Sherdog’s Top 10: Strongest Kickers
Number 1
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic felled many foes with his head kick. |
Photo: Daniel Herbertson/Sherdog.com
1. Mirko Filipovic
Filipovic’s words still echo long past his prime: “Right leg, hospital; left leg, cemetery.”
“Cro Cop” routinely turned high kicks into brutal knockouts in his Croatian-colored compression shorts. If you ever played as Filipovic in a videogame, you did not even press the punch button; you loaded up on kicks because you knew, eventually, a finish would result. His real-life reign of terror began in Pride Fighting Championships, where everyone knew exactly what the man was looking to do, yet could not do anything to stop it. A quick glance at his record tells the entire story, notching victories with his feet over names like Yuji Nagata, Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring, Ron Waterman and Wanderlei Silva.
Once perhaps the most feared heavyweight striker in the world, “Cro Cop” wound up with a 3-5 mark in UFC, ending his disappointing tenure inside the Octagon with consecutive knockout losses to Frank Mir, Brendan Schaub and Roy Nelson. Nowadays you can find the former K-1 World Grand Prix winner competing in Glory World Series, where his famous kicks have already done damage to a now-retired Remy Bonjansky.
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