Mirko Cro Cop Announces Retirement After Stroke

After 17 plus years as a professional MMA fighter, it would appear that Mirko Cro Cop’s career has come to an end.

The 44 year old Cro Cop recently appeared on Nova TV and announced his retirement from MMA competition.

Related Article

UFC 310 Predictions and Odds: Who Will Win the Fights?

“It’s over,” he said (via MMA Junkie). “I hope I’m not going to cry, but it’s the inevitable retirement.”

Cro Cop has fought the best of the best in the professional MMA world, including Kazuyuki Fujita, Yuji Nagata, Wanderlei Silva, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ron Waterman, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior Dos Santos, Pat Barry, Frank Mir, Brendan Schaub, Roy Nelson, Alexey Oleinik, Satoshi Ishii, King Mo and more.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragi prijatelji,zadnja borba je bila i moja posljednja borba.nekoliko puta sam najavljivao kraj pa se vracao jer je to bilo jace od mene ali sada je zaista kraj.u ponedjeljak na jutarnjem treningu dozivio sam mozdani udar.da ne duljim,imao sam ogromnu srecu da me nije paraliziralo ili deformiralo lice.danas sam izasao iz bolnice i osjecam se dobro,i nadam se da ce tako i ostati.liječničke upute i upozorenja sam shvatio vise nego ozbiljno i sada je ispred mene faza oporavka gdje moram biti vrlo discipliniran.nakon cca 3 mjeseca ukoliko magnetna rezonanca pokaze da je oporavak bio uspjesan moći cu nastaviti sa treninzima ali vise nikada necu smjeti sparirati i primati udarce u glavu jer bi to bilo prerizično a kamoli se boriti.ali sve je to zivot.ovo je upozorenje koje sam ozbiljno shvatio.zahvaljujem svima koji ste me pratili tokom moje karijere i bili uz mene i u pobjedama i u porazima.imao sam bogatu i jako dugu karijeru i zaista nemam žaliti za ičim.hvala svima

A post shared by Mirko Filipović (@crocop1009) on Mar 1, 2019 at 12:24pm PST

A now retired Cro Cop suffered a stroke after the second fight against the aforementioned Nelson, which forced the fighter into retirement.

“I will never enter the ring again,” he said. “I cannot let anyone hit me. I have to have (an MRI) in three months, (and) after that I will train again, boxing bags, but there is no such thing as a fight.”

Bellator 216 will go down as the final time Cro Cop competed in MMA, as he defeated Roy Nelson by decision in that now historic encounter.