All-Star Final Four Culminate PRIDE Grand Prix
Filipovic-Silva
Sep 7, 2006
Mirko Filipovic
(Pictures) vs. Wanderlei Silva (Pictures)
FILIPOVIC: 6’ 2”, 213 pounds, 31, Croatia, known as “Cro Cop”
BACKGROUND: Mirko
Filipovic (Pictures) was a Croatian Special Forces
officer. He is a former I.K.B.F. world heavyweight full contact
champion, K-1 Grand Prix ’99 finalist and a K-1 World Grand Prix
2000 in Fukuoka finalist.
Filipovic trains with Rodrigo Artilheiro, Igor Kolakusic, Igor Pokrajac and the rest of the Cro Cop Squad Gym. He is 19-4-2 in MMA.
PRIDE EXPERIENCE: 16-4-2. Filipovic faced current PRIDE General Director Nobuhiko Takada (Pictures) at PRIDE 17 and went the distance for an automatic draw. He battled PFC middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) at PRIDE 20 and rules stipulated quick stand-ups. Also, if there was no outcome before the final bell, the bout would be ruled an automatic draw, which is exactly what happened. However, Silva would’ve won easily had it been under full MMA rules.
Filipovic took on Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) under full PRIDE rules and broke the legend’s orbital bone, forcing a halt to the match in the second round. Mirko then beat Fujita again in a boring rematch and faced top heavyweight contender Heath Herring (Pictures) at PRIDE 26. Herring looked overwhelmed and was stopped with strikes in the first round.
“Cro Cop” went on a 4-1 run, knocking out Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures), Ron Waterman (Pictures), Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Pictures) and Dos Caras Jr. (Pictures) His only loss came against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) at the PRIDE Final Conflict show. Mirko fought well in the first round but was submitted early in the second and lost his bid for the PRIDE interim heavyweight title.
He fought Kevin Randleman (Pictures) in the opening round of the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament and lost by stunning KO to the wrestler. An unimpressive decision win over Hiromitsu Kanehara (Pictures) was followed with a pair of consecutive knockouts over Shungo Oyama (Pictures) and Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures).
Mirko scored a freak submission win over Josh Barnett (Pictures) when the American injured his shoulder at PRIDE 28. At the ‘04 New Year’s Eve show, Filipovic exacted his revenge over Randleman and submitted the wrestler via guillotine choke early in the first round. Riding high on the strength of five straight victories (two by KO), Mirko knocked out former UFC and PRIDE GP champion Mark Coleman (Pictures) in the first round.
Moving a step closer to a showdown with heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), Mirko stopped Ibragim Magomedov (Pictures) with a kick to the body at Critical Countdown ’05. The title fight was finally set and despite an improved all-around game, Filipovic could not beat Fedor, who retrained his title via unanimous decision.
The rematch with Barnett took place at PRIDE 30 with “Cro Cop” taking a unanimous decision from an uninspired “Baby-Faced Assassin.”
Mark Hunt (Pictures) took a decision over Mirko last New Year’s and it took Filipovic five months to regroup. He returned to eliminate Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) in just over a minute and then picked apart judo Olympian Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) with leg kicks at Critical Countdown in July to advance to the semifinals.
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: Mirko is a striker with deadly accuracy. The left roundhouse kick has been the kiss of death for a numerous fighters in PRIDE and the K-1. He put in the time to learn the ground and though he’ll likely never be a submission master — Why bother when you can hit like that? — his fight game has come full circle.
He also has a mean streak that often over flows to full blown arrogance. Look at the Yoshida fight and see how he toys with the Olympian before finishing him.
SILVA: 5’ 11”, 210 pounds, 30, Parana, Brazil, known as “The Axe Murderer”
BACKGROUND: Silva is a Muay Thai fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt out of the Chute Boxe Academy. He is both the current PRIDE 205-pound champion and the winner of the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix. Wanderlei won an International Vale Tudo Championship title at IVC 6 and has a professional MMA record of 31-5-1 (1 NC).
