A minor knee injury sustained by Mirko Cro Cop during
training has forced the postponement of his DREAM.4 fight with French kickboxer
Jerome Lebanner. While not particularly
serious, Cro Cop has been wearing a brace and wrap on his injured knee. He should be able to resume training within
the next week or two and the fight has been moved to July 20th on
the DREAM.5 show in Osaka.
Cro Cop returned to Japan after a disappointing and injury
plagued three fight run in the UFC.
After winning his first fight against game Eddie Sanchez, the Croatian
striking sensation dropped his next two bouts—a thunderous KO to Gabriel
Gonzaga followed by a listless decision defeat to Chiek Kongo. While Cro Cop’s
handlers had a number of theories for their fighter’s struggles including
discomfort in the UFC cage, eventually he had surgery to repair some sort of
nasal problem that hampered his breathing.
After taking some time to recover from his medical procedure he worked
out a deal with Zuffa brass that facilitated his return to fighting in Japan.
The hope is that a return to fighting in a ring in front of
adoring fans (Cro Cop is arguably the most popular foreign MMA fighter in
Japan) would help spark a return to the form that saw him looking dominant in
winning the PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix in late 2006. His performance in the semi-finals and finals
of that event saw him dispatch Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett via stoppage in
the same night and had many suggesting that he may have supplanted Fedor
Emelianenko as the sport’s top heavyweight.
Cro Cop’s first fight on his return to Japan took place on
DREAM.1 where he easily defeated overmatched Tatsuya Mizuno by early 1st
round KO. Mizuno wasn’t named as his
opponent until a few days prior to the fight and after deals with several
higher profile fighters failed to materialize for one reason or another. Despite the easy victory and assurances that
the “old” Mirko was back, the real test will come as he steps up in class.
The Croatian sports media initially reported the story and
our translator has provided a brief conversation with Cro Cop:
"Everything is
alright, I only hyper extended ligaments, nothing is broken. In two weeks I’ll
return to sparing, but for now I’m working on strength training and other
things." He explains that he got the injury after falling and landing on
his knee. He expected to fight at DREAM 4 but the fight has been postponed to
20 July. (Translated from Croatian news website Index.HR)
For the DREAM promotion it could be a blessing in
disguise. Due to the postponement of
Shinya Aoki’s second round bout in the Lightweight GP tournament they
originally had, in essence, two main events for the June 16th
DREAM.4 show. The postponement allows
the promotion to guarantee a DREAM.5 main event that will generate significant fan
and media interest.
Thanks to our Croatian
translator Edo for his assistance with this story
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