Cro Cop vs. Gracie? What? In Grappling???

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Nokaut.com has learned that Mirko Cro Cop will face Ralek Gracie, a black belt in brazilian jiu-jitsu, in a special rules grappling match on June 15's DREAM 4 card in Japan. Cro Cop was originally scheduled to fight Jerome LeBanner but that fight has been postponed. In the meantime, DREAM offered the Gracie grappling bout to Cro Cop, which he has accepted. The fight will take place under modified Abu Dhabi rules: two five-minute rounds with no point system. The only way to win will be via submission. Should the fight go the distance, it will be declared an automatic draw.

 

That's something I'd never thought I'd see.

 

Cro Cop by left high kickoplata

 

what.

 

cro cop sure is taking on that high level of competition he so badly wanted.

 

random, cool if he wins though!

 

i dont think he left the UFC to fight a higher level of competition...i think he left to go back to japan where he had some success and regain his confidence. Either way a grappling match is a ridiculous idea

 

wtf is Cro Cop's problem?

 

Is this for real? Why would Crocop grapple a Gracie? I think his submission defense is good but not great. Will bbe fun to watch though.

 

That's how competitive he is.

 

never in a million yrs i would think of this. whats next Fedor does boxing?

 

god i hope this doesn't happen

 

Weird but I'm not complaining although I was really looking forward to the JLB fight.

Cro Cop by locoplata

 

Haha. I laughed.

 

Wow.....there is really no way Cro Cop can win this the best he can hope for is a draw.....I really wanted him to fight JLB

 

Why did Crocop accept this fight?! He's got no chance of subbing a Gracie, I hope he can hold out for a draw, but this fight isn't really grabbing my interest.

 

I was going to ask for independent confirmation of this, but I went and found it:

DreamFIghters.com - DREAM FC news - DREAM MMA news - DREAM grand Prix - Crocop

There's also a purported comment from Cro Cop - "First of all, thank you everyone for being so patient when waiting for news regarding my next fight. Although I really wanted to face Jerome LeBanner on June 15, this fight is unfortunately postponed. I've been training for a MMA bout for almost 2 month and I'm going to fight on June 15, but not under MMA rules!

DREAM offered me a unique challenge, to face Ralek Gracie in a grappling match.

Since there was no opportunity for me to fight under MMA rules in June, I accepted this challenge and I'm going to face Ralek under modified Abu Dhabi rules. The fight is set for two 5-minute rounds, there are no points, so the only way to win this fight is by submission. If we make the distance the fight will be automatically declared a draw.

This is probably something you didn't see coming, it came really out of blue.

However, in a given circumstances, this is a unique opportunity for me to test my ground game against top level competition and it's going to be exciting.

I'll prepare for this match with my grappling coach Marcio Corletta, a two times world champion."

I don't know either of these sites, and there's nothing on Cro Cop's site. Is there a DREAM site out there?

 

Crocop and his manager was talking about doing something like this for a while now.

 

Yeah...Japanese promotion at it's finest

 

weirdly interesting