Croatian Combat Sports Center

Bulletin for July 30th

TAE-KWON-DO

6th WTF World Junior Taekwondo Championships
Croatians won 2 bronze medals

Two croatian girls put up very nice performances in Vietnam and won 2 bronze medals: Jelena Žeravica (-55kg) and Marina Sumić (-49kg), congratulations!


Croatian NT:

Marija Vičić -42 kg
Marina Sumić -49 kg
Antonija Puc -52 kg
Jelena Žeravica -55 kg
Martina Zubčić -59 kg
Ana Kozić -63 kg
Martina Jazbec -68 kg

Stipe Jarloni -45 kg
Mirko Mađar -48 kg
Andrej Četković -51 kg
Tomislav Karaula -55 kg
Filip Grgić -59 kg
Dean Šarčević -63 kg
Darko Harapin -73 kg
Vedran Golec +78 kg

July 20th - 26th

Bulletin for July 20th

BOXING



Boris Katalinić loses!

(-64 kg)
GEORGIEV BORIS (BUL) vs KATALINICH BORIS (CRO) PTS 30:9

And Croatian NT left with just one medal - the one which Mirsad Ahmeti will bring back home. Ahmeti's run isn't finished yet, but we must be satisfied with Boris Katalinić and Marko Tomasović performances too. Others - hmmm.....

Bulletin for July 19th

MMA

Cro Cop vs Axe Murderer II & other news

Sukošan Fight Night Update

First of all here is update of Sukošan Fight Night which will take place on August 9th in Sukošan (near Zadar, Croatia)

#9
IGOR POKRAJAC (CROCOP TEAM) vs LUKASZ JURKOWSKI JURAS (Poljska)

#8
DOMAGOJ OSTOJIĆ (Split) vs MICHAL STANISLAWSKI (Poljska)

#7
MARIO MARIJANOVIĆ (Gracie Barra Mostar) vs IVAN BRKLJAČA (KBK «Croatia» Zadar)

#6
SAŠA MUČNJAK (CROCOP TEAM) vs BRANISLAV ZEMAN (Brazilian Combat Team Slovakia)

#5
NINO PEKOČ (NOKAUT TEAM) vs ILJA SKONDRIČ (Brazilian Combat Team Slovakia)

#4 (K1)
IGOR MIHALJEVIĆ (NOKAUT TEAM) vs IGOR BARIĆ (KBK «Croatia» Zadar)

#3
HRVOJE KIŠIČEK (CROCOP TEAM) vs MARO PERAK (UFC "Gladiator" Dubrovnik)

#2
DRAŽEN GLAVAŠ (NOKAUT TEAM) vs MILAN VUKŠIĆ (Megacentar Rijeka)

#1
DANIJEL MRKOCI (KBK "Kutina") vs ALEN BEŠIREVIĆ (UFC "Gladiator" Dubrovnik)

update by Slaven Vujić, tournament promotor - on Monday 17th of July


Zelg against James Nicholl

Croatian mma prospect Zelg Galešić is scheduled to fight James Nicholl of UK, on 30th of September in London, on Cage Rage Event. Winner of this fight will challenge Cage Rage middleweight champion Mark Weir.
source: profightstore


Cro Cop speaks



An interview from today edition of Jutarnji list

JL:you fought silva 4 yrs ago under special rules which led the fight to the draw

MCC: when we fought in 2002, i was clueless about the ground game, but i think that landed more. i asked for special rules, because back then i was before and after that fight - k-1 figher, and it's hard to adjust to different styles. but all i asked was 5 x 3mins rounds, and draw if fight ends without stoppage.

JL: what was your impressions about silva?

MCC: silva is top fighter, but he behaves little strange, on pride tournamenst he's always looks indifferent and modest, turning his head away form other fighters, and then in the ring he acts like a madman

JL: who'll be in the GP final?

MCC: barnett could suprise minotauro, and i'll beat silva for sure

JL: since 2000, you haven't got 2 fights in one night, could this be a problem for you?

MCC: therefore it's important to end up the semifinal fight asap, ko victory would give me huge advantage

JL: before you fight against fedor, you had a problem with adjsuting at time-diffrerence between croatia and japan?

MCC: that's why i'm planning to go to japan on wednesday morning, which means that i'll be in tokyo in thursday morning, and time till my sunday fight i'll try to sleep in my regular "croatian rhythm", and after the fight - in monday morning - i'll coming back to zagreb

JL: are you missing summer vacations with you family somewhere on adriatic coast?

MCC: 10 years passed since i hadn't been there - so my answer is no. i'm not fan of being by the sea and just lying on the beach

JL: is the end of you career near?

