Mirco “CroCop” Flipovic was the Pride legend with the face made of concrete and a left leg ready to kick his opponents head into the 5th row in the blink of an eye. He stalked his prey methodically walking straight ahead swatting aside counter attacks in order to “finish” the fighter in front of him. We watched as he battled Fedor and seemed to hold his own. Our jaws dropped as he knocked the Axe Murderer out cold. Then he made the move to the UFC…

I for one thought of all the fights I wanted to see. How would he handle Big Tim Silvias reach? Were we going to see a stand up war between him and Brandon Vera? Then when Randy Couture came back and grabbed the belt I could only guess at what we would witness. I would have guessed wrong! I thought nothing of him against Eddie Sanchez. Against Gabriel Gonzaga he looked overwhelmed and outclassed when taken down and then to be knocked out by his own signature kick to the head. Wow! I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Until …. he fought Chieck Kongo. I knew then that the old CroCop was gone and we were left with a tired fighter who had admitted he “was too old for this shit”.

I wasn’t surprised to hear he left the UFC before the end of his contract. He was way too expensive, at $350,000 per fight minimum, for Dana White to allow him to keep up his losing ways. So what’s the answer? As the UFC does with fighters who have lost two or more in a row, they let him leave for a while to fight for another promotion. It’s a win win for them. If he loses more fights he was let go for good reason. If he finds his inner fighter again and stacks up some wins he can come back ready to take another crack at the UFC Heavyweight Championship ladder.

I personally thought he was done. Then I started reading snippets of conversation from him like

“I’m going to go back to the UFC without a doubt, although my contract doesn’t bind me to do so. The date of return depends on a possible fight with Fedor. The fight should take place on 31st December if Fedor accepts. If that fails I’ll be back in the UFC by the end of this year.” (from this post)

and

“I will take part in three fights for Dream, and then I will return to the UFC… I am not avoiding the UFC, and will come back by the end of the year.” . (from this article)

Sounds like he is on the right path. It also sounds like alot of fighters who find themselves in a losing streak.  We will see how it works out in the ring/octagon. Surely another great fight with Fedor can only help his standing with the UFC especially if he wins. I will give him a perfect opportunity to return to the UFC as the crowned “Fedor killer” and heir apparent to the UFC title. That is IF he stacks up good wins, IF he finds his fury again and IF he gets a fight with Fedor. For me that is alot of “IF’s”.