MMA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Silva began fighting MMA in Brazil at local shows in 1996. He battled fellow Brazilians in his first two bouts and then began dropping American imports like Mike Van Arsdale (Pictures), Adrian Serrano (Pictures) and Eugene Jackson (Pictures). Wanderlei suffered his first loss by cut stoppage in an absolute war against Artur Mariano at IVC 2.
He made three appearances in the UFC (1-2) including a loss by knockout to Vitor Belfort (Pictures) in Ultimate Brazil and a loss by decision to former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz (Pictures) at UFC 25/Japan 3, where he failed to capture the vacant UFC 205-pound title. He also showed no mercy with Todd Medina (Pictures), knocking out the UFC veteran in just 40 seconds at MECA 2.
PRIDE EXPERIENCE: 22-2-1 (1 NC). In 2000 Wanderlei made a semi-permanent move to PRIDE and has since battled the organization’s top competition. He took decisions over Daijiro Matsui (Pictures) and Carl Malenko and blew through Bob Schrijber (Pictures) during the first five months with the promotion. Silva punished Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) on three occasions.
Lion’s Den fighter Guy Mezger (Pictures) was knocked out (with help from a head butt) at PRIDE 10 and we missed out on what could’ve been an absolute war at PRIDE 11 when Silva accidentally hit Gilbert Yvel (Pictures) in the groin, resulting in a No Contest.
Dan Henderson (Pictures) gave Silva one of his best challenges to date at PRIDE 12. After the decision win for Silva, some felt the Brazilian’s camp allowed him to take it easy for a while and pad his record.
After drawing with “Cro Cop” and defeating Sakuraba for a third time, he toppled both Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) and American Quinton Jackson (Pictures) in one night at the “Final Conflict” ’03 show.
Wanderlei continued his winning ways, knocking out his next three opponents (Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures), Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and Jackson for a second time) before the proposed fourth match with Sakuraba. But just days before, Sakuraba (a 185-pound submission wrestler) dropped out due to injury and Mark Hunt (Pictures) (a 250-pound K-1 champion) stepped in.
Silva took the bout anyway and lost a questionable split decision. The Middleweight Grand Prix tournament began in April of 2005 and Silva was dealt a rematch with Yoshida in the opening round. The judo champion proved to be an even more formidable opponent than the first time they met in the ring.
Silva won a split decision and went on to face Yoshida disciple Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures). Kazuhiro gave Silva a battle but he made a poor decision and got caught in transition.
The “Final Conflict” ’05 show brought the challenge of Ricardo Arona (Pictures). Silva seemed off his game and was controlled by “The Brazilian Tiger” in taking his first loss at 205 pounds in five years.
He came back to win a decision over Arona at PRIDE Shockwave 2005. Silva advanced to Sunday’s Open-Weight tournament semifinals with a TKO stoppage of Japanese heavyweight Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures).
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: He is a complete package. There was a time when the popular opinion was that Silva had limited ground skills. He dispelled that myth when he played the ground game with Yoshida for two rounds and punished “Rampage” Jackson in the same night.
Wanderlei is tenacious in the ring. He hunts his prey and will always work to finish his opponent on the feet. Soccer kicks and haymaker punches are part of Silva’s arsenal. He still has a tendency to try to walk through his opponent’s punches and has paid for it in the past. You’d be hard pressed to find a fighter who dedicates himself more to his craft and gets the crowd into the sport.
MY PICK: Silva.
Granted the first bout between Silva and Filipovic ended in a draw, but Silva dominated that bout. Both fighters have matured and expanded their arsenals in the four years since that fight, but Wanderlei still has the best overall fight game.
Unlike the first bout, this fight will take place under full PRIDE rules and it will go to the ground. Another difference: it is unlikely Silva will keep it standing longer than he has to and he won’t try to walk through any of Mirko’s punches.
Filipovic has battled big strikers but Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) would be the closest comparison to Silva’s style and even the Russian doesn’t kick or use knees in the clinch like Wanderlei.
Silva fought Hunt on two weeks notice and should’ve won that fight. He knows he can compete with heavyweights. “Cro Cop” has the edge in height and weight but Silva walks in with the mental edge from the previous meeting and the confidence his ground game is superior to the Croatian striker. Silva by TKO from strikes on the mat.
