UFC 119 Cro Cop Rumors Show Dana White's Damage Control Ability
by Nate Wilcox on Sep 19, 2010 9:00 AM EDT
in UFC News
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On Friday, Index.hr, one of Croatia's most popular and most respected news sites reported that Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic was injured in his training for UFC 119 and wouldn't be able to fight.
Sherdog reported:
The Index.hr report also states that Filipovic had already consulted several eye specialists in his home country but was unable to obtain their clearance to fight. The popular knockout artist is scheduled to depart for Indianapolis this Sunday before squaring off against Mir on Sept. 25 at the Conseco Fieldhouse.
Nokaut.com, an MMA news site with strong ties to Filipovic, called the report false, and said it has training footage of the Croatian's final training session with no hint of an injury having transpired.
It didn't take long for twitter to take over the narrative, MMA for Real documented:
However, SI.com's Josh Gross tweets that he is hearing from his source that Cro Cop is OK.
Well placed source tells me Mirko is "fine." Could be this person doesn't have full facts, but usually spot on.
In addition, UFC heavyweight Pat Barry, who fought Cro Cop at UFC 115, tweets this:
And that one is quickly squashed by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, who spoke with UFC president Dana White and tweets the following:CroCop is A-OK! I called him!!! Hahhhhhhhhhh, we're friends!!!
Nothing wrong with Cro Cop according to @DanaWhite Bogus rumor #UFC #MMA
Then Dana White tweeted:
Case closed, right?
As is sometimes the case, it turns out there was some fire to go with all this smoke, from MMA Junkie:
However, Filipovoc did suffer an injury - at the most inopportune time.
"His last day of sparring - the last 10 minutes of the last day of sparring - he got poked in the eye," said White, who was in Rosemead, Calif., for the latest UFC Gym opening. "But he's seen an opthamologist; he's seen everybody."
And White assured that Filipovic, who's actually an injury replacement for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, has been cleared to fight.
"Cro Cop, he's already on the plane now or has already landed in Indianapolis," White said on Saturday afternoon. "He's fine. He's fighting."
Cro Cop talked to Sportal.hr (HT MMA Mania):
"I got hit in the eye, but nothing scary. This isn't the first nor the last punch like that. It won't stop me from traveling to fight, and to fight next Saturday against Frank Mir."
When you consider that Cro Cop vs Mir was a replacement bout for the Antonio Rodrigo "Big Nog" Nogueira vs Mir bout that was originally supposed to headline UFC 119, Dana White really dodged a bullet here. Losing your main event only a few days out from an already weak PPV card is pretty much a worst case scenario.
But as a watcher of the MMA media, I'm also kind of amazed that so many people took Dana White at his word when he denied there was anything to the Cro Cop injury story. Dana White showed us back in April that he will happily lie to the press on the record if it serves his interests.
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This whole thing feels so phony, it's not even funny. I feel like I'm back in the pro wrestling world
Gregarious promotoer willing to lie at every turn.
People playing characters
Media reporting company talking points
/sarcasm
SCM aka Black Lesnar aka Wesley Types aka Slap ya Favorite MMA Writer
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by S.C. Michaelson on Sep 19, 2010 9:08 AM EDT reply actions
Do you honestly expect him to say anything different?
“Oh no, the 119 show is screwed, I sure hope you guys can get your money back if you pre-ordered!”
Getting bent out of shape over a fight promoter lying is like getting upset that a hooker won't kiss you. It betrays a deep lack of understanding of the nature of the profession.
While I think that this SPECIFIC incident is a minor one, it speaks to a larger problem
/sarcasm
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by S.C. Michaelson on Sep 19, 2010 9:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Dana White: The only man in America that lies to make more money.
I get that it complicates things for bloggers and journalist types when you must take everything a guy says with a grain of salt. It’s hard to explain that grain of salt alongside a quote. But expecting a promoter to say ANYTHING other than whatever he thinks will make him more money is incredibly naive.
Getting bent out of shape over a fight promoter lying is like getting upset that a hooker won't kiss you. It betrays a deep lack of understanding of the nature of the profession.
Dana would never lie to us.
Stop being such a hater, Nate.
