasoned mixed martial artists to ever appear on The Ultimate Fighter, and few were surprised when he blazed past guys like Ben Saunders, War Machine, and George Sotiropoulos to make it to the sixth season’s finals. After choking out Tommy Speer to win the contract and doing the same to Mark Bocek in his next outing at UFC 83, it seemed that Mac was on the fast-track to success in the UFC lightweight division.

Then, disaster struck — in the form of Clay “Energizer Blanket” Guida, who laid on top of Danzig en route to a unanimous decision last September. It was a frustrating setback, but we still thought the TUF winner would bounce back against Josh Neer at UFC Fight Night 17 in February. Unfortunately, Mac would fall short again, succumbing to a second-round triangle choke. Now, the once-promising fighter is just another scrapper at the bottom of the UFC’s lightweight ladder, and one more loss could spell the end of his run in the Octagon.

#6: BRANDON VERA

How’s this for a return-on-investment: The UFC paid “The Truth” a total of $76,000 in contracted salary for his first four wins against Fabiano Scherner, Justin Eilers, Assuerio Silva, and Frank Mir — all of them by brutal stoppage, mind you — then paid him $500,000 for his subsequent 1-3 stretch against Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum, Reese Andy, and Keith Jardine. Did the fat paychecks make him soft? Did his long legal dispute with his manager throw off his mental game? It’s hard to know for sure, but by the end of 2008 it was clear that this wasn’t the same Brandon Vera who entered the UFC’s heavyweight division three years before and rocked it like a hurricane.

After Vera’s split-decision loss to Jardine, Dana White lamented the disappearance of Vera’s killer instinct and passionate cockiness. But instead of firing him, the UFC gave Vera a chance to regain his confidence against an outmatched, out-of-shape Mike Patt at UFC 96 — at a drastically reduced pay-rate, of course. Luckily, Vera chopped Patt down and saved his job. The Truth is slated to return in August against Matt Hamill at UFC 102, in a fight that will either re-establish him as a rising star at light-heavyweight, or forever define him as an overpaid can-crusher.

(Props: Fightlinker)

At long last, we present the video of Wednesday’s grappling exhibition between Fedor Emelianenko and Shinya Aoki at DEEP/M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition. As you’ll see, the whole thing was really just a good-natured joke, with both fighters putting on a display that was more slapstick than combat. (But man do Emelianenko’s throws look smooth when they’re done with a 160-pound training dummy.) Fun stuff. Now let’s see the UFC do this with Lesnar and Penn…

(Here goes Wanderlei, telling another one of his obviously bullshit fishing stories.)

The UFC’s summer venture into Cologne, Germany on June 13 is beginning to take shape, and that shape is already pretty intriguing — much like a dodecahedron, only not as pretentious.

MMA Weekly reports that Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva are likely to meet at a catchweight of around 195 pounds or so.  While it’s not the kind of fight that would determine a title contender – and even if it did we wouldn’t know for sure which weight class that contender might be in – it is the kind of bout that is interesting just ’cause.  Franklin and Silva are both on a sort of downward slope in their careers, so why not fight each other and see how it turns out?

Also a possibility for UFC 99, at least in his own mind, is Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.  Fresh out of surgery on an injured knee, Cro Cop told a Croatian website (which was then translated by our friend Robert at Betwwx.com) that he was “very confident” he’d be fighting for the UFC in Germany this June.  As for potential opponents, Cro Cop mentioned Randy Couture and sounded pretty pumped about the idea.  

Sounds good to us.  If the UFC can add Cro Cop-Couture and Franklin-Silva to a card that already has Caol Uno-Spencer Fisher and maybe, possibly even B.J. Penn-Kenny Florian, Germany’s world will officially get rocked, as The Scorpions might say, like a hurricane.

(Shockingly, this wasn’t the best fight of the night. Photo courtesy of CageWriter.) 

Total Bummer Update: The fight between DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen and Gesias Cavalcante was canceled. Hansen did not pass a pre-fight medical examination, reportedly due to a recent hospitalization for a head injury. So that sucks.

