jimufctna24 Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 From Twitter: Quote Cro Cop has just been on Croatian TV and has announced his retirement . He suffered a stroke last week and has been in hospital for the past few days, soon he will be writing on his Facebook a longer status and explain more. This is sad news for all Cro Cop fans An online friend I have from Croatia has confirmed that the Tweet is accurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 1, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2019 Yeh, looks like its true. Really sad to hear about the stroke, sounds like he's going to be ok though. His career just seemed to never end and he's still in decent form which is pretty incredible given his run. Crocop has basically been around since i became a fan back in the early 00's, just an amazing journey to follow. What a beast. i may have to start a Mirko appreciation thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 2, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 2, 2019 That’s really a shame to hear. Sadly, it’s probably the only way he was going to actually fully retire and stick to it. He was hinting at retirement anyway and even before the Nelson fight the other week he was asked how long he planned to keep going and said something like ‘I take it one fight at a time these days’. But I think he’s so much of a warrior and a competitor that there’d always have been another fight that appealed to him. This has just forced his hand and in a fucked up way might actually be a blessing in disguise because he can recover from something like this and live a healthy and normal life but it also means he’ll never be able to come back and fight again. Another positive to take from it is that he went out on a really nice winning streak. Avenged a few of his losses and won both K-1 and Rizin tournaments. If it was left up to him to call time on his career you just know he wouldn’t have walked away while he was winning, he’d have no doubt carried on and went out on some bad KO losses. So there are some silver linings to take from this. He’d done more than enough and had absolutely zero left to prove as a fighter. A proper legend who fully deserves to go in the UFC Hall Of Fame. So what if his stints there weren’t all that, he deserves it for his complete body of work and what he’s given for the sport in the same way Sakuraba did. I’d love to see him inducted in July. So yeah. I’m not a religious person at all but if there is a God, this is surely his way of telling Mirko to relax, have a well deserved rest and just enjoy time with his family. It’ll be hard for him though, because he’s always had a fight booked to focus on. For a guy like Cro Cop this probably won’t be too dissimilar to a military vet having to adjust back to civilian life. But as unfortunate as this news is now, in the long run it’s probably saved him from himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 MMAJunkie reporting that Jose Aldo vs Alexander Volkanovski has been added to UFC 137 in May in Brazil. Great fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 Some more information on the Matt Hughes restraining order story... Quote A restraining order filed by Matt Hughes’ estranged wife, Audra Hughes, details specific incidents of alleged abuse. According to documents obtained by MMA Junkie, two of the incidents were were instigated by text messages with other women, Audra Hughes said in a handwritten statement. She alleges her husband first became abusive in September or October of 2017. She said he choked her after she wouldn’t give him the keys to his truck. “I was in the shower and he opened the shower and choked me,” she wrote. “Then he asked for the code to his gun vault and I said, ‘You just choked me. Do you think I’m going to give you the code?’ “He opened the shower door again and started choking me and he smashed my head against the shower and said, ‘This is what choking is!'” Matt Hughes, 45, has denied abusing his estranged wife. In a statement released this past Wednesday, he said a traumatic brain injury he suffered in June 2017 was devastating and left him “a burden to those around me.” He asked for prayers from his supporters. Audra Hughes alleges two other incidents of abuse. She wrote that in July 2018, he told her, “I’m going to (expletive) shoot you!” after she took his cell phone for texting with other women. Five months later, she said she confronted him about texting other women in front of her son, their daughter and her stepfather. “He hit me,” she wrote. “(My stepfather Alan) said, ‘Don’t lay another finger on her.’ He looked at Alan and grabbed my hand and tried to pull me closer to him. Alan told him to get his phone and leave. Alan and I followed him outside to make sure he didn’t do anything to our vehicles.” Audra Hughes was granted the restraining order this past December. On Feb. 26, it was extended until May. Matt Hughes filed for divorce five days earlier, citing irreconcilable differences and requesting joint custody of their two children. He is required to stay 500 feet away from his wife and two daughters. A copy of the actual document can be seen here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 still Hughes related, but was it ever explained to how his truck actually got hit by a train? