an eagerly awaited clash of veteran campaigners Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic and Wanderlei Silva in Rizin’s openweight grand-prix at the end of the year has fallen through, leading to a heated war of words between the two legends.
Silva pulled out of the quarter-final fight late last week due to an injury, provoking a furious response from Cro Cop, who has fought ‘The Axe Murderer’ twice before in the legendary PRIDE organization, drawing with him at PRIDE 20 in 2002 and then KO’ing him with a head kick at PRIDE: Absolute Conflict in 2006.
“I just received a message from Rizin Fighting Federation that Wanderlei “the Braveheart” Silva doesn’t want to fight me,” the 42 year-old Cro Cop wrote on his Facebook page after the news first broke. “He gets scared and he changed his mind, but he know it from the beginning. He played tough guy on the press conference in July and he called me out for a fight. Then I said to myself, this man has a guts, but now we all see what is he made of, nothing but shit.
Once he was a fearless and true axe murder but now he’s just a scared homie and only thing he can kill is his mosquito. And Wanderlei, don’t you dare to come to Saitama to see the tournament like a guest because I will slap you like a bitch just like you deserve, you are nothing but a scared bitch and I had so much respect for you as a fighter until now. I suggest a new name for you that will fit you well… WANDERLEI “THE CHICKEN” SILVA.”
That has now provoked an equally angry response from the 40 year-old Silva, via a YouTube video posted on Sunday.
“I am here to give an explanation to my fans about why I won’t compete in December. My recovery, I wasn’t able to be 100% for this fight, and I am a professional. I would never fight, not with Mirko or anyone, without being prepared, and what surprised me the most with all of that is that this guy, this Croatian, Mirko Cro Cop, in front of me called me the best of the world, the legend, and behind a computer, started talking shit about me.
What kind of man are you Mirko? To say a lot of shit on Internet, and not say it to my face? Are you only a man when behind a computer? You pussy. Who do you think you are talking to? Chill out, it won’t be now, but soon you’ll get what is yours, I know very well how to catch you, and I know you are afraid of me, you coward.
“So really it was offered me a very good amount of money to fight Mirko, they offered me 1 million dollars, and I could, I am training and I could get in and see what happens. If I got there and fought 30 seconds or 1 minute my purse would be the same but I am a professional, and I would never do that without being 100% ready to give the show that all my fans are used to see. So, to fight with you, you pussy, or with anyone, I will fight when I am 100%. Everyone knows I am coming back from a serious injury, I am recovering well, thank God, I am training well and I am training to get back to the old form, the real mad dog. I won’t fight without being ready, I will fight to win, and Silva is back, you can wait.”