K-1 Youth Tournament
Reserve fight: Taishi Hiratsuka def. Daizo Sasaki via KO, 1:00 of round 2
Semi-final 1: Koya Urabe def. Tatsuya Kusakabe via TKO, 2:21 of round 3
Semi-final 2: Hiroya def. Shota Shimada via unanimous decision
Final: Hiroya def. Koya Urabe via unanimous decision

DREAM rules: Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa def. Errol Zimmerman via submission (toe-hold), 1:01 of round 1

K-1 rules: Artur Kyshenko def. Yoshihiro Sato via unanimous decision

DREAM rules: Daisuke Nakamura def. Hideo Tokoro via submission (armbar), 2:23 of round 1

DREAM rules: Andy Ologun def. Yukio Sakaguchi via KO, 3:52 of round 1

DREAM rules: Bob Sapp def. Akihito Tanaka (aka "Kinniku Mantaro") via TKO, 5:22 of round 1. Tanaka put Sapp in trouble early with takedowns and ground-and-pound, but Sapp was able to get to his feet and tag Kinnikuman with some of his big, wild punches against the ropes until the fight was stopped.

DREAM rules: Semmy Schilt def. Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga via submission (triangle choke), 5:31 of round 1

DREAM rules: Hayato Sakurai def. Katsuyori Shibata via TKO, 7:01 of round 1

K-1 rules: Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kozo Takeda via TKO, 2:37 of round 1. Kawajiri dropped Takeda twice with punches in the first round, then once more with a flying knee. It was the first in a series of dominant victories by MMA fighters in kickboxing matches at Dynamite!! 2008.

(Props: Sportal.vecernji.hr)

That tall son-of-a-bitch you see on the right is Franjo Arapovic, a former Croatian basketball star who scored silver medals at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. And he’s been brought in to replicate Hong Man Choi’s pituitary freakishness as Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic prepares for their showdown on New Year’s Eve. So how did he get the gig? As FreeFightVideos translates:

Fair enough, but I still think Cro Cop should have ponied up a little more money to hire Yao Ming. You can beat up Croatian basketball centers for months, but it won’t really prepare you for the sight of a seven-foot-tall Asian person.

Some rather-awesome pics of Cro Cop armbarring and head-kicking poor Franjo are after the jump. You know you wanna see that.

(Overeem during his losing effort against Chuck Liddell at PRIDE Total Elimination 2003. Photo courtesy of AlistairOvereem.com.)

Though Alistair Overeem’s New Year’s Eve rematch with Mirko Cro Cop never panned out, another heavyweight match has been added to Fields Dynamite!! 2008 that almost makes up for it. In a new post on his website, Overeem writes:

In their most recent bouts, Overeem kneed Cro Cop’s nuts up into his chest cavity, while Hari was disqualified for using PRIDE rules in a K-1 match. I say K-1/FEG should also book Gilbert Yvel vs. Mike Kyle, and hold a four-man tournament to crown the World’s Dirtiest Fighter. Maybe the finals could be a fight to the death. What, you wouldn’t pay thirty bucks to spend New Year’s Eve watching that on your computer?

All respect to Overeem for stepping up and agreeing to fight Badr Hari on Hari’s terms, but the Demolition Man is in for a world of hurt. When they have their MMA-rules bout next year, it’ll be a different story, as Overeem is pretty damn handy with a choke-hold. In a standup-only fight, however, it’ll probably be all Hari. It’s strange that K-1, who just finished stripping Hari of his heavyweight title and prize money, are basically letting the dude call his shots for the Overeem fight — why not hold the MMA match first, as punishment? But business is business, and Hari’s nasty DQ probably increased his drawing power more than any respectable victory ever could.

This is so amazing it has to be a hoax — but DreamFighters.com assures us that it’s the real deal. Basically, PRIDE superstar/UFC washout Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has a video game coming out this month. Here’s the press release, conveniently translated from the original Croatian into broken English:

* $9.55 American. Which does seem like a "super popular price" until you see the screenshots. My favorite is the one below, where Mirko seems to be fighting the lovechild of Slim Goodbody and a velociraptor.

(Props to Robert @ betwwx.com. Click image for larger version.)

Because if Shinya Aoki can wear those grip-tights while fighting, Mirko should be able to wear a spiked cod-piece. For the sake of future generations of Cro Cops, he needs to.

