Cro Cop is Back, Sort of...
by Nick Becker on Feb 22, 2010 2:14 PM EST
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Cro Cop was back for at least one night, well, sort of...
Fans of the Croatian striker have long pined for a return to glory of one of the most memorable spectacular fighters of the middle 00's. For one night in Sydney "Cro Cop" was back in action, albeit against less than stellar opposition.
With the Grim Reaper knocking at the door of Mirko's career following his inglorious loss to Junior dos Santos back at UFC 103, Cro Cop retained some semblance of a fighting future with his pedestrian win over Anthony Perosh this past Saturday night. Despite coming away with a stoppage victory, Cro Cop did little to satisfy those fans who were expecting nothing less than an emphatic LHK KO, which has been M.I.A since 9/10/2006.
Instead of an impressive KO, observers were treated to another underwhelming win against underwhelming competition. Cro Cop's victory over Perosh was reminiscent of his previous underwhelming performances against Mustapha Al-Turk and Eddie Sanchez and it did little to back up his claim that he belongs at the top of the heavyweight division.
What was particularly puzzling while watching the fight was just how few kicks Cro Cop threw. On several occassions the body kick was there, but for whatever reason he didn't pull the trigger on it.
To Mirko's credit, the elbow he used to cut Perosh was nasty and it proves that he has at least partially adapted his game to the Octagon, which is something that had been previously questioned. Another positive to takeaway from Cro Cop's performance was his absolutely brilliant takedown defense which continually stymied "The Hippo."
The bottom line is that while Cro Cop did what he needed to do to secure the victory, at this point his fans expect much more than what was delivered. So while fans anxiously await the announcement of Cro Cop's next match -- likely against original UFC 110 opponent, Ben Rothwell -- let's enjoy this highlight video which sums up the brilliance of Cro Cop in his prime:
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I hope he does fight Ben
It should be interesting. He definitely can’t hand w/ the top tier anymore, so give him some mid-level guys, not all these cans.
Hadoken!!
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