Cro Cop Doesn’t Seem to Care About His Legacy, After All

Cro Cop fed the media, fans, and Dana White a lot of talk about caring about his legacy, fighting for honor and wanting to prove that his last less-than-impressive UFC stint was not indicative of his true talent.  Apparently, though, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is not too concerned about his legacy as a fighter after all, as he has spurned the number 1 promotion in MMA after White made a verbal deal with him to go to Dream and fight three more times.

The news was confirmed by Yahoo! Sports, who report that White was understandably livid about Cro Cop’s decision to sign a three-fight deal with Dream, when he had told White and MMA fans alike that he would be in the UFC after his fight with Mustapha Al-Turk.  Instead, it appears that Cro Cop has chosen the much more shallow waters of the Japanese promotion to the UFC’s division, which looks deeper with every passing heavyweight fight.

The move is made even worse by the fact that Cro Cop has betrayed a man who has proven in the past that he does not easily (or ever) “forgive and forget” such behavior.  Many are the fighters who succeeded in the UFC, but bolted on bad terms (often with title belt in tow), never to return.  BJ Penn and Tito Ortiz are two of the only examples to the contrary.  White’s words in response to Cro Cop’s decision were not kind: “He [expletived] me.  The first time in the history of the company I do [a contract] over the phone. He promised me a three-fight deal and he [expletived] me.”

If Cro Cop has indeed decided to screw over the most powerful man (who leads the most important promotion) in MMA and return to Dream to fight the likes of Tatsuya Mizuno and Hong Man Choi, it’s a conscious decision to avoid fighting the top fighters in the world, even if his motives are monetary ones.  If his legacy was truly important to him, he would stick it out in the UFC and fight his way up the ladder there.  Even if he wasn’t happy in the UFC, I’m sure that Affliction would gladly take him, and there would be a few challenging fights awaiting him there, as well.  Surely, there would be more big fights there than Dream could ever offer.

This is besides the fact that Cro Cop didn’t look overwhelmingly great against Mustapha Al-Turk.  He was winning the fight without a doubt, but it was strange that he didn’t really ever throw a kick- besides one instance where he turned to throw one and pulled off when he realized Al-Turk was out of his range.  Regardless of his reasons for going back to Dream, the perception will be that Cro Cop didn’t believe in his ability to beat the top fighters- or even the fighters in the middle of the pack, like Cheick Kongo- that the UFC had to offer.

It’s not as if Cro Cop has parted amicably with White and the UFC; as mentioned before, Cro Cop leaving this way pretty much seals the deal regarding MMA fans never seeing the Croatian striker in the octagon again.  So, what avenues are left for Cro Cop to prove that he belongs near or at the top of the list of heavyweights in his era?  Dream can offer a cross-promotional rematch with Alistair Overeem, perhaps, but that alone will not be enough to erase the memories of Cro Cop’s losses to Kongo and Gabriel Gonzaga, as well as his other underwhelming performances over the last few years.

Even those that don’t agree with the somewhat tyrannical way that White often does business can see that this is a dumb move for anyone that ever hopes to fight in the UFC again, so therefore, it’s clear that Cro Cop does not intend to do so.  Again, Cro Cop’s decision could be due to a number of factors, but no matter what reasons he had to re-sign with Dream and effectively banish himself from the biggest organization in the world, his legacy will be that of a fighter that showed flashes of brilliance, but wasn’t able to become one of the best of his era.  And it doesn’t appear that he cares.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Dana White, DREAM, Gabriel Gonzaga, Tito Ortiz, UFC