And if you think that’s sexy, wait until you see what’s after the jump…

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Answer: Quite broken. Like, so broken that he might not be recovered in time to rematch Alistair Overeem on New Year’s Eve. First, there’s this interview with Filipovic (from dnevnik.hr, translated by Robert at betwwx.com) where he recounts the fight-stopping injury at DREAM.6 and stresses that he absolutely wasn’t faking to get out of the match:

“The third strike to my balls was very strong…I know some people were saying that I was saved by the fact the match was ended. There was blood, but those cuts were nothing…I wasn’t hurt until I got hit in the nuts. The third strike into the nuts was very powerful and the biggest problem was that the cup squashed my nuts…I need to go to the hospital for some check ups. I still have some problems, I pissed blood, but thats all part of the job.”

MMA Convert (via Fightlinker) passes along more details about those check-ups, and things aren’t sounding too pleasant:

Mirko will have to undergo a testicle exam which got injured in the Overeem fight. Mirko’s genitals still hurt a lot says Dr. Zeljko Kapulica.

“Mirko’s left testicle is still hurting and I have to examine it to determine whether it’s stable in the scrotum; complications might occur if the testicle rotates and clogs the blood vessels. Also I need to check if the inguinal canal in which his tescticle was pushed in is open because it could lead to a hernia.”

Gross. At this point, Cro Cop’s life is imitating Ow! My Balls! Between this and the Cheick Kongo fight at UFC 75, his nards are like supermagnets for knees. Nobody wants to go out on such a low point, but could this be a sign that you maybe need to reconsider the way you make a living?

Armenian-Dutch fighter Gegard Mousasi put in a career-making performance at today’s DREAM.6 in Saitama, Japan, earning quick stoppage victories over Melvin Manhoef and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to win the middleweight grand prix. In his first fight of the night, Mousasi easily dominated Manhoef, quickly scoring a trip-takedown, then securing the mount and clamping on a triangle choke when Manhoef reversed the position. Manhoef attempted to slam out of it, but was forced to tap at the 1:28 mark. Meanwhile on the other side of the bracket, Souza enjoyed a similarly brief win over Croatian Zelg Galesic. After getting a double-leg takedown, Souza passed from guard to mount and snatched an armbar when Galesic tried to buck.

Both men moved into the GP finals relatively fresh — not that they needed to be. When Mousasi and Souza finally met in the last fight of the night, it seemed like Mousasi was in over his head, as Souza first slammed him then began to drop punches from half-guard. But Souza made the fatal error of standing up, and Mousasi caught him with a Hail Mary upkick that knocked Jacare out cold as he began to dive in for a punch.

DREAM.6′s non-tourney featured matches went pretty much as expected, with the stars beating up on the cans. Shinya Aoki returned to his flamboyantly winning ways, hopping on the back of WEC castoff Todd Moore and finishing him at the 1:10 mark with a neck crank. Jimmy Ambriz should be applauded for lasting over two minutes with Sergei Kharitonov, who battered The Titan with vicious strikes until Ambriz was forced to tap on the ground. After abusing him for most of the first round, Yoshihiro Akiyama submitted karate practitioner Masanori Tonooka (1-2), who, let’s just say, is no Lyoto Machida.

The only real surprise (and disappointment) was how the heavyweight feature between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Alistair Overeem played out.

(“We’ll see who is bag of douche.”)

Dream’s sixth event — which goes down September 23rd in Saitama, Japan — may just feature its most compelling card yet. The show’s centerpiece is the semi-finals/finals of the middleweight grand prix, where Melvin Manhoef, Gegard Mousasi, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and Zelg Galesic will do battle to crown a single champion. A welterweight strap will also be on the line, decided by the long-awaited match between Nick Diaz and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. And now it looks like two big-name heavyweight bouts will be part of the action as well.

Over the weekend, PRIDE vet and reigning Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem revealed that he would be facing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at Dream 6. Overeem and Cro Cop have been getting their trash-talk on lately — who isn’t these days? — with the Demolition Man calling Filipovic a “douche-bag” who ducked him in favor of fighting cans. Cro Cop hasn’t fought since March, when he earned his first post-UFC victory with a 56-second TKO rout of Japanese can Tatsuya Mizuno. Since then, Overeem has competed and won twice, scoring a quick knockout of Tae Hyun Lee at Dream 4 in June, and an almost-as-quick submission of Mark Hunt at Dream 5 in July.

This month’s Dream card will also feature the return of Russian PRIDE standout Sergei Kharitonov, who hasn’t fought since his TKO victory over Alistair Overeem at a K-1 HERO’s event last September. Kharitonov will be facing Siala-Mou “Mighty Mo” Siligia, the Samoan-American K-1 mainstay who defeated Justice Smith last month at the K-1 World GP 2008 in Hawaii. Mo is just 3-0 as a mixed martial artist, and hasn’t done the MMA thing since last June, when he beat down Ruben Villareal at K-1 Dynamite!! USA.

(Emelianenko vs. Zuluzinho: Are you not entertained?)

For the last five years, Fedor Emelianenko has traditionally booked a fight on New Year’s Eve — always in Japan, usually against someone that has no business being in the ring with him. And despite a hand injury sustained in his Affliction: Banned bout against Tim Sylvia, the WAMMA heavyweight champ plans on keeping the streak alive. “I think definitely by New Year’s Eve I’ll be ready to go,” he recently told SI.com. And could he switch things up by fighting in the U.S. against someone competitive? Like, for example, the winner of “Day of Reckoning”‘s Arlovski/Barnett scrap? Not a chance, bro:

Early speculation centered on a rematch of Emelianenko’s tremendous points win in 2005 over Mirko Filipovic. However, a representative for the No. 1-ranked heavyweight said it’s doubtful the fight would take place at this time. In a bout intended for Japanese fight fans, Emelianenko will likely meet a “judo legend or sumo wrestler.”

My first thought is: Wow, does this suck for Affliction. They’re staking their fortune to their heavyweight division, but if Fedor and his championship belt won’t be available again until Spring ’09, all they can offer is a few interesting (though ultimately meaningless) exhibitions. And with Emelianenko’s right hand as dodgy as it is, “Spring ’09″ is only a rough estimate; an injury sustained on New Year’s Eve could delay his return to Affliction even further. (Regarding the hand, Emelianenko said: “It just seems the hand doesn’t really sustain the strength of the strike. So from time to time I’m going to have certain injuries as a result of that.”)

Of course my second thought is: Still with the goddamned freaks? Beating up a 90-year-old judoka or Emmanuel Yarborough interests you more than fighting another top ten heavyweight?

And speaking of Fedor destroying cans in totally meaningless fights, Fighting Fedor — the reality show in which MMA hopefuls compete for the chance to get armbarred in less than a minute by The Last Emperor — is in production and will purportedly launch later this year. Look, I’m not calling Fedor a farce, I’m just saying that occasionally he acts in a way that could be described as farce-like.

(‘I am here to pick up your daughter. There is dowry, yes?’)

In a recent entry to his MMA-id.com blog, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic addresses his recovery (it’s going well) and the possibility of a fight with Alistair Overeem in Dream (he’s all for it). But what’s more interesting is that Cro Cop seems well-aware that most MMA fans believe his best days are behind him and, dammit, he’s motivated by it:

I see many people speaking about me as a washed-up fighter but this is just another boost to my motivation. I’m working hard to get back on track and meeting and defeating strong competitors in the ring is all that I think of nowdays.

Man, of all the once-heralded, now-mostly-forgotten fighters from Pride, the collapse of Cro Cop has to be the most disappointing. If it takes us saying that to get him to become a serious fighter again (and no, scheduling and then pulling out of grappling matches against members of the Gracie family doesn’t count), then it’s worth it. Even if Cro Cop gets mad and plays crazy pranks involving assault rifles on us:

Cro Cop Assault Rifle Prank – Watch more free videos

(In Russia, knee blows out *you*!)

— Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has pulled out of DREAM.5 (July 21st; Osaka, Japan) due to nagging injuries to his elbow and knee, as well as an absence of opponents; Mighty Mo Siligia, who was slated to replace Jerome LeBanner against Filipovic, recently withdrew from the event. Cro Cop expects to be ready to compete at DREAM.6 on September 23rd. “I would really like to fight Alistair Overeem, we all know why and I won’t let it go,” Filipovic said. “My career is far from being over, I’ll be fighting some strong competitors soon again and hopefully I’ll meet Fedor in the ring once more in 2009.”

