UFC President Dana White announced during the UFC 110 post-fight press conference that Mirko Cro Cop would most likely face Ben Rothwell next, as it was originally scheduled. Rothwell canceled his fight against Cro Cop 2 days prior to the UFC 110 event due to a severe stomach virus he was suffering. Anthony Perosh stepped in as a late replacement, but Cro Cop was obviously more prepared for the bout. The Croatian sensation took home his first victory since his controversial win over Mostapha Al-Turk back in June of 2009 at UFC 99.
From Mirko Cro cop:
“I can say I was satisfied with my performance…I didn’t fight my original opponent. He canceled the fight. Perosh jumped in, and I’m grateful to him for that. He showed great courage and guts. He came to fight…but where I’m at in the heavyweight division, I don’t know. I believe I belong in the top, so we’ll see in the next fights. It depends on the next fight…I changed the way I used to train…I spent four weeks in Amsterdam at Vos Gym training with a new coach, Ivan Hippolyte, a legend of Muay Thai. And this was the first time in my career I came (to the location of the fight) two weeks before (the fight) to adapt. I always underestimate so many things…I’m a very experienced fighter, but even in Japan I came two days before. In my last fight in the States, I came two days before. They needed to wake me up before the fight. My coach needed to put ice on my back to wake me up. So I just underestimate so many things. Of course there is fuel left in me, but you need to keep training more to keep in the game….Young lions are definitely coming, the division is harder than ever.”
From Dana White:
“I think what we do is we do the fight that was supposed to happen tonight…We’ll make that fight happen, and obviously Mirko didn’t have a rough night tonight…Ben (Rothwell) isn’t out because he’s injured or anything. He got a stomach virus, so hopefully we can make this fight quick and put this one together soon…Ring rust is a real thing, and he got to get in there and at least work on his timing and everything else…Hopefully, we can back-to-back make this fight with Rothwell now and make it happen pretty soon – get him back in there and keep him active and busy.”
