Issue 188

February 2020

The UFC's debut in Poland proved a memorable night for one legendary Croatian

Five years ago on these pages, we made a New Year's wish that the UFC would belatedly take themselves to Poland to harness the power of an MMA-obsessed nation. Our wish came true in April of that year when the UFC traveled to Krakow to stage Fight Night 64. Pictured here is the standout fight of that memorable night in 2015, when Mirko Cro Cop went looking for revenge for the infamous headkick by Gabriel Gonzaga which shut out his lights in their first meeting in 2007. Though it won Fight of the Night, the first two rounds did not go well for Cro Cop, who seemed tentative and wary of Gonzaga's striking power. The Croat had never lost a rematch up to that point, but this looked to be getting away from him until he found the space in the third round to deliver a huge elbow that stunned his opponent and which he followed up with a series of vicious shots that finished his foe and left the Brazilian looking like someone had taken an ax to his forehead. It proved Cro Cop's swan song in the UFC, but what a way to go.