— Speaking of Fedor, Michael Bisping claims that the Last Emperor will be going into his July 19th Affliction fight against Tim Sylvia less than 100%. “It’s going to be good to see if Fedor is still the man but I’ve heard on the grapevine from inside sources that he could be injured,” Bisping told The Sun. “But this is time for Fedor to step up. Everyone knows what Tim Sylvia is all about but Fedor’s had an aura about him for a long time.”

(Kazuo Misaki cracks Logan Clark a good one. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Far less publicized or attended than their first two cards, Sengoku held its third event yesterday at a half-full Saitama Super Arena, marked by former PRIDE star Kazuyuki Fujita’s upset by YAMMA heavyweight champ Travis Wiuff (who is now riding a nine-fight win streak), as well as Kazuo Misaki and Nick “The Goat” Thompson coming away with victories, and MMA elder statesman Maurice Smith’s comeback bid hitting a painful speed bump at the hands of Hidehiko Yoshida. Full recap is at Japan MMA; quick results are below.

Hidehiko Yoshida def. Maurice Smith via submission (neck crank), 2:23 of round 1
Travis Wiuff def. Kazuyuki Fujita via KO, 1:24 of round 1
Kazuo Misaki def. Logan Clark via unanimous decision
Nick Thompson def. Michael Costa via submission (kimura), 4:13 of round 2
Sanae Kikuta def. Chris Rice via submission (armbar), 3:54 of round 1
Marcio Cruz def. Choi Mu Bae via submission (triangle choke), 4:37 of round 1
Rodrigo Damm def. Jorge Masvidal via TKO, 4:38 of round 2
Fabio Silva def. Kazuo Takahashi via KO, 0:24 of round 2

At the event, it was announced that Sengoku IV (August 24th) will mark the beginning of a lightweight GP, with the winner to face Takanori Gomi. Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, Duane Ludwig, and Rodrigo Damm have already been booked for the tourney.

In other MMA news from the Far East…

Can you read whatever this language is? Well, according to RedSweat, those bizarre combinations of letters and accent-marks suggest that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will take on PRIDE vet Sergei Kharitonov (pictured above) at DREAM 4 in mid-June. As the story goes:

Crocop was supposed to fight Kharitonov at the recent DREAM.1 event but Mirko turned down the bout stating that Sergei would be too tough a match for him after a six month break.

[*cough*]pussy! Sporting a 15-3 record, Kharitonov holds notable victories over Murilo Rua, Fabricio Werdum, and Pedro Rizzo, but he hasn’t fought since a K-1 HERO’s event last September, where he avenged an earlier loss to Alistair Overeem. We hope this matchup is legit, because it seems like a perfect test to determine if Cro Cop still has his fighting spirit, or if he lost it completely in the UFC’s cage.

Allegedly, an official announcement will be made at DREAM 2, which is scheduled to take place on April 29th. That event will host the first round of DREAM’s Middleweight GP.

From Saturday…

Mirko Cro Cop steamrolls Tatsuya Mizuno in 56 seconds.

The night’s freak-show feature: “Minowaman” taps out doughy Korean ex-baseball player Lee Kwan via kneebar.

(Sorry bro, rock beats finger.)

Nightmare of Battle has the official fight order for Saturday’s highly-anticipated DREAM show. Notably, the fight between Gesias Calvancante and Shinya Aoki will headline the event, Cro Cop’s match with Tatsuya Mizuno will serve as a break between the first half of the lightweight tournament bouts and the second, and the opener will be Ikuhisa Minowa in an “open-weight” fight against a freak to be named tomorrow. Cutting it kind of close, huh? Anyway, the lineup goes like this:

Lightweight Tournament 1st Round (second group)
10. J.Z. Calvan vs. Shinya Aoki
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Black Mamba (Kultar Gill)
8. Andre Dida vs. Eddie Alvarez

Heavyweight Feature
7. Mirko CroCop vs. Tatsuya Mizuno

Lightweight Tournament 1st Round (first group)
6. Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Jung Bu Kyung
5. Katsuhiko Nagata vs. Artur Umakhanov
4. Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luis Buscape
3. Kotetsu Boku vs. Joachim Hansen

Welterweight Feature
2. Hayato Sakurai vs. Hidetaka Monma (correction: This fight isn’t part of the lightweight tournament, as we said yesterday. Props to reader “robnashville” for being smarter than us.)