MCC: when you among the best and not having troubles with the injuries - there is no point to think about ending the career. in mma "golden ages" lasts till the age of 35 , fighters are maturing late and thats why their careers last so long

JL: why you had to gave up of using shorty's song "dođi u vinkovce" as your entrance song?

MCC: at the end of the GP, when i take this cup in my hands i'll ask them to play shorty's song, unfortunatelly japanese organizers insisted that i use duran duran's "wild boys" cause it's more recognizable for the fans

JL: have you got any problems with your condition in your last fights?

MCC: i heard this one a million times lately, everyone knows all about football, politics and mma. i explained a number of times that i'm not un-fit but i'm having problems with my breathing cause cartlidge in my nose is broken and this causing me problems, that's why i'm using every possible moment in the ring to breath thru my mouth. and for ordinary fans it seems that i'm breathless and out of shape. soon i'll go to solve this problem with a surgery. - i wanna breathe normally.


and probably the most interesting part:

JL: you've mentioned in many occasions that you'd love to fight in usa?

MCC: i'll fight there soon, maybe even this year in october, but not under pride or ufc, but under one other organization who just have started their business, their offer is excellent and i'll very likely accept it

ps
sorry about bad spelling and grammar



BOXING



Ahmeti in the Semis!!!

Our major medal candidates failed, but Mirsad Ahmeti raised from nowhere and reached into semifinals, which means that he's secured at least a bronze medal, the same opportunity will have Boris Bibi Katalinić tomorrow.



(-54 kg)
IZORIA NIKOLOS (GEO) vs AHMETI MIRSAD (CRO) PTS 28:32


One other thing is nice to hear that Marijo Šivolija is awared of all mistakes that have been made and he's ready to prepare himself properly for the World Championships where he's gonna defend his silver medal.

When he was asked about who's responsible for his failure he said: - "Maybe - it was me, and maybe our national team management , it's stupid to make any excuses now - all of us should learn a lesson and move on."

And he added:- "I need to take some rest first, then I'll need a plan, a personal plan cause I don't wanna depend on none but myself. I'll put all of me to the maximum for the World Championships."

Bulletin for July 18th

BOXING



A successful day - finally!

Boris Katalinić made it into quarterfinals where he's gonna fight Boris Georgiev of host Bulgaria.
Along with him, but with only one win, Mirsad Ahmeti is going to quarterfinals too, his opponent is Nikolos Izoria of Georgia.
Good Luck!

(-54 kg)
STAN IULIAN (ROM) vs AHMETI MIRSAD (CRO) RSCOS:R3

(-64 kg)
TELELOVICH EMIR (BIH) vs KATALINICH BORIS (CRO) RSCOS:R3

btw
RSCOS = Referee Stop Contest Outscored

Bulletin for July 17th

BOXING



(-81 kg)
SHIVOLIAJA MARIO (CRO) vs DIAMBANG MAMADOU (FRA) PTS 23:27

and now when our greatest hope is out at the first round and when all our NT manager Pero Tadić is doing is complaining about bad judging and global conspiracy against Croatia in Bulgaria, and only 2 croatian boxers left in the tournament; Boris Katalinić who actually won the fight, and Ahmeti who's fighting tomorrow.

And why I wrote global conspiracy; because all the boxers who beat our guys are coming from different country - so it must be a huge coalition established only to eliminate our guys as soon as possible. The truth is more likely that quality and form of our boxers is actually bad as spelling of the organizers of the championship. SHIVOLIAJA & DIPALNO simply weren't Šivolija and Đipalo we know.

Funny thing is also that one of our guys who did fine - though he lost the fight against top-ranked opponent - is actually a very talented kickboxer Marko Tomasović.

so far:

(-54 kg) MIRSAD AHMETI
(-60 kg) FILIP PALIĆ - out
(-64 kg) BORIS KATALINIĆ
(-69 kg) BORNA KATALINIĆ - out
(-75 kg) MATEJ MATKOVIĆ - out
(-81 kg) MARIO ŠIVOLIJA - out
(-91 kg) VEDRAN ĐIPALO - out
(+91 kg) MARKO TOMASOVIĆ - out


Congrats to Boris!

Bulletin for July 16th

BOXING



Die Hard!

Croatian National Team manager Pero Tadić has selected following boxers for this tournament:

(-54 kg) MIRSAD AHMETI
(-60 kg) FILIP PALIĆ
(-64 kg) BORIS KATALINIĆ
(-69 kg) BORNA KATALINIĆ
(-75 kg) MATEJ MATKOVIĆ
(-81 kg) MARIO ŠIVOLIJA
(-91 kg) VEDRAN ĐIPALO
(+91 kg) MARKO TOMASOVIĆ


results of our team so far:

(-75 kg)
JACK BADOU (SWE) vs MATKOVIć MