I might be the first fighter who has ever been suspended after retirement.
— Mirko Cro Cop
It was a mistake of mine to train like that, with friends, at home. It was a handicap I should not have given myself. In Croatia, we do not have big camps like in other countries, but I was not willing to go away to train.
I was a professional and did my best to prepare for every fight, but after PRIDE Grand Prix, to be honest, I didn't have motivation to go on.
Gabriel Gonzaga is a very solid fighter, and I've seen some of his fights. He's a tough guy.
Even though I didn't do as well in the UFC as the rest of my career, I feel like I did everything that I could to have an overall successful career.
I had 33 kickboxing fights, 37 MMA fights, plus 44 amateur boxing fights, which most of them were international. I will keep fighting as long as I feel good, but I will repeat once more, any fight could be the last one.
It's not up to me. I will fight whoever the UFC puts in front of me. If it was up to me, I want to fight Dana White.
Nobody should underestimate me. When you have a self-made fighter like I am with the Pride belt I earned, it's not good to underestimate him.
The best feeling in the world is a hard workout, a shower, and a protein shake.
I'm not the kind of fighter who just hates each other before the fight. I can talk to you until one minute before the fight, and then I will take your head off if I can.
I have twenty years of training like a spartan behind me. It has caught up with me. My body is broken down. I've been worn out.
I think I should be respectful of fighters. This sport is brutal enough itself. I don't think you should say stupid statements or should act like savages.
Talking about a fight with Randy Couture is a jinx for me.
Training, and every morning I have to take my dogs out into the forest. That's all I'm doing. I'm staying out of everything else. All other things that can take out my concentration and my energy from the training.
I need to raise my kids. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to raise kids and make men of them these days. I don't want them to be lazy and just spend their father's money.
I underestimated the difference of fighting in a cage.
I was free on the market, and I wanted to go to the UFC, the only global organization.
When my shoulder problems started, basic methods like massages and icing the shoulder did not help.
To be a successful fighter now, you have to go to a camp.
K-1 is the sport where I started. This is my first love, and I find K-1 more attractive and more suitable for our Croatian fans than MMA.
Training is not the key. Head is the key. For me, it's head. How aggressive you will be. Who will attack first? But you need to be good in your head, and there will be no problem.
The UFC has been so good to me over the years, and it is hard to leave this company and this sport.
I don't know if I will take the UFC title, but I will die trying.
Even the biggest heroes turn into cowards when they get tired.
People say people who spend too many years in prison don't know how to act when they get free. I don't know how I am going to act, how I am going to kill time, once I am not a fighter. Retirement scares me, and I have to think about how I am going to handle it.
I think it's stupid to say a guy who has trained in jiu-jitsu for as long as I have is just a stand-up fighter. I have trained with some of the best black belts in the world. I am comfortable on the ground. I can fight wherever the fight goes and not be concerned.
Some of my fights in PRIDE, I felt tired. I would train on the punching bag and feel great but then get tired in my fights.
Obviously, I can't break my mental block in the Octagon.
I just hope that God will give me the strength that I can prove my worth.
I think I owe a lot to the UFC and UFC fans.
The UFC was the black spot in my career and my life.
I wish you could see a new Cro Cop, 15 years younger. I wish it was possible.
I don't want to think too much about the future. I want to go step by step, and we'll see what's next.
I'm not old. I'm 37, but I can do things that fighters 10 years younger cannot. I will prove that, or I will die trying.
Now I am training with sparring partners who are nice people, sure, but not my friends. These are sparring partners who want to knock me out in sparring. In the Croatian media, they said it was 'life and death' sparring - it was not quite life and death, but it was all-out fighting, very hard.
This fire in me will last forever.
The cage is bigger than the ring, and it's a little bit different.
I feel that Japan is like my second home; this is where I want to fight.
I won a lot of money in UFC. I earned that money. The money wasn't given to me as a present. I earned every dollar of it.
I really believe that I'm a better fighter than Gabriel Gonzaga.
Conditioning is the most important thing in MMA.
Martial arts gave me everything in life. It is not about a paycheck; it is about how I live my life.
People consider me a striker, but I have trained jiu-jitsu for 10 years.
First I'm a sportsman and then a politician.
I'm 240, and I'm not fat.
I will keep fighting as long as I can, as long as I'm going to feel fit, as long as people would like to see me fighting, and that's it.
I had it on my mind that I will fight in Cologne, because UFC is coming to Germany, where the biggest and largest Croatian community lives there. It was my big, big, big wish to participate. Even my doctor didn't believe I will make it, but I did.
Of course I will submit if I have a chance, but I always prefer to finish a fight in a stand-up position.
I'm a guy who likes to have fun, and I like everything normal people like, but I am always quoted before the fight when I'm jet-lagged and focused. In everyday life, I am different.
I train in the cage all the time. I have my own cage in my gym.