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Meltzer's saying he's hearing rumours of Johnny Walker being booked against Gustafsson in June, in Sweden. That's a crazily risky piece of business if that ends up being the case, with little upside. Either Gusty wins and knocks off your hot new contender, whilst not being able to challenge Jones again himself, or Walker wins a fight that he didn't need to win in the first place in order to get a crack at the title. Whilst it kills off Gustafsson in front of his home town crowd. Walker should fight again though before Jones, and he can't really go backwards, but it needs to be a fight that you're happy with either outcome whatever happens (even if Walker winning is the most preferable of any outcome, no matter who it is he is fighting). What do you do with Black Label next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 BJ Penn/Clay Guida being targeted for UFC 237 in Brazil, why?? I dont think ive ever wanted a veteran to retire as much as i have BJ Penn, the guy is a beyond a shell of his former self. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Fuck me. Proper 2008 fight that. BJ’s never going to retire. They’ll be wheeling him out when he’s 85. Funny how Dana’s cool with BJ Penn fighting years past the point he should’ve been but Oscar De La Hoya’s the biggest piece of shit going for letting Chuck Liddell fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 Aye, Penn should have called it a day a long time ago. His attempts at salvaging the years he wasted of his prime have not been fruitful. I doubt he's fighting for the money given his wealthy background. Obviously, his health is the primary concern. However, it irks me that a lot of fans will have only seen this version of Penn. He was always a flawed fighter. He half-arsed his prime, lost several fights he should have handily won, and spent lengthy periods in the wilderness. He was his own biggest fan as well. But he was an utter marvel in his prime. For example, BJ had the number of a prime Matt Hughes. He would have gone 2-0 over a peak version of Hughes had the first round of their rematch been a bit longer. He had a submission locked in and Hughes was seemingly saved by the bell (Penn's gas-tank then betrayed him as usual). He was also by far the best lightweight the UFC ever had until Edgar turned over his apple-cart in August of 2010. I remember a few experts even rating him as a better fighter than Anderson in the late 2000s. It wasn't unreasonable to make such assertions back then. Yet, he's been shit for so long now, that it's easy for some to forget he was ever that good. He has 1 win in his last 11 bouts, spanning back to 2010. It is now 5 years ago since he looked like a zombie in his needless third fight with Edgar. It's a sad state of affairs that he's still at it in 2019. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chunk Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Penn will get absolutely spanked in that fight. The difference in speed and power is scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 6, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2019 Speaking of fighters who were relevant a decade or so ago, I was just arsing about on Wikipedia and ended up looking up Tyson Griffin. Turns out he actually came back and fought in August last year and won by decision. He hadn’t fought since 2014 previously, and hadn’t won a fight since 2012! He’s still only 34 now. Can’t see him making a splash now but he was one of my favourite fighters for a bit and played a role in the lightweight division getting hot again in 2007 and beyond. His fights that year with Frankie Edgar, Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares are absolute classics and pretty much forgotten ones now sadly. Griffin was a legitimate prospect at the time and you’d have been forgiven for thinking he had more upside than Edgar, Guida etc back then. Mad to think now but back in 2008 I think most thought the likely future champions/stars at 155 would be Roger Huerta and Tyson Griffin. How quickly they fizzled out though. And Frankie Edgar is still going strong all these years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 7, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2019 yeh, Griffin's career nosedived in spectacular fashion. He was the most exciting fighter in the UFC for a short time though. Didnt he have issues with booze? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 A lot of emergent talent from 2006-2007 failed to live up to the hype. Brandon Vera, Houston Alexander, Sokudoju, Tyson Griffin, Paulo Filho, etc. It was a weird time in that regard. I fondly remember Griffin's fights with Guida and Edgar. Griffin looked beatable in those barnburners and that hurt his aura a bit. He had a lot to live up to. Before those fights, the word was that Griffin was an absolute beast. The knockout of Faber in particular was a message board favourite. Mind you, he notched up three wins after the Guida fight before losing to Sherk. So perhaps he did restore his aura for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 10 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: Speaking of fighters who were relevant a decade or so ago, I was just arsing about on Wikipedia and ended up looking up Tyson Griffin. Turns out he actually came back and fought in August last year and won by decision. He hadn’t fought since 2014 previously, and hadn’t won a fight since 2012! He’s still only 34 now. Yeah, I think he's what those in the industry would call an old 34 year old. You look back at his 24 fights, which took place over 10 years and you see 8 losses with a couple of pretty bad stoppages if I recall correctly. He fought some pretty high level guys too. Also sure I read somewhere that he was making more money with a holistic health business and a fitness coaching business than he was from actually fighting. If you can make more money from something that doesn't involve you getting punched in the head it has to be considered a good thing I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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