Cro Cop Nixed Mighty Mo, Overeem, and Saki
Posted by Chad Edward on March 15th, 2008“Mighty Mo” Siala-Mou Siligia’s (3-0) agent, Steve Rusich, has confirmed that “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic (22-6-2) turned down a DREAM.1 debut versus Rusich’s fighter from American Samoa.
“Mo was excited,” Rusich said. “He wants to get more MMA fights. A win over Cro Cop would’ve been huge!”
“Mighty Mo” fights a K-1 kickboxing match versus Keijiro Maeda in Yokohama 13 April, but is undefeated in mixed martial arts versus softies. “Cro Cop” would’ve been a leap forward.
“What they do is offer [Filipovic] three options. We had the whole thing negotiated with K-1,” Rusich explained, “but, they came back and said Cro Cop turned down the fight.”
Agent Bas Boon has also alleged “Cro Cop” nixed DREAM.1 fights with his charges, “Demolition Man” Alistair Overeem (26-11) and Gokin Saki (0-1), who may have been the other two fighters in K-1’s original offer to Filipovic.
Boon hasn’t replied to my request for further explanation.
“Apparently he wanted James Thompson,” Rusich added.
“The Colossus” Thompson (14-8) has slept through the finale of seven of his eight losses, earning him a reputation for his glass jaw. Thompson was laid out in just over two minutes in his last fight versus “The Grim” Brett Rogers (6-0) in EliteXC.
“Cro Cop” returns to Japan after a nosedive in the UFC, losing consecutive battles with “Napao” Gabriel Gonzaga (8-3) and Cheick Kongo (11-4-1).
DREAM, a K-1 MMA promotion, originally paired “Cro Cop” with “Kiss” Yoshihiro Nakao (6-1); but, Nakao dropped the fight without official explanation.
DREAM then dug up veritable head-on-a-tee Tatsuya Mizuno (3-2), whom Filipovic will take aim on today in Tokyo.
