• View topic - Cro Cop, Pat Barry’s Gatekeeper/Stepping Stone?

UFC 115: Is Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic Pat Barry’s Gatekeeper/Stepping Stone?

Recent UFC heavyweight up-and-comer Pat “HD” Barry announced Friday on MMA Scraps Radio, a show which he regularly co-hosts, that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will be the next to feel the wrath of HD (“Hype or Die”) Barry

The fight will be featured at the upcoming UFC 115 event scheduled for June 12 at the GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, here in Canada.

Barry is a former world-class kickboxer for the Japanese promotion K-1, and he thrilled fans in his most recent outing and established himself as possible future threat among the new UFC heavyweight contenders.

The fight was against a much bigger and more experienced Antoni Hardonk at UFC 104 in October, and the 5′11″, 230-pound Barry effectively silenced those critics who questioned his size disadvantage when he courageously stood toe-to-toe and traded bombs with Hardonk.

And, much to this writer’s surprise, also got the better of those exchanges.

Although he had to absorb bone-numbing kicks from Hardonk in the first round, Barry’s accurate striking early in the second seemed to give the 30-year-old renewed confidence.

Sensing blood late in the second round, Barry started pouring it on, throwing powerful three-punch combinations, stunning, hurting, and dropping Hardonk before finally knocking him down and out for the final time.

For his winning efforts and the excellent display of boxing skills, he was awarded Knockout and Fight of the Night accolades.

So next up for Barry is Cro Cop, who is also a former top K-1 fighter; however, Filipovic is mostly renowned for his highlight-reel head kicks against subpar opponents in the lower-level and now-defunct Pride Fighting Championships promotion.

Unfortunately, or so it seems, Cro Cops “Pride FC hero” days are long gone, and his past success has not in any way been translated into today’s UFC Octagon.

Whether that is merely due to an increase in competition level or some other psychological factor is as yet an unknown and unreported variable.

Ironically, Cro Cop, in only his second fight in the UFC, became a highlight-reel himself when he was a victim of his own bad medicine, a brutal head kick knockout from Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist Gabe Gonzaga.

And though he has emerged victorious in his most recent outing at UFC 110, my opinion of Cro Cop—who has lost three of his six fights—is that he has been reduced to a mere UFC gatekeeper, or a stepping stone who lacks substance and has “name brand” value only.

I also feel that this is simply a “speed bump” for the catapulting young Barry, who—after this easy win—will certainly be back on the road to bigger and better challengers.

The main event for UFC 115 is scheduled to be another predicted droll meeting of TUF 11 coaches Chuck “Dancing with the Stars/Nude Workout” Liddell and “Huntington Beach Has-Been” Tito Ortiz.

via mmacrypt.com

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