Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic acts like Fredo and leaves the UFC for Dream
I hope that UFC fans enjoyed watching Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic beat Mustapha al Turk because we won't be seeing "Cro Cop" in the UFC ever again.
Mirko Filipovic has reportedly signed a new three-fight deal with Dream.
Dana White didn't take Mirko's betrayal very well,
"Isn't that a dirty [expletive] thing to do?" White asked rhetorically after being queried about Filipovic's deal with DREAM. "He [expletived] me. The first time in the history of the company I do one over the phone. He promised me a three-fight deal and he [expletived] me."
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"He didn't keep his word," White said, who said he'd had a two-hour talk with Filipovic on the day "Cro Cop" texted and asked to be able to return. "He talked about honor and all this other [expletive] and he [expletived] me.
"He fed me this bull [expletive] about wanting to take a run for the title, and what I think he did was, he went out and did this. He turned down every other [expletive] fighter I offered him, because I needed him to fight Cain. He didn't just poke Al-Turk; he poked me, too."
Knowing Dana White's pension for loyalty and fealty in his employees and fighters there is very little chance that Mirko will ever be back. The name "Cro Cop" will forever be the equivalent of Judas Iscariot for Dana and the rest of the Zuffa family.
UFC fans have the right to be angry at Filipovic for skipping town, though I will say he did what was in his best interest; if we are going to be a die-hard capitalist people we can't take umbrage when someone acts like a die-hard capitalist. Still it sucks and as a North American MMA fan I wish Mirko was still in the UFC.
That being said, White was played like a fiddle. This is straight up Godfather Part II stuff, "Mirko, I know it was you! You broke my heart!"
In the past Filipovic has used Trojan horse negotiations so perhaps the UFC should have seen this coming. To quote Zach Arnold, "Dana [White] made a one-fight deal with the devil and the devil acted like the devil does."
There is another take on the situation. White has steamrolled fighters in the past, such as Jon Fitch, so this was Dana White reaping what he sowed. Whatever the final moral determination is, one thing is clear, karma is real and it is a bitch.
The larger reverberations of this action is that the UFC will most likely not offer a one-fight contact over the phone, or in paper, ever again. For Fedor fans this is another roadblock that will be hard to overcome.
Also the UFC will most likely re-examine their current contracts and explore how to refine the language in order to obtain greater security in their investments. Bad news for fighter's rights activists.
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