Mirko Filipovic

('My heart, she breaks.')

The sadists among you who were hoping Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic would go back home to Croatia and rediscover the will to fight by repeatedly kicking a wall at his family’s home, well, you’re about to be disappointed.  Cro Cop has now officially called it quits, telling Nokaut.com that he has “no motivation left and it’s time to leave.”  He also reportedly told his manager, Zvonimir Lucic, to release the various members of Team Cro Cop, which we assume included a young, bright-eyed intern who refused to accept the news and tried in vain to get a “Cro Cop” chant going even as everyone else filed silently out of the room.  

A sad day in MMA history, but a necessary one.  The game just ain't in him no more.  We've already paid him a tribute, but allow us to dedicate one more video after the jump:

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

After Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic's ugly loss to Junior Dos Santos at UFC 103 on Saturday, it was clear that his will to win has eroded even more than his skills as a fighter. For two-and-a-half rounds, we saw a backpedaling, hesitant, shadow of Cro Cop's former self get outstruck by someone he would have murdered three years ago. It was obviously the end of the line for Filipovic as a relevant competitor — and nobody sees that as clearly as Mirko himself. As he told jutarnji.hr (translated by Robert K. at bigoddsmike.com):

(Look, he's working his way up to doing it with a 500-pound man, okay? Baby steps.)

We can now count Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic as a member of the "Brock Haters Club" that already includes Mike Swick, Logan Stanton, and Stephen Colbert. As the UFC heavyweight (currently, but don't jinx it) said during a recent interview:

(You know, Cub, in bull riding this would have been considered a victory. Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— According to an interview on intheguard.tv, WEC featherweight/human highlight-reel Jose Aldo says he'll be getting a much-deserved shot at Mike Brown's belt at WEC 45 (November 11th, location TBA). Aldo has racked up five consecutive TKO/KO victories during his stint in the WEC, most recently slicing Cub Swanson's head wide open in 8 seconds at WEC 41 last month. Brown made his second successful title-defense at the same event, out-pointing Urijah Faber in a classic five-rounder to pick up his tenth straight win. 

— With Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le out of action due to a blossoming acting career, Scott Coker has announced that Jake Shields will fight for the organization's interim middleweight title in October; the exact date, location, and Shields's opponent will all be announced later. Shields has long been known as one of the best welterweights in the world, but his first-round choke-out of Robbie Lawler last month proved that he could be very competitive at a higher weight. Plus, his homey's already got the welterweight division on lock...

(Index finger, hospital; middle finger, cemetery.)

Yesterday's rumors of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic returning to the UFC just got considerably realer. According to MMA Weekly, Cro Cop has dropped out of his scheduled DREAM 10 match against Mighty Mo, in order to free up his schedule for a fight against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas). Said Dos Santos, who was originally slated to face Justin McCully at UFC 102:

Considering how pissed off Dana White was when Cro Cop first flew the coop, it's a little surprising that he's being given a second chance. The UFC must have big plans for him in the heavyweight division. But Santos — who has run through Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve in a combined 2:15 of fight time during his stint in the UFC — has a way of laughing at men's plans, then crapping all over them.