Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović Retires, 25-7-2(1)

http://www.fiveknuckles.com/mma-news/Mirko-Cro-Cop-Filipovic-officially-retires.html

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has officially called it a career. The 35-year-old former PRIDE open weight champion leaves MMA with a handful of highlight reel knockouts and a reputation as one of the sports most feared strikers of all-time.

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"I don't feel the hunger anymore," Filipovic told Jutarnji.com. "I started playing it safe, I'm not ready to take risks. I would like to thank everybody that supported me and stood by me and everyone who helped me to prepare for this fight. I've been living a military life for 20 years now. Getting up at 6:00am and having physically challenging tasks up to 8:00pm. I want a normal life. I'm entering a cage and thinking about fishing in Privlaka. You can't win that way.

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"I have no motivation left and it's time to leave," Filipovic told Nokaut.com. "Thank you all for supporting me."


I figured it would happen after the latest in a string of disappointing performances. Hope he enjoys retirement. Legend.

BE is reporting conflicting stories on this so it looks like it's still up in the air, but either way I don't care.

Cro Crop is done to me.

I think he could still be a good gatekeeper in the HW division -- his skills and aggressiveness aren't good enough to be at the top anymore, but he's still good enough to beat up on a lot of the scrubs populating that division. But for a guy who was at one point considered a top 3 HW in the world, I can see why that wouldn't appeal to him. I would have liked to see a second fight with Nog or a fight with Couture, but if his heart isn't in it anymore then that's that.

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and here's the intro PRIDE aired for the Fedor/CC fight, still enough to give you goosebumps :clap:

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Right kick, hospital! Left kick, cemetery!

Thanks for the memories, Mirko.

One of the all-time greats! I'm glad he knew when to hang'em up.

Junkie has a link to him denying retirement.

Sounds like he might run the contract thru.

Probably end up on Euro UFC cards..

Lord knows there's money to be made if he wants to go back to Japan and fight freaks.

I hope this is it for him. He clearly doesn't have it anymore. We haven't seen a decent performance from him post-Gonzaga.

If this is it, there's no denying that he's had one helluva career though. He revolutionized the way kickboxers are perceived in MMA. No shame in never being able to get past Fedor. He's still one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

he should retire... the guy has been so disappointing his last few fights in UFC.

but yeah, he has done some impressive KOs in his career. He'll always be remembered.