How special was Mirko Cro Cop?

[laleggenda27]

Pride Fc (and K1) created many legends. Especially because it was the early days of big events of MMA. However, Mirko, Wanderlei, and many others of that era would not survive nowadays, in my opinion. Especially without the secret juice.

Are we pretending that LHW and HW have greatly evolved during the last 15 years? Spoiler alert...they haven't. When a one-dimensional brawler like Derrick has spent the last 5+ years ranked in the top 10, often in the top 5, that should tell you all you need to know. The corpse of Andrei Arlovski picked up 2 wins in the UFC last year, ffs.

 

[legatoblues]

overall ive never been to impressed with him.
...
id prob place him at the time in his prime top 5 in the world.

 

[Koro_11]

Pride Fc (and K1) created many legends. Especially because it was the early days of big events of MMA. However, Mirko, Wanderlei, and many others of that era would not survive nowadays, in my opinion. Especially without the secret juice.

Dumb logic, if they were all on juice then they were ALL on juice, so the killers he was fighting were also juiced.

If he was fighting now he wouldn’t be on juice but then neither would his opponents so it would again be a level playing field and similar outcomes.

 

[emefer]

Definitely more cereal than olympics

 

[Sgt Smith]

 

[UFCFantasyMVP]

The fact that he was 40+ when he put together a 10-fight win streak to end his career is extraordinary. Within that time, he avenged his losses to both Gonzaga and Nelson. And over half of his losses are by knockout, some of which were brutal, so when you sprinkle in that he put together a beautiful run after waking up from all his KO's, it's easy to acknowledge that his legacy is legendary. He was a phenomenal talent.

 

[witt1021]

in cro cops prime i was impressed with the man he couldnt beat. and UFCs arlovski. Just like right now im impressed with jon jones being the champ pretty crazy for him to actually pass a piss test much less win the HW strap after years of inactivity, im not to impressed with curtis blaydes who is currently top 5.

 

[JBJ was here]

Seems that nowadays anytime someone gets a headkick knockout it automatically becomes their number one highlight and knockout of the year contender.

From Joachim Buckley . . .

Not a fair inclusion. Buckley had one leg caught high and got off a jump-back kick headshot KO. That really is an all-time great KO, top of anyone's highlight reel, not just another roundhouse that landed.

 

[Koro_11]

Not a fair inclusion. Buckley had one leg caught high and got off a jump-back kick headshot KO. That really is an all-time great KO, top of anyone's highlight reel, not just another roundhouse that landed.

It was still a headkick knockout that put him on the map and without it he would be irrelevant.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I like this description better....

Arn from 15 seconds to about 30 seconds.

 

[HHJ]

It was still a headkick knockout that put him on the map and without it he would be irrelevant.

But he did get it

 

[jeskola]

He got a right kick cemetery in UFC once me thinks.

After this, he really became special.

 

[Dickie Greenleaf]

86 fights in Amateur Boxing
34 fights in Profesional Kickboxing during peak K-1
52 fights in Professional MMA

172 fights total and he would still be going today if doctors didnt force him to stop.

The term legend gets thrown around a lot these days. But Cop is the epitome of it.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

He was the King without a Crown. Arguably the second best after Fedor. One of the most accomplished kickboxers, MMA fighters, martial artists to ever grace the ring/octagon. Already a successful high-tier K-1 Striker with wins over K-1 champions. Then to make the move to MMA and not be wrestle fucked by everyone, and STILL land that LHK that they knew was coming, was very damn insane. Yes, he did not have the best UFC run. Motivation, hungry UFC fighters, the game "catching up," etc, etc, all kinds of reasons why he did not do as well. He did avenge that loss to Gonzaga, and then even better IMO, he captured the Rizin HW title with an easy win over current ONE HW fighter, Amir Aliakbari, who will no doubt challenge the current HW champ. One of the best fighters ever, most entertaining, for a moment, had that "Tyson" like aura about him, and his 2006 OWGP run he was unstoppable. If Fedor was there, I think we would have witnessed history. One of my favorite fighters of all time.

 

[William Huggins]

Dumb logic, if they were all on juice then they were ALL on juice, so the killers he was fighting were also juiced.

If he was fighting now he wouldn’t be on juice but then neither would his opponents so it would again be a level playing field and similar outcomes.

Not strictly true, some people respond particularly well to different PED's, as drastic as night and day......

 

[World eater]

Special enough that he gets new threads on Sherdog every month so many years after his retirement.
He and Fedor did pretty good, considering they were shorter than most MWs these days.

 

[Johnnny]

He got a right kick cemetery in UFC once me thinks.

 

[snowbro]

Everything was gravy except for the Dos Caras KO. That was just unnecessary. I was really surprised Mirko went for the followup punch after head kicking a tomato can wearing a fukin luchador mask!

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Buckley's was insane because of the type of kick more so than it being a headkick itself. Also yeah it's pretty rare for somebody to have a ton of headkick ko's.

A few others I can think of are Donald Cerrone (has 8 headkick tko/ko's in the UFC). He also dropped Iaquinta with a front kick.

Holly Holm: Bunch of headkicks pre ufc and a couple in the UFC.

Wonderboy: bunch of headkicks in kickboxing, 1 in MMA pre UFC and 3 in the UFC (if you count the combo that finished Hendricks which included a kick).

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Looking at his record, it's not really that insane. He has 6 headkick ko's in MMA and 3 in kickboxing for a total of 9. Cerrone has 8 in the UFC alone. Cro Cop has had a total of 86 fights combined so 9 head kick finishes isn't that crazy.