UFC heavyweight fighter Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos was scheduled to fight Justin McCully at UFC 102. However, his UFC 102 bout was recently scratched off of the fight card in an effort to put him up against Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 103 instead. Dos Santos is currently 2-0 in the UFC with TKO wins over Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve all in the first round.
Cro Cop hadn’t fought in the UFC since September of 2007, losing to Cheick Kongo via a unanimous decision at UFC 75. He decided to take a break from the UFC and went on to fight for DREAM and K-1. After winning 2 of 3 (one fight was labeled as a ‘No Contest’ against Alistair Overeem- knee to the groin) on the other side of the hemisphere, Cro Cop underwent knee surgery. In June of 2009, he made an octagon comeback at UFC 99 where he faced and defeated Mostapha Al-Turk via TKO (strikes) in the first round. Cro Cop made a 1-fight deal with the UFC and verbally agreed to continue fighting for the American organization according to UFC president Dana White. Although there were rumors of Cro Cop signing with DREAM after his UFC 99 win, he later denied such rumors and said he was still a free agent.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but it seems like Cro Cop has decided to stay with the UFC afterall. Here’s a snip from Dos Santos:
“They took me off the August 29 show. My opponent’s changed. I’ll probably face Cro Cop. If I beat him I’ll be in really good standing. If that’s truly the case, I’m guaranteed on the main card and in the main event of the evening. If I were to fight now it wouldn’t be on the main card…. To me it’s incredible. When they asked me if they could change the fight date I was a bit bothered, because I wanted to fight right away. I’ve been away for some time now. But the Fertitta brothers asked me and I accepted. After that I found out it would be against Cro Cop and was overjoyed. It’ll be a big opportunity in my career. Lots of good things have happened in my life and this is one more. I’m going to make the most of it.”
