“I’m pleased with my return to UFC”: Mirko Cro Cop

Published on: 20th July, 2009

"I'm pleased with my return to UFC": Mirko Cro Cop  | read this item

Photo: Daylife.com

There was a lot of confusion and a lot of bad blood when Dana White said he found out that Mirko Cro Cop had signed with DREAM to fight in Japan only moments after UFC 99. White says he was misinformed by DREAM officials into believing that he had signed with them before UFC 99 and that was the reason he called him a liar. As we all know that did not sit well with Cro Cop and UFC CFO Lorenzo Fertitta flew overseas to offer the former PRIDE Grand Prix winner an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Now in a interview that was translated by Nokaut.com from a Croatian newspaper, Mirko Cro Cop for the first time spoke about his return to the UFC and how he was happy to return to fight in the world’s biggest MMA promotion.

“I’m pleased with my return to UFC, the only global mma organization. Unfortunately, every other organization is far beyond UFC.  DREAM cannot compete with Americans in sports or financial terms. The UFC has succeded to become in this sport what PRIDE used to be, maybe even more than that. I will always be grateful to the Japanese fans, that is the country where I became famous as a fighter. But  the offer I got from Dream was not a challenge for me. “

Cro Cop even addressed the fight between DREAM and the UFC over his services, he also responded to rumors which stated he called UFC president Dana White 600 times to explain his side of the story.

“I’m sorry that UFC and DREAM argued over me. There was a lot of noise over nothing, I was even called a liar, and I read supposed statement by Dana White that I called him 600 times. Exact number of my calls was – zero. I texted him once and that’s all. I wouldn’t call anyone 600 times, even if my life depends on that. I don’t want to be presented in such a degrading way.”

While we will never know what actually happened in this failure of communication, we do know that Cro Cop is back…. again. We are hoping that his rumored fight against Junior Dos Santos becomes official for UFC 103, which is looking in desparate need of a few more good fights and a headliner at this point.

 Alberto Martinez "The Narcisist" is the founding owner of URDirt.com. If you would like to post on the front page or in our New "Fan Jab" section all you need to do is register. Read more from this author

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