TOKYO, Japan, Feb. 19 – Do you have real friend? One who gives you really good advice? Sometimes, the advice could be very sweet. Other times it’s very strict, and bitter. Advice between Croatians Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Stefan Leko was very honest last night after PRIDE 29.
So I, as helpful guy, asked “Cro Cop,” who knocked out Mark Coleman early in the first round of his fight, if he had any advice for Leko. Mirko is a very honest gentleman. He says what he thinks. His answer to my question surprised everybody at the post-fight interview space.
“Mirko, do you have any advice for Leko, because he seems like he is struggling in MMA competition?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Mirko, “I already gave him advice: CHANGE SPORTS! He’s an excellent K-1 fighter but not in MMA. I told him, quit fighting in PRIDE as a friend.”
Wow, I only wanted to help Leko but now I feel like I might have finished Leko’s MMA Career. Did I ask a wrong question? Is that bad to ask Mirko to give Leko advice as an MMA fight mentor? Was it poor advice from Mirko?
Now, I wanted to ask why Leko’s not good at MMA, but c’mon there are the topics the media wanted to dig into. So I didn’t ask. But the other media did ask what I was thinking.
“Reason No. 1,” he started, again very honestly, “he doesn’t train enough; No. 2, physically he’s too weak.”
Everybody at the post-fight interview froze when they heard that. “He’s too old to be a good at ground game,” Cro Cop continued, “and that’s very important. But the most important thing is, he’s not physically strong enough to be MMA fighter.”
I wanna change the subject; I don’t want any trouble. So please check out the video which will be posted soon on Sherdog.com soon.
So I know this is way too short report, but I’d like to finish this with the Q&A between Mr. Sakakibara and myself after the fights. Well, it wasn’t a one-on-one Interview butt nobody said anything, so I just asked back-to-back questions.
First, I asked him if somebody from UFC is coming to PRIDE for the middleweight tournament? “Now we’re talking to UFC, but Randy (Couture) and Chuck (Liddell) is fighting in the next UFC,” Mr. Sakakibara answered. “So maybe those two fighters could be a bit difficult to join in the tournament. So we’re looking for Tito or Vitor. Either one is fine. Or both are good. But we already have a lot of good middleweight fighters. So it’ll be very hard to choose 16 fighters. Anyway, we want somebody who can really represent UFC. That’s what we want.”
Next, I asked him if PRIDE is sending fighters to UFC Japan show in June. “This year,” he started, “we really want to see the fight between UFC titleholder against PRIDE titleholder. We really want to make it happen. We want to make a new belt between the two organizations. Let’s find the champion, so this year not only are we getting fighters from them, but also we’re willing to send fighter to them. We’re willing to support UFC in Japan. I still have to talk to fighter, but we’d like to send the fighter who’s one of the top from PRIDE when we send.”
What about the PRIDE show in America? Are there any plans now? (Probably he thought, who’s the hell is this guy with red cap with dog logo on? Why he’s keep on asking me question next to next? But Mr. Sakakibara answered me very honestly once again.)
“Show in America is the big plan for us,” he said. “We definitely want to do it. But if we’re having a show in America it should be the show that will be very accepted by American audience. We don’t want to have a show in America which is accepted only by Japanese fight fans, but not among American’s. So we have to prepare for everything. But, yes, we are hoping to have a show in second half of this year.”
I kept coming with questions. How soon will the winner of the L.A. audition join the PRIDE show?
“Yes,” Sakakibara said. “If they’re ready, some of them will be fighting in Bushido on April 3. Some of them are already training in Seattle at Matt Hume’s gym. And we at DSE support their life with paying. So we’d like to give them a chance as soon as possible.”
Sounds like a lot of things are going on in DSE. I can’t wait to see those newcomers from the L.A. audition. I saw some guy at the Saitama Super Arena wearing a t-shirt that said “PRIDE L.A. Audition Fighter #M-19 or M-16.” I should have caught him and asked him about it, eh? That would be interesting.
Okay, that’s it for tonight. I’ll be back with other information. Some soon. The videos will be up soon too. So keep tuning on Sherdog.com.
P.S. there was a Carneiro at the PRIDE show with the other BTT fighter and coaches. I had a chance to ask him how many stitches he had after the fight against Chonan in latest DEEP (/news/articles/chonan-continues-streak;-maeda-and-imanari-battle-to-draw-2447). He said he had to get 10 stitches … there’s no way he could fight after referee stopped the fight. Ouch!