Who would have won between Alex Pereira and Mirko Crocop?

[Bend NvR Break]

Alex's reach - 80 inches
Cro Cop's reach - 73 inches

This would be a problem for Cro Cop imo. Add to the fact he's been ko'd multiple times in his career..

Alex would probably win..

Reach doesn't matter as much when you kick and cro cop kicked.

I'm going cro cop. Outside of Izzy I'm not impressed with Poatan's resume enough to pick him over Cro Cop.

 

[LEWIS540]

I'm not going to argue about Ken Shamrock in a Cro Cop thread, I'm not going to argue about Ken Shamrock in a Cro Cop thread...but find me in here if you want to talk about Ken: https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/ken-vs-barnett.4333035/.



If you can't agree with me that the Hug fight was a straight-up robbery since he was fighting a marketed farewell fight in his hometown and was going to win that decision no matter what happened between bells, then we're not seeing the same fights. Cro Cop went axe kick for axe kick with the Swiss Kyokushin legend and in one sequence literally beats him post to post with a monster punch flurry that includes an uppercut that I'm surprised didn't take Hug's head off his body. That third Hoost fight in the 2000 GP, though, not Cro Cop's finest hour, nor Hoost's for that matter. Their second fight, the battle in the 1999 GP finals, that was the two of them hungry and going at each other. Cro Cop was too high-kick happy and kept trying to force the straight left-right hook-left high kick combo that he knocked out Mike Bernardo with, while Hoost stayed patient, waited for his opening, realized that he wasn't going to be able to low kick him to death like their first fight, and then found the liver and put him down to the body. Even in losing, that was a great showing from Cro Cop making it to the GP finals after being away from K-1 for three years and not competing all that much by that point and then taking it to the GOAT in one of his strongest years atop K-1.



That September night in 2006, the only human I'm saying could've beaten that Cro Cop was Fedor, and I wouldn't have been surprised in the least if Cro Cop had knocked even him out. Cro Cop was fed up being the also-ran, he stated publicly that if he didn't win the OWGP he'd retire from competition forever, he had to win, and he fought like he was fighting for his life. He never looked like that, he never moved like that. He was truly a man possessed that night. People talk about Anderson Silva being in the Matrix...

...that's just about the slickest and scariest shit I've seen from a striker in MMA history. That combination of speed and power, I mean he fucking folds Wand in half with that kick and then he floats around him like his feet aren't even on the ground. If there's a fight where it looks like someone's trying to fight a ghost, it's Wand trying to figure out where the fuck Cro Cop is to hit.



If we're basing these rankings more on career accomplishments than head-to-head match-ups, then the lists will look different. Career all-time in K-1 and MMA, he'd be near the bottom of the top 10 if he makes it in K-1 and maybe top 15 in MMA. In K-1, Hoost, Aerts, and Schilt have to be on the Olympic podium. After them, there's Hug, JLB, Bonjasky, Badr Hari. He'd be somewhere down after them battling out for the top ten amongst Filho, Sefo, and Bernardo. In MMA, Fedor, Nogueira, Couture, Mir, Sylvia, Arlovski, Cain, JDS, Stipe, Cormier, Ngannou, they've done some impressive shit, won and defended titles, maybe he deserves the top 10 with his wins over Herring, Igor, Fujita, Aleks, Barnett, and Coleman, but he would've helped his case if he could've avenged his Nogueira loss in the OWGP instead of beating Barnett a third time or if he could've beaten Gonzaga and then taken the belt from Couture in 2007. As it stands, I think he's somewhere in the #10-#15 slots.



Haha, joke's on you, you're ranking him higher overall than I am.





One of many Cro Cop gems:

It’s like we basically agree with each other but you prefer that Croatian ass and I prefer those tight thighs.

Yeah, he’s like Sakuraba. Hard to rank him, considering he was basically fighting in a weight class above where he should have been, at least by modern standards.

 

[Aurelian]

Good fight. Book it Dana. Alex needs some experience at HW.

 

[Bork Neslar]

Pro Poc by KO (axe kick).

 

[Kevster]

It’s always amusing when some folks say a modern day UFC guy could possibly have defeated a guy from Pride.

Toys chucked out of prams, left, right and centre.

 

[RemyR]

Primes? Probably Cro Cop imo.

 

[Fight Professor]

Typically these types of threads are just attempts to hype an old school fighter. But in this case I would actually favor prime CroCop.

 

[Koro_11]

He was in his prime for the Gonzaga fight. He literally won the gp fought Sanchez the Gonzaga. He looked Terrible in both ufc fights

Everybody’s prime ends at some point and Mirko‘s ended after winning the Grand Prix. Now was that purely physical or was there a mental element to it, like maybe finally winning a big one and taking your foot off the gas a little bit, getting a bit complacent, who knows what? Then you got new rules, new jet lag, cage instead of ring, and multiple surgeries.

There is dozens of different factors that probably played into Mirko’s eventual decline, but “he was never that good” is definitely not one of them.

 

[doggo]

He was in his prime for the Gonzaga fight. He literally won the gp fought Sanchez the Gonzaga. He looked Terrible in both ufc fights

He looked soft and slow VS Eddie sanchez but won because he was fighting a tomato can. Gonzaga had it pretty easy with no knees crocop.

There is a story about what happened and they compare him to the great Muhammad Alí, Alí came back from his hiatus slow and didn't have his usual movement, buuuuuut he discovered he had this fucking Iron chin which carried him the rest of his carreer. Crocop had no chin to back up his lack of speed, hence started getting wrecked fight in and fight out. Its a sad sad story imo.

 

[doggo]

Everybody’s prime ends at some point and Mirko‘s ended after winning the Grand Prix. Now was that purely physical or was there a mental element to it, like maybe finally winning a big one and taking your foot off the gas a little bit, getting a bit complacent, who knows what? Then you got new rules, new jet lag, cage instead of ring, and multiple surgeries.

There is dozens of different factors that probably played into Mirko’s eventual decline, but “he was never that good” is definitely not one of them.

Read my comment below if you can.

 

[DayV]

He was never a champion in any discipline and his biggest claim to fame was KO'ing a LHW.

And yet, Cro Cop holds both Pride and K-1 belts.
If you consider Couture, Arlovski, Sylvia, Mir, Lesnar... as champions, then Cro Cop was also champion.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

And yet, Cro Cop holds both Pride and K-1 belts.
If you consider Couture, Arlovski, Sylvia, Mir, Lesnar... as champions, then Cro Cop was also champion.

Beating a LHW in an Open Weight Grand Prix that the actual Champion didn't take part in isn't "champion" and neither is some pointless K-1 title in a regional qualifier when you consistently fell short in the K-1 World Grand Prix.

 

[DayV]

Beating a LHW in an Open Weight Grand Prix that the actual Champion didn't take part in isn't "champion" and neither is some pointless K-1 title in a regional qualifier when you consistently fell short in the K-1 World Grand Prix.

And beating LHWs like Jones, Cormier, Alex Poatan for UFC HW belt is champion?

Jones & Cormier are LHWs who got HW title shot based on their LHW status, possibly Perreira also soon, so I guess they are not champions also, and if their HW opponets managed to beat them, guess they would also not be champions. Guess Stipe was not champion after he beat LHW Cormier. Guess if someone in near future beats Poatan for HW belt, he would also not be champion.

There is no guatantee that Fedor would have won it. You need to beat 4 different opponents in only 4 months, and lot of things can happen. Upredictable opponents, you have to carry your injuries and fatigue, fight again in a few hours. Fighters like Barnett, Cro Cop, Werdum... could have possibly stopped him. You have to step in and win it in reallity. It is simply a world title that Fedor did not won.

K-1 WGP that Cro Cop won had Badr Hari in it + multiple regular Top 10 guys of that decade like Gerges, Zhuravlev, Londt, Samedov, Laschenko. Miller became top ranked boxer and challenger to Joshua, Zhuravlev became Glory interim LHW champion, Londt won Glory HW contender tournament an Cro Cop beat them in one night. Rico Verhoeven was beaten and eliminated by Laschenko in qualifiers few months earlier. That is not weaker title in analogy than any UFC title won by Couture, Sylvia, Arlovski...

After all, Cro Cop did not bught that belts in WallMart, those organisations gave it to him as a symbol of championship.

 

[AfroBanana]

I think both men are great, I just think style wise, Poatan's style would do Crocop's in.

But if its in the cage and Mirko has him against the fence and uses elbows, he could win with that

Yea this for sure. I think on the feet style wise Poatan has the advantage but when you factor in other elements of mma Crocop has other paths to victory. A straight kickboxing match in mma gloves I’m taking Poatan and I’m a huge CC fan who could easily let nostalgia cloud my judgement.