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Mirko"CroCop" Filipović (September 10, 1974 - ) is a Croatian kickboxer turned mixed martial artist, arguably the only martial artist in the world who has been highly successful in fighting both under K-1 kickboxing rules and the MMA Pride Fighting Championships rules.
Mirko Filipovic on K-1 ring. Biography
Kickboxing career
Filipović started his professional career in 1996 as a kickboxer, following the footsteps of his compatriot Branko Cikatić. At the time, Filipović was working as a commando in the Croatian police anti-terrorist unit Alpha (stationed in Lučko near Zagreb), which earned him his nickname CroCop (he also fought several times early in his career under the nickname Tiger).
His biggest success in kickboxing was the 1999 K-1 Grand Prix. Filipović made it to the final, where he was stopped by Ernesto Hoost - major factor in that loss being a broken rib sustained in the semi-final match.
Switching to PRIDE
In 2001, Filipović began his switch to fighting under Pride rules, citing personal challenge, as well as dissatisfaction with K-1 salaries. A year later, he also left his job at the anti-terrorist unit in order to focus fully on his martial arts career. Since then, Filipović maintained a comparably low kickboxing profile, but nevertheless scored some impressive K-1 victories, most notably against Mark Hunt in March 2002 (unanimous decision), Remy Bonjasky in July 2002 (2nd round TKO), and Bob Sapp in April 2003 (1st round KO).
Meanwhile, his string of equally impressive PRIDE wins secured him a chance to fight for the World Champion title against Minotauro in November 2003. Filipović's stand-up fighting skills worked very well against Minotauro, putting him on the brink of defeat by the end of the first round; however, Minotauro's skill and Houdini-like resilience prevailed, and Filipović succumbed to an arm-lock maneuver early in the second round.
In 2004, Filipović put his K-1 career completely on hold, and recruited Fabrizio Werdum (a Brazilian jujutsu expert and former World Champion) as his coach, working hard on improving his ground fighting skills, previously his major weakness in the Pride ring. As of early 2005, he appears to be a nearly certain candidate for another World Champion title fight, this time against Fedor Emelianenko.
In November 2003, Filipović ran as a non-party candidate on the Social Democratic Party list in parliamentary elections and attained a seat in the Croatian Parliament. He is currently living in Zagreb with his wife and son.
See also
External link
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