Those who I mentioned fought in the battles and wars they were affiliated with. Even King Saladin and King Richard I. Hell, Richard was one of the few kings of England that was more known for his military accomplishments than his title and royal heritage. And, oddly enough, he didn’t speak a word of English (only French). Hell, Joan Of Ark HAD to fight on the front lines to prove herself because 1)she was a seventeen year-old girl, and 2)she was nuts and claimed she had visions of God telling her she had to free France from the English. Spartacus fought on the front lines, all military did way back then. Even if Patton didn’t fight on the front lines as a general in WWII (he was sixty years old) he had a VERY decorated military record. One that you CAN NOT deny. I mentioned actual warriors and fighters, I didn’t mention leaders like Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Henry VIII (hell, any of the Henry’s), etc.

Great leaders and great fighters are too separate animals.

Really? You sure about that pal? You ever seen Butterbean fight? He fights nothing but cans (many of whom with losing records). If you really believe that match-makers have nothing to do with “making a star” then I have a beach side resort in Iowa that I want to sell you. The job of the match maker is to make matches, correct? But match makers have to take into account who are going to be stars, what will make money, etc. of course Silva tried to give Cro Cop winnable but somewhat tough fights. Cro Cop fucked up, so that is on him.

“A great fighter will win regardless of the competition given to him. Great fighters thrive on tough competition.”

Oh yeah? So great fighters are warriors like Joan of Ark, King Richard The Lionheart, King Saladin, Spartacus, General George Patton, Musashi Miyamoto, etc. and great fighters WILL WIN REGARDLESS of the odds being stacked against them!!!!!!! Bro, have you ever taken into account that fighters, warriors that I mentioned (even though this isn’t about them), etc. are JUST HUMAN?? Like all of us, fighters have their good days, their bad days. They get sick, they get injured. They get inspired to do greatly, or they don’t get inspired so they half-ass their fighting and not give a shit (could have been the case against Kongo. I would have to see that fight again to make sure). Fighters could get into arguments with the people in their lives (lovers, management, family, promoter, etc.) and that could get into their heads. Your comments about great fighters doing great regardless is completely ludicrious and unfair, and maybe even naive. How many times do YOU go to work and not give a shit about doing a good job, and wanting to just get through the day and get home at the end of the work day? I bet it happens quite often.

Oh, and I just looked up that right now Cro Cop is 33 years old, will turn 34 in September. He is getting up there in age. And some age quicker than others when it comes to reflexes and abilities. Maybe it has happened to cro Cop? Even though when going to UFC he was coming off winning the PRIDE Open Weight GP, he suddenly got “older”? It happens. He’s only human after all.

If you lose, the fault is your own, and not the match maker. This isn’t the WWE. Stars are made on their own merits, not through the efforts of the match maker. Silva can only do so much. Cro Cop SHOULD have beaten the fighters given to him. One can and two mid-tier up and comers wasn’t too much to ask was it?

So now CC is “going back to Japan where the competition is easier.” Good riddance. I was a fan of his and he was exposed. Let’s just come to the stark reality of the situation rather than reminiscing about what could be. A great fighter will win regardless of the competition given to him. Great fighters thrive on tough competition. The fact that he didn’t train in a cage at all proves to me that not only is CC a bad fighter, he’s also a stupid fighter.

Perhaps the UFC should’ve kept CC and used him as a “star maker.” Every single fighters he lose to goes up several notches in the fan’s eyes.

Honestly though, were I faced with Silva’s task, I would have definitely used Hardonk instead of Gonzaga or Kongo. ESPECIALLY instead of Kongo.

I mean, let’s say for a minute that the Gonzaga match was an unforeseen circumstance. Fine. These things happen. In fact, the fight game would be pretty dull without them.
So, let’s give Silva a pass on the Gonzaga result for this argument.

Not to sound like a “know it all” or anything like that, but I quite honestly thought that Kongo was a bad match up for Cro Cop coming off of the Gonzaga KO loss. I just had a feeling about it.

Kongo is FAR from an elite level heavyweight at this stage, but physically & stylistically I thought he’d be a difficult, dangerous opponent for a fighter coming off of a spectacular KO loss who might be a bit tentative & gunshy.
With Kongo’s size, reach & strength advantages, I could tell that he stood a very good chance of frustrating Filipovic & “stealing” a three rounder.
And that’s just what happened.

I just don’t understand why, if I could see that, why Silva couldn’t. When it’s his jon to.

Again, it wasn’t his job to feed Cro Cop easy wins, but, he did have a significant investment that he should have been able to get more positive results from.

IMO, Hardonk or McCully would have been much better choices. Silva could have even gone outside of the organization for an opponent & brought in a Paul Buentello for instance.

That’s my take anyhow.

Peace.

I can’t blame Cro Cop for looking bored in his first UFC fight…he went from fighting Wand/Barnett in the same night to fighting Eddie Sanchez. That fight probably shouldn’t have even been sanctioned.

Christian Wellisch
Carmelo Marrero
Antoni Hardonk
Scott Junk
Brandon Vera
Justin McCully
Jake O’Brien
Frank Mir
Colin Robinson
Fabricio Werdum
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Who would have been the better choice? Wellisch, McCully, O’Brien, Robinson, Junk and Hardonk are all unheralded and would’ve been panned as cans in the Don Caras Jr. mold.

Wedrum, Vera and Nogueria are hardly bounce-back material.

Kongo was the logical choice – a limited fighter with a stand-up game most would consider inferior to Mirko’s, yet someone dangerous enough to pose a credible threat, especially in light of Mirko’s loss to Gonzaga. You can blame White and possibly Joe Silva for some poor decisions, but feeding Cro Cop Kongo is not one of them.

They had a ready made superstar ( for this hemisphere anyhow, as he obviously already had that status in the other one ) coming off of his biggest MMA accomplishment in winning the Open Weight Grand Prix, they’d signed him to a mega money deal & they failed miserably at getting anything back from their investment.

A big part of a good matchmaker’s job is getting the most out of a fighter without having him fight scrub opposition, but also without setting him up to fail when there’s the potential for a BIG match up on the horizon.

I’m not saying that they should have been in the business of protecting Cro Cop, but I am ctiticizing the choice of Gonzaga as an opponent for what was supposed to be a showcase for the Croatian. I realize that the heavyweight devisiion isn’t all that deep, but I refuse to believe that Gonzaga was THE best possible opponent for Silva to go with that night with all things considered.

Just as I think that Silva could have found a more appropriate opponent for Cro Cop to come back back against following the Gonzaga disaster other than Kongo.
Again, a matchmaker’s job is to know “his” fighters as well as any member of their own camps do & be able to intuitively know which potential match ups will play to their strengths & which ones could be troublesome for them. And anyone worth their salt in Joe Silva’s position should have been able to forsee that Kongo was a dangerous match up for Filipovic. Especially coming off of the sort of loss that he’d suffered against Gonzaga.