If Cro Cop
has an injury like he says he does, he shouldn’t be fighting. This reeks of Dana telling him not to pull out. It’s so close to the show that it would really kill it if they switched the main event again or had to drop it altogether. Still, that’s not enough reason to have Cro Cop fight injured. Eye injuries are nothing to take chances with.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
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I disagree with the premise of this post.
Gross and Barry both said Mirko was fine before Dana was probably even aware of the story. I know that the UFC wasn’t handing Gross this scoop and Barry’s source was Mirko himself. There was clearly a number of sources reporting that Cro Cop was fine that weren’t consulting with Dana.
That's not Nate's point
The point is that blindly trusting what Dana White says – particularly as it relates to White’s statement about the strength of his product – is foolish given his flagrant history of not telling the truth.
Follow me on Twitter: @MMANation.
by Luke Thomas on Sep 19, 2010 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions
That’s certainly a fair point to make, but making it in an instance when he is telling the truth just seems like a strange choice of an example.
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?
by Kwisatz Haderach on Sep 19, 2010 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions
he wasn't telling the truth
he initially lied and said that Cro Cop hadn’t been injured at all and that the news report was just an empty rumor. That’s VERY different from Cro Cop having in fact been injured, just not severely enough to get him dropped off the card. And don’t forget he hasn’t met with Indiana commission officials yet. Their doctors might very well examine his eye and call it off.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
not actually
It’s pretty obvious to me with basic reading comprehension that he meant CroCop was fine to fight and the rumor that he was pulling out wasn’t true.
Both of which are 100% accurate statements.
Yes, you can use random leaps of faith to try to somehow turn a dozen words into some huge lie, that Dana White was apparently so intent on keeping that he contradicted himself literally the next day.
This is a mountain out of a molehill.
Did he say that CroCop hadn’t been injured at all, specifically?
Sounds like Dana was just denying the rumor that Mirko was injured bad enough to bow out from the match without addressing any of the specifics. So I’m not sure where you’re going with this other than to confirm Tomas Rios’ claims about this site.
by David Castillo on Sep 19, 2010 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Sorry, maybe I missed something, but all I see in that tweet from Dana is that the rumor that Cro Cop was injured and couldn’t fight was false, and that seems to be the case. Obviously guys get hurt in training all the time, but that’s no one’s business unless it means they’re out of the fight. If a guy has an injury but is going to fight, which seems to be the case at least half the time, it isn’t right to let their opponent know about it and spew it from the rooftops. Where is the lie? I’m not trying to piss you off. I respect you and the whole staff here, but what the hell are you all talking about? There’s a ;pt better examples of Dana clearly lying, this isn’t one of them. If you want to construe this as a lie, I say good job Dana in this case. If it’s not serious enough to stop a fighter from fighting, no one should know, and I’d respect Dana for lying about it.
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?
by Kwisatz Haderach on Sep 19, 2010 11:30 PM EDT up reply actions
I’ll add, after reading the new article on the subject, that I’d agree it is problematic if Cro Cop isn’t actually cleared to fight. No argument there. But in the meantime, it would still be irresponsible of Dana to talk about a fighter’s injuries or even admit to them before a fight, as long as he’s sure the fight is going to happen.
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?
by Kwisatz Haderach on Sep 19, 2010 11:55 PM EDT up reply actions
It's not blind
when it’s backed up by two separate independent sources
You're missing the point.
If Josh Gross says it, with all due respect, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as if Dana White says it. A lot of people took Dana at his word and just moved on like it was no big deal. Obviously there is more to it than that.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
CagesideSeats.com
Follow me on Twitter at GenoMrosko
by Geno Mrosko on Sep 19, 2010 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions
Maybe you’re both right. I tend to think though that Gross and Barry’s comments were enough for many who saw them to realise the story didn’t have any real legs and that Dana was just the exclamation point. Maybe (probably?) though the reports would have came out exactly the same way if Gross and Pat had both said nothing and Dana was the only source of denial.
Kind of a “Say it ain’t so, Joe” type of thing
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
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by Derek Suboticki on Sep 19, 2010 7:39 PM EDT up reply actions
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