MMA Legend Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic Announces Retirement

One of the toughest fighters and most feared strikers in the brief history of mixed martial arts has announced his retirement. Earlier today, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic announced his retirement on the Nova television network in his native Croatia. ‘Cro Cop’ said that he suffered a minor stroke following his victory over Roy Nelson at Bellator 216 last month. He’s expected to make a full recovery and the stroke should have no long term impact on his health but his doctors advised him to quit fighting due to the risk of further blows to the head.

Cro Cop put it succinctly:

“I was very lucky. I must not take punches to the head ever again. “I will never enter the ring again. I cannot let someone hit me.”

Cro Cop said that the stroke wasn’t caused from fighting but from an unrelated neck issue that had been bothering him for several months prior to the Roy Nelson bout:

“It’s over, I hope I will not cry, but that is it. Next is inevitable retirement. I had a stroke and had bleeding on the brain. I got out of the hospital today and that’s why I wanted to come here to show people I feel good, I had incredible luck with the stroke, the leak could have gone left and right. I had a vein discomfort, it burst from mechanical stimulus. This had nothing to do with fighting, just the neck was overloaded.”

The prognosis for Cro Cop is very optimistic provided that he refrain from training or physical contact for three months while he undergoes a regimen of medication. After that, he’ll likely be able to train but he’s not the least bit equivocal about his retirement.

Cro Cop elaborated on his TV comments with a note to his fans via Instagram. His comments translated from Croatian included:

“This is a warning I took seriously. I thank you all who followed me during my career and were with me and in victories and in defeat. I’ve had a rich and very long career and I really have no regrets. Thank you all.”

Cro Cop’s nickname came from his previous career as a Croatian special forces police officer. He also served in the country’s parliament for five years.

Following his win in the 2006 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix a compelling case could be made that Cro Cop was the baddest man on the planet. On the final night of the tournament he defeated both Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett by stoppage. He continued to fight effectively for years after this, however, and was on a 10 fight winning streak at the time of his retirement. In addition to his PRIDE Open Weight GP win he was the winner of the 2012 K-1 Kickboxing World Grand Prix and the 2016 Rizin Open Weight Grand Prix.