FILIPOVIC: 6’ 2”, 213 pounds, 31, Croatia, known as “Cro Cop”
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Filipovic trains with Rodrigo Artilheiro, Igor Kolakusic, Igor Pokrajac and the rest of the Cro Cop Squad Gym. He is 19-4-2 in MMA.
MMA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Mirko made the move from K-1 kickboxing to
mixed martial arts in 2001 and debuted against Antonio Inoki
disciple Kazuyuki Fujita
(Pictures) at the K-1 Andy Hug
Memorial in Japan. He faced Fujita again on the following year’s
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, beating the Japanese wrestler by decision. In his
only other venture outside PRIDE, Filipovic defeated Yuji Nagata at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2001
with strikes in just 21 seconds.
PRIDE EXPERIENCE: 16-4-2. Filipovic faced current PRIDE General Director Nobuhiko Takada (Pictures) at PRIDE 17 and went the distance for an automatic draw. He battled PFC middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) at PRIDE 20 and rules stipulated quick stand-ups. Also, if there was no outcome before the final bell, the bout would be ruled an automatic draw, which is exactly what happened. However, Silva would’ve won easily had it been under full MMA rules.
Filipovic took on Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) under full PRIDE rules and broke the legend’s orbital bone, forcing a halt to the match in the second round. Mirko then beat Fujita again in a boring rematch and faced top heavyweight contender Heath Herring (Pictures) at PRIDE 26. Herring looked overwhelmed and was stopped with strikes in the first round.
“Cro Cop” went on a 4-1 run, knocking out Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures), Ron Waterman (Pictures), Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Pictures) and Dos Caras Jr. (Pictures) His only loss came against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) at the PRIDE Final Conflict show. Mirko fought well in the first round but was submitted early in the second and lost his bid for the PRIDE interim heavyweight title.
He fought Kevin Randleman (Pictures) in the opening round of the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament and lost by stunning KO to the wrestler. An unimpressive decision win over Hiromitsu Kanehara (Pictures) was followed with a pair of consecutive knockouts over Shungo Oyama (Pictures) and Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures).
Mirko scored a freak submission win over Josh Barnett (Pictures) when the American injured his shoulder at PRIDE 28. At the ‘04 New Year’s Eve show, Filipovic exacted his revenge over Randleman and submitted the wrestler via guillotine choke early in the first round. Riding high on the strength of five straight victories (two by KO), Mirko knocked out former UFC and PRIDE GP champion Mark Coleman (Pictures) in the first round.
Moving a step closer to a showdown with heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), Mirko stopped Ibragim Magomedov (Pictures) with a kick to the body at Critical Countdown ’05. The title fight was finally set and despite an improved all-around game, Filipovic could not beat Fedor, who retrained his title via unanimous decision.
The rematch with Barnett took place at PRIDE 30 with “Cro Cop” taking a unanimous decision from an uninspired “Baby-Faced Assassin.”
Mark Hunt (Pictures) took a decision over Mirko last New Year’s and it took Filipovic five months to regroup. He returned to eliminate Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) in just over a minute and then picked apart judo Olympian Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) with leg kicks at Critical Countdown in July to advance to the semifinals.
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: Mirko is a striker with deadly accuracy. The left roundhouse kick has been the kiss of death for a numerous fighters in PRIDE and the K-1. He put in the time to learn the ground and though he’ll likely never be a submission master — Why bother when you can hit like that? — his fight game has come full circle.
He also has a mean streak that often over flows to full blown arrogance. Look at the Yoshida fight and see how he toys with the Olympian before finishing him.
SILVA: 5’ 11”, 210 pounds, 30, Parana, Brazil, known as “The Axe Murderer”
BACKGROUND: Silva is a Muay Thai fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt out of the Chute Boxe Academy. He is both the current PRIDE 205-pound champion and the winner of the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix. Wanderlei won an International Vale Tudo Championship title at IVC 6 and has a professional MMA record of 31-5-1 (1 NC).
MMA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Silva began fighting MMA in Brazil at local shows in 1996. He battled fellow Brazilians in his first two bouts and then began dropping American imports like Mike Van Arsdale (Pictures), Adrian Serrano (Pictures) and Eugene Jackson (Pictures). Wanderlei suffered his first loss by cut stoppage in an absolute war against Artur Mariano at IVC 2.
He made three appearances in the UFC (1-2) including a loss by knockout to Vitor Belfort (Pictures) in Ultimate Brazil and a loss by decision to former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz (Pictures) at UFC 25/Japan 3, where he failed to capture the vacant UFC 205-pound title. He also showed no mercy with Todd Medina (Pictures), knocking out the UFC veteran in just 40 seconds at MECA 2.
PRIDE EXPERIENCE: 22-2-1 (1 NC). In 2000 Wanderlei made a semi-permanent move to PRIDE and has since battled the organization’s top competition. He took decisions over Daijiro Matsui (Pictures) and Carl Malenko and blew through Bob Schrijber (Pictures) during the first five months with the promotion. Silva punished Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) on three occasions.
Lion’s Den fighter Guy Mezger (Pictures) was knocked out (with help from a head butt) at PRIDE 10 and we missed out on what could’ve been an absolute war at PRIDE 11 when Silva accidentally hit Gilbert Yvel (Pictures) in the groin, resulting in a No Contest.
Dan Henderson (Pictures) gave Silva one of his best challenges to date at PRIDE 12. After the decision win for Silva, some felt the Brazilian’s camp allowed him to take it easy for a while and pad his record.
After drawing with “Cro Cop” and defeating Sakuraba for a third time, he toppled both Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) and American Quinton Jackson (Pictures) in one night at the “Final Conflict” ’03 show.
Wanderlei continued his winning ways, knocking out his next three opponents (Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures), Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and Jackson for a second time) before the proposed fourth match with Sakuraba. But just days before, Sakuraba (a 185-pound submission wrestler) dropped out due to injury and Mark Hunt (Pictures) (a 250-pound K-1 champion) stepped in.
Silva took the bout anyway and lost a questionable split decision. The Middleweight Grand Prix tournament began in April of 2005 and Silva was dealt a rematch with Yoshida in the opening round. The judo champion proved to be an even more formidable opponent than the first time they met in the ring.
Silva won a split decision and went on to face Yoshida disciple Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures). Kazuhiro gave Silva a battle but he made a poor decision and got caught in transition.
The “Final Conflict” ’05 show brought the challenge of Ricardo Arona (Pictures). Silva seemed off his game and was controlled by “The Brazilian Tiger” in taking his first loss at 205 pounds in five years.
He came back to win a decision over Arona at PRIDE Shockwave 2005. Silva advanced to Sunday’s Open-Weight tournament semifinals with a TKO stoppage of Japanese heavyweight Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures).
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: He is a complete package. There was a time when the popular opinion was that Silva had limited ground skills. He dispelled that myth when he played the ground game with Yoshida for two rounds and punished “Rampage” Jackson in the same night.
Wanderlei is tenacious in the ring. He hunts his prey and will always work to finish his opponent on the feet. Soccer kicks and haymaker punches are part of Silva’s arsenal. He still has a tendency to try to walk through his opponent’s punches and has paid for it in the past. You’d be hard pressed to find a fighter who dedicates himself more to his craft and gets the crowd into the sport.
MY PICK: Silva.
Granted the first bout between Silva and Filipovic ended in a draw, but Silva dominated that bout. Both fighters have matured and expanded their arsenals in the four years since that fight, but Wanderlei still has the best overall fight game.
Unlike the first bout, this fight will take place under full PRIDE rules and it will go to the ground. Another difference: it is unlikely Silva will keep it standing longer than he has to and he won’t try to walk through any of Mirko’s punches.
Filipovic has battled big strikers but Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) would be the closest comparison to Silva’s style and even the Russian doesn’t kick or use knees in the clinch like Wanderlei.
Silva fought Hunt on two weeks notice and should’ve won that fight. He knows he can compete with heavyweights. “Cro Cop” has the edge in height and weight but Silva walks in with the mental edge from the previous meeting and the confidence his ground game is superior to the Croatian striker. Silva by TKO from strikes on the mat.
