It seems that the President of the UFC has changed his mind when it comes to the topic of Mirko Filipovic. Back at the post-fight press conference for UFC 128, Dana made it clear that Cro Cop wouldn't be competing in the UFC cage again. But it appears that White has backtracked on that, at the request of Cro Cop himself. Dana spoke on the issue at the media scrum after the pre-fight post conference yesterday:
"This guy wants to fight again, and I owe him another fight," White said.
He expanded on the thought shortly thereafter:
"Do I think he should have retired? Yeah," White said. "But I don't think he's in one of these situations like Chuck Liddell, who needed to retire right then. He's a man, a grown man, and if he wants to continue to fight, that's his right. And he still has a fight with me."
There is no timetable for Mirko's return. He had mentioned that he would have liked to fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134 in Brazil, but that spot went to the last man Cro Cop lost to, Brendan Schaub. Cro Cop is coming off two straight knockout losses at the hands of Schaub and Frank Mir, and is just 4-5 in his UFC career.