Ben Duffy/Sherdog.com illustration
Headquartered in scenic Woodloch, Texas, the Mixed Martial Arts
Hall of F@#$%&g Awesome (HOFA for short) commemorates the
achievements of those fighters who, while they might not be
first-ballot selections for a traditional hall of fame, nonetheless
did remarkable things in the cage or ring, and deserve to be
remembered. The HOFA enshrines pioneers, one-trick ponies and
charming oddballs, and celebrates them in all their imperfect
glory. While the HOFA selection committee’s criteria are mysterious
and ever-evolving, the final test is whether the members can say,
unanimously and with enthusiasm, “____________ was f@#$%&g
awesome!”
* * *
“Right leg hospital, left leg cemetery.”
—
Mirko
Filipovic
The Filipovic quip which opens this article is a classic MMA
one-liner — succinct, funny and memorable — yet it almost sells the
man short. “Cro Cop” was much more than a one-dimensional purveyor
of head kicks, even if those became his signature weapon for good
reason. In his mid-2000s prime in
Pride Fighting Championships in particular, the
stone-faced Croatian possessed a blend of speed, power and
aggression that, when coupled with his nearly impregnable takedown
defense, made him the most feared striker in the sport and one of
its biggest stars.
By the time of Filipovic’s MMA debut in late 2001, he was already
one of the top heavyweight kickboxers in the world and a two-time
K-1 grand prix runner-up. He initially fought under K-1’s MMA
banner, but dissatisfaction with pay led him to sign with rival
organization Pride after just one bout. It was a fortuitous
pairing, as Pride’s blend of footloose matchmaking and stellar
production values provided the canvas upon which he would proceed
to paint his unmatched highlight reel. Not that he necessarily
needed the matchmaking: “Cro Cop” was an equal-opportunity
distributor of naps to the worthy as well as unworthy. For every
lucha-masked
Alberto
“Dos Caras Jr.” Rodriguez who had no business being in a ring
with him, he laid out a fellow knockout artist like
Igor
Vovchanchyn or
Wanderlei
Silva. While even as a smallish 6-foot-2, 225-pound heavyweight
he loomed over opponents like Vovchanchyn and
Kazushi
Sakuraba, he also absolutely destroyed much larger foes such as
Heath
Herring,
Josh Barnett
and
Aleksander
Emelianenko — memorably head-kicking the 6-foot-5 Emelianenko
as if just to prove he could.
Filipovic’s most important fight of the era, of course, was against
the other Emelianenko brother, Pride heavyweight champion
Fedor.
It would be nearly impossible to explain to a fan who came to MMA
after 2010 or so just what an enormous, all-consuming deal “Fedor
vs. Cro Cop” was. Delayed for years by a litany of injuries to the
champ and by Filipovic’s shocking upset loss to
Kevin
Randleman, by the time they finally met at Pride “Final
Elimination 2005,” the matchup had lost none of its sheen. The
fight itself delivered; it was practically every news outlet’s top
fight of the year if not the decade, with “Cro Cop” acquitting
himself well in a loss against the greatest heavyweight the sport
had ever seen.
He would not get another crack at “The Last Emperor” or the belt.
Filipovic’s greatest achievement, winning the 2006 Open-Weight
Grand Prix, occurred after Emelianenko withdrew due to injury, and
while “Cro Cop” eagerly jumped to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship months ahead of
Pride’s final collapse, Emelianenko and the UFC never were able to
come to terms.