Open Weight Fight
1. Minowaman vs. TBA

Christ, I’d give my left nipple to be at this show. Joachim Hansen could be a dark horse to win it all, though most likely the eventual winner will be the guy who survives Saturday’s main event. Calvancante’s utter domination of his past opponents make him the obvious front-runner, and he’s been working with Eddie Bravo to deal with Aoki’s rubber guard and straightjacket-like grappling. There are some interesting betting lines here, which list Ishida/Kyung-Jung as the biggest first-round mismatch (-1000/+550), Kawajiri as the favorite to win the entire tournament, and Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill as a laughable +3800 under-underdog to go all the way. Holler at a brotha’s comments section if you have any big predictions for the show…

(Wow. Good luck, man.)

Yoshihiro Nakao must have just realized he had a previous engagement or something, because DREAM is now saying that Tatsuya Mizuno will instead be taking on Mirko Filipovic at DREAM’s debut show this Saturday in Japan. And is Mizuno a worthy opponent for Cro Cop? Oh, sure! I mean, after all, we’re talking about a guy with a 4-2 record in Pancrase, who’s been previously stomped by Thiago Silva and UFC washout Assuerio Silva. He should present a stiff challenge to Mirko — still, we’re calling it for Cro Cop via head kick KO, nine seconds into round one. But fortunately, we think this opponent will finally stick, and we hope Mizuno can train hard over the next four days by taking lots of naps. It’ll be an honor just to meet Filipovic’s left foot.

One thing that Mizuno won’t have to worry about is being soccer kicked when he’s down. Nightmare of Battle has a translation of the DREAM rules, which work out like this:

— 10 minute first round, 5 minute second round, 90 seconds between rounds.

— Fights are judged in their entirety and no draws are possible.

— Stomps and soccer kicks to the head of a grounded opponent are not allowed, but knees to the head of a grounded opponent are allowed. If both fighters are on the ground, head kicks are allowed. If there is a 15 kg or more weight difference, no stomps, soccer kicks, or knees to the head of a grounded opponent are allowed.

Due to the sizable difference in talent, Cro Cop will also be blindfolded. And the betting line still has him as a -950 favorite…

…and not because he tried to kiss Heath Herring again. Rumor has it that the Yakuza has beef with Nakao facing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at next week’s DREAM show. According a recent blog entry by Takumi “The Oriental Mystery” Yano (Nakao’s submission trainer, who took the #3 spot in our Sickest Submissions Ever list):

YAKUZA (japanese maffia)is terrible!!
I hear that If NAKAO fight Mirko, YAKUZA will kidnap nakao and abandon him in Tokyo Sea…..

So if the Fightin’ Smoocher mysteriously disappears after DREAM 1, you know where to find him.

The idea of the Yakuza trying to exert control over the new DREAM promotion is plausible to say the least — their alleged involvement in PRIDE is part of what sunk the defunct organization, and when ex-PRIDE staffers and K-1 execs came together to launch DREAM, criminal elements may have remained. (Read this for a surface-scratching recent history.) But who knows why they’d want to block Nakao from fighting Cro Cop. Could it have more to do with Mirko than Nakao?

(Props: FightOpinion)

(Mach Sakurai works over Mac Danzig at PRIDE 33.)

