Mirko Cro Cop Returns to UFC Action, Headlines UFC 119 Against Frank Mir

I remember having a conversation in the late summer of 2005 with a friend of mine walking to our cars from class, this was where I presented my theory of how UFC would have to book Andrei Arlovski as Heavyweight Champion, as he was clearly unbeatable. At the time, Arlovski was running roughshod over a rather thin Heavyweight division when we all knew that Heavyweight MMA only really mattered in PRIDE. My theory was that UFC should just put Arlovski in the ring and call in any man that believes that he can defeat Arlovski, if they win they get the belt and a million dollar purse. Just sign a waiver, step into the ring and get destroyed. Maybe Arlovski could run a gauntlet in one night of the entire division of lummoxes and call it a day?

He then said that he'd like to see Frank Mir come back and that Frank Mir's grappling would be able to counteract Arlovski's striking. I scoffed at the concept, claiming Mir couldn't even get Andrei to the ground, and if he did, Arlovski had a solid sambo background. This brought us to talking about the impending battle between Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop, which in a way was just a better version of a possible Arlovski vs. Mir. We started mixing and matching between the four, and what it came down to is nobody could beat Fedor, obviously, but I'd love to see Cro Cop kick Mir's head in, and my friend wanted to see Mir choke Cro Cop out. Fedor vs. Cro Cop was incredible and we never got Arlovski vs. Mir.

Apparently, though, we will get Mir vs. Cro Cop handed to us at UFC 119. The how and why are foggy beyond the fact that Antonio Minotauro Nogueira has a knee injury and had to pull out from the rematch we all wanted to see between him and Mir. Somehow, Mirko Cro Cop is stepping into the main event slot against Mir and one of the cooler "what if" fights from 2005 is happening. Of course, it is five years later and while I'm confident that Mir is better than he was back then, I'm not certain if Cro Cop is. Cro Cop really pieced together the missing skills that he needed to be successful in MMA, but something hasn't been right in the past few years. The Anthony Perosh win really didn't dazzle many fans and the Pat Barry win was a solid affair if you consider Barry's body imploding on itself in the first round. Here's hoping that Cro Cop brings his A-game and the fight we finally get to see, five years later, can live up to the expectations of 2005.