Mirko Cro Cop’s last left high kick, ever
On May 5, 2006, at Pride’s 2006 Open-Weight Grand Prix, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic won the first match at the…
On May 5, 2006, at Pride’s 2006 Open-Weight Grand Prix, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic won the first match at the Pride Total Elimination Absolute, KOing Ikuhisa Minowa. At that event he also coined a phrase that would stick – “Right leg, hospital; left leg, cemetery.”
On July 1, 2006 at Pride Critical Countdown Absolute, Filipovi? used those legs to defeat 1992 Olympic judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida in the first round, and moved on to the semi-finals.
On September 10, 2006, Filipovi? knocked out then-Pride middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva with a left high kick, and won a victory over Josh Barnett, who submitted after sustaining an eye injury.
It was the high point of an extraordinary career.
He went on from there to the UFC, eventually going a respectable 4-6.
But Cro Cop was not a ‘respectable’ fighter, he was absolutely extraordinary, a proud Coratian credit to his race, the human race.
With his retirment, the kick below is in all likelihood the last left high kick Cro Cop will throw in competition.
The kick above maybe does not do justice to Cro Cop’s mind blowing skills. Check out the highlight video below to see what “Right leg, hospital; left leg, cemetery” really meant.