A lot of news coming from Japan in the wake of Sengoku’s first show and the run-up to next week’s DREAM debut…

— Nokaut.com reports that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has finally gotten an opponent for the first DREAM show, with only nine days to spare. As Mirko wrote on his official blog: “A little over an hour ago I was contacted by DREAM officials. They informed me that my opponent on March 15 will be Yoshihiro Nakao from Japan. It was very important for me to fight as soon as possible and I’m happy that DREAM was able to find the opponent for me.” You may remember Nakao as the dude Heath Herring knocked out after a tender expression of affection was misinterpreted as an insult; hopefully Nakao won’t make that mistake again. DREAM1 goes down next Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

— Hayato “Mach” Sakurai has also locked down an opponent for the DREAM show. As SukiMMA translates from his blog: “I fight Hidetaka Monma from Keisyukai. One foreign fighter and one Japanese fighter canceled and finally I got an opponent!” Monma has a 14-7-3 record, with notable wins over…well, basically nobody. The Sakurai/Monma fight doesn’t seem to be a part of the lightweight Grand Prix that’s also going down at DREAM1, but it should be an ugly rout just like the Cro Cop/Nakao feature.

A new Croatian interview with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (translated here) sheds a lot more light on the heavyweight’s reasons for leaving the UFC and his goals in the new DREAM organization and beyond. Some highlights:

On non-financial reasons for parting ways with the UFC: “I was in full training and wanted to compete in March. However, the UFC couldn’t find me an opponent that fast and I didn’t want to stop my preparations and start all over again for a match in May. Besides I was HUNGRY for a fight and nervous (anxious) like a dog…I asked for a rematch with Gonzaga but that was not possible because he lost to Werdum. Then I asked for Kongo but that wasn’t possible either.”

On business practices that will eventually screw him: “Although I didn’t sign any contract [with DREAM] we came to an agreement for 3 fights in March, June and September. I never had written contracts with the Japanese because we have always done business by oral agreement.”

On returning to the UFC: “I’m going to go back to the UFC without a doubt…The date of return depends on a possible fight with Fedor. The fight should take place on 31st December if Fedor accepts. If that fails I’ll be back in the UFC by the end of this year.”

On his “psychological crisis”: “I lost that killer instinct. I lost 5kg (10lb) before the fight with Kongo, I had a hard time wanting to train and on the day of the fight I thought to myself: Why do I even need this, why am I fighting a guy I have never seen before. I was fed up with it all.”

On diplomacy: “I have managed to come to terms with Dana and I’m thankful for his cooperation and understanding.”

Wow, so Fedor could potentially get a legitimate opponent at the end of this year? Crossed fingers! Emelianenko previously won a lackluster decision over Filipovic at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005 — Fedor was injured, Cro Cop was jet-lagged — but whatever, it’s something. Filipovic will be fighting Mr. X at DREAM’s inaugural show at the Saitama Super Arena on March 15th.

(Props: MMAFightline.com)

(“I got your pay cut right here…”)

And so ends the sad tale of Mirko Filipovic joining the UFC; alack, t’wasn’t meant to be.

After the UFC tried to downwardly re-negotiate terms on the the struggling heavyweight legend’s contract, Mirko Cro Cop said “Ne slažem se,” then flew to Japan where he announced his signing to a new fight club called DREAM. The Japanese promotion was recently founded by Fight Entertainment Group (owners of K-1) along with former executives of Dream Stage Entertainment (PRIDE).

We’re not so much feelin’ the name, but these dudes are coming out swinging: In addition to a heavyweight bout between Filipovic and a yet-unnamed opponent, DREAM’s inaugural show at the Saitama Super Arena on March 15th will also include the first round of a lightweight Grand Prix tournament which will feature that fight between Shinya Aoki and Gesias “JZ” Calvancante. Nightmare of Battle reports that such international stars as Gilbert Melendez, Andre Dida, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Caol Uno, Joachim Hansen, and Luiz Azeredo will also be participating in the tournament, and MMA Junkie says that Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Kazushi Sakuraba have been booked for bouts at the first DREAM show as well.

Though no formal statement from the UFC has been released yet, we’re looking forward to Dana White calling Cro Cop a “farce” who “isn’t a top-ten heavyweight anyway.”

It was the beginning of the Axe-Murderer’s current career-slide, and one of the greatest beat-downs in recent MMA history. In this open-weight match at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute 2006, Mirko Cro Cop swarms Wanderlei Silva like a rabid bear until he sets up a signature head kick at the end of the first round, leaving Silva in a mental haze that followed him through his subsequent matches against Dan Henderson and Chuck Liddell. We highly recommend you skip past 2:17-5:45, which has to be the longest mid-fight medical clearance of all time.