Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and PRIDE FC heavyweight Mirko Filipovic was struggling to keep himself in the win column overseas, so the aging striker will put his mixed martial arts (MMA) career on hold as he heads back to his roots.
"Cro Cop" will return to kickboxing under the GLORY banner and is expected to make his in-ring debut in a headlining affair against an opponent to be named on March 8, 2014 in his hometown of Zagreb, Croatia.
After a brief hiatus, Filipovic, 39, got back into the stand-up game earlier this year, winning the K-1 2013 World Grand Prix Tournament by turning away Ismael Londt (details). The victory ended a quest that began as a runner-up in the prestigious tournament in 1999, where he lost to kickboxing legend Ernesto Hoost.
And the competition hasn't gotten any easier.
The good news is, the former PRIDE 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion can abandon the ground game, which cost him a victory against Alexey Oleinik earlier this month in Moscow (GIF). It also cost him his friendship with Fedor Emelianenko, thanks to these comments.
GLORY will undoubtedly reveal more details during tomorrow night's GLORY 12 event on Spike TV in New York (details), which you can tune in and watch it by clicking here.
In the meantime, win some free GLORY swag here.
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