UFC 110 Preview: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Ben Rothwell
by Zak Woods on Feb 15, 2010 4:00 PM EST
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Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (25-7-2, 2-3 UFC) vs. Ben Rothwell (30-7, 0-1 UFC)
The Story So Far: Another loss for Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and his legacy may be more scarred than Mickey Rourke's acting career pre-The Wrestler.
Mirko's first UFC run was as close to a catastrophe as is humanly possible. Filipovic went 1-2 with upset losses to Gabriel Gonzaga (he is still making money off that win) and Cheick Kongo. After back-to-back losses Mirko and the UFC parted ways and Filipovic competed in Japan for a year before re-signing with Zuffa to be apart of the UFC's German debut. While Filipovic defeated Mostapha Al-Turk at UFC 99 he looked far from impressive (he basically had to poke Al-Turk in the eye to win). Mirko would follow this victory with a fight against Junior dos Santos at UFC 103, where dos Santos forced Filipovc to submit --via strikes!
After the loss at UFC 103, WKR wanted to retire the name "Cro Cop" (the guy in the cage was not the Cro Cop we watched in Pride) and it even appeared that Mirko was ready to retire. Alas, the allure of paydays as an international draw for the UFC kept Filipovic in the game.
Ben Rothwell will be looking for his first win inside the UFC. Rothwell made his Octagon debut at UFC 104 and lost to Cain Velasquez.
"Big" Ben is a former IFL fighter, who went 9-0 in the organization with wins over Roy Nelson, Krzysztof Soszynski and Ricco Rodriguez. After the IFL folded Rothwell signed on with Affliction and fought Andrei Arlovski.
Conventional Wisdom: Filipovic has never been comfortable inside the Octagon. The large cage allows for fighters to easily circle away from the Croatian striker who can no longer corner his opponents. Mirko also struggles with fighting bigger opponents. For instance, Cheick Kongo was stylistically a perfect match-up for Filipovic, but Mirko was unable to mount much of an offense as he struggled with Kongo's size. Rothwell is 6'4" 265lbs. compared to Filipovic at 6'2" at 220lbs. Mirko may have more technical striking but Ben's size and wrestling put this fight in his favor.
WKR Analysis: Rather than deal with the X's and O's of this fight, we will focus more on the underlying story of whether or not the loser faces the risk of being let go by the UFC.
WKR believes that neither fighter is in danger of being cut. Why? Because the UFC doesn't want to give an iota of talent, especially heavyweights, for Strikeforce to scoop up. While Mirko is certainly not the fighter he was in Pride, Strikeforce could easily duplicate a rematch with Fedor for CBS. Rothwell would also serve to bolster Strikeforce's heavyweight division. Imagine a fight between Rogers and Rothwell or Antonio Silva vs. Rothwell?
Basically, WKR is of the school of thought that the UFC will not release any heavyweight talent with a reasonable name --no matter what their recent record/salary is-- to prevent Strikeforce from scooping them up.
Fun Fact: Mirko enjoys those deep butt massages.
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Some serious cynicism towards the UFC, no? I’d tend to disagree that they won’t let go of any top talent just to prevent SF from getting them. The fans and Dana are pretty critical of fighters who fail to preform (CC) and the UFC has been historically pretty quick to cut people who fail to perform, subsequently using their bully pulpit to denigrate them further.
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I hope he got a “happy ending.” My first and last time snowboarding a few years back I had to get a massage it was on my whole back side including my butt and I’m not going to lie, it felt good getting my traumatized butt massaged. I didn’t know how to snowboard so I fell like a milliion times. This was out in japan where I heard that in some massage parlors if you get the front package, you can get a happy ending with it and depending on the girl. It could mean a handjob or a bj.
About the fight, don’t know, but would be good if this ended in devasting cc fashion. Otherwise, I see mirko perhaps using dirty tactics like eye pokes, nut shot, or perhaps just giving up.
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