Pound For Pound: Did CroCop Screw the UFC?

Sometimes, it’s not so cut-and-dried. Sometimes, neither is easy to like.

 

Case in point: The UFC’s recent public relations skirmish with Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic, where it’s hard to feel sympathetic for either party involved.

 

The UFC, a company long-known for using air-tight legal agreements and a virtual monopoly on the MMA industry to get fighters to do whatever it wants, broke with its own Draconian contract policy last weekend to give “CroCop” the opportunity to return the Octagon at UFC 99 with only a verbal agreement in place.

 

UFC President Dana White said he was taking the former PRIDE superstar at his word that he was interested in making a run at the UFC title and erasing the memory of his disappointing, abortive stay with the company back in 2007. They would sign a multi-fight deal at a later date, White.

 

“CroCop” jumped at the chance, showing up at the UFC’s first-ever event in Germany last Saturday just long enough to score a first-round TKO over lackluster opponent Mustafa al-Turk … then sneak out the proverbial back door before news broke that he’d already signed a three-fight deal with the DREAM organization in Japan.

 

"Isn't that a dirty fucking thing to do?" White griped at the post-fight presser. "He fucked me. The first time in the history of the company I do (a deal) over the phone. He promised me a three-fight deal and he fucked me."

 

If you’re having a difficult time feeling bad for White, you’re not alone.

 

Keep in mind, this is a guy who makes a habit out of voiding multi-fight contracts after a single loss, keeps the names of his failed competitors scrawled on a Styrofoam tombstone in his office and once fired one of his own best welterweights because the fighter balked at the idea of signing away lifetime rights to his likeness for a UFC video game.

 

White can try to play the jilted lover all he wants, but if “CroCop” had messed around and somehow lost to al-Turk, it would’ve been the UFC walking away from their “verbal agreement” and pretending like any thought of a longer contract had been one big goof.

 

In fact, seeing a fighter finally get over on the UFC in a business deal leaves me feeling a little warm inside. My one wish is that it was easier to cheer for Mirko “CroCop,” who doesn’t exactly come out of this mess looking like a moral champion, either.

 

Firstly, there’s the small fact that “CroCop” didn’t look at all impressive while dispatching the hopelessly overmatched al-Turk. Secondly, there’s the matter of the blatant eye-gouge he delivered to al-Turk just before ending the fight. Thirdly, the veteran fighter is starting to give me the idea he’s either a real snake or is just terribly confused.

 

“CroCop” first wouldn’t admit that he’d officially inked a deal with the Japan-based promotion, even after DREAM representatives confirmed the signing to USA Today earlier this week. Then he explained that he had in fact decided to bail on his agreement with the UFC because he didn’t think the American company would let him fight frequently enough.

 

Oh, and the eye poke? Totally al-Turk’s fault, according to “CroCop.”

 

“I literally brushed him,” Filipovic said on Wednesday in a translated interview. “It was more of pushing him away and he just ran in to it. I looked at the judge and he said to keep going. I'm here to fight, right? But there is not a chance that played an important role (in the end of the fight). He was nearly finished from my strikes before that.”

 

So, “CroCop” barely touched the guy? And the gouge that caused al-Turk to turn away and cover his face with his hands just before “CroCop” delivered the final blows was not important in the outcome of the fight? Hmmm …

 

There is another downside to this as well. Even though it feels good to see a fighter pull the rug out from under the UFC, I can’t imagine this incident is going to encourage White to be any less heavy-handed with his contracts or – for that matter – behave like any less of a paranoid reactionary in front of the media.

 

You probably won’t see the UFC handing out verbal agreements to fighters again. My advice is that the next guy who signs with the company read his contact very, very carefully.