Mir: ‘Cro Cop’ appears to have nerve damage
Fighters Only: Obviously this is going to be a very different fight to the one we saw with Pat Barry….
Fighters Only: Obviously this is going to be a very different fight to the one we saw with Pat Barry.
Frank Mir: Pat Barry is a phenomenal striker but the one thing he made a mistake on – and I understand that – is that he was very in admiration of CroCop and I think that pulled through to his fighting, his fight looked like a sparring match to me, like he tagged his buddy and he is laughing about it ‘hey come on guy, get up!’ There wasn’t that viciousness where you grab a hold of something and you don’t let go or you hit somebody, you follow them down and you finish them.
FO: What did you think of his rear naked choke at the end of that fight?
FM: The rear naked choke that he nailed on Pat Barry was not a good choke by anybody’s standards. He reached over the far side of the body, he didn’t secure the hips, he didn’t have any kind of control, he just reached for it desperate and grabbed it. Barry had a broken hand, broken foot and was fatigued. Pat Barry needs to improve his ground skills also, his ground skills are still… you know… improving.
FO: Can you break CroCop down for us?
FM: His kicks are still probably among his best, I think he still has a good straight left hand, I think his uppercut and his overhand, side-sweeping left hand are also very good. His right hand? I don’t know.
I’ve been studying a lot of tapes and at the very beginning of his career it seemed like around 04’ and 06’ there was maybe a bit of nerve damage in his arm. He started throwing less right hands and the structure of his right arm looks weak Just looking at it I can see maybe a bit of nerve damage, it could be a neck injury or whatnot.
So his left side is his better side but his right kick can still work very well. He is very good at sweeping away, moving away towards his left, he doesn’t favour the right too much. He is going to try and either get me to follow him and throw the kick, or if he hurts you he likes coming forward.
People think he is a guy who runs backwards but CroCop is dangerous if you back away from him. So even if he hurts me I am driving forward, we will clash like two bulls before I will back up and give him room for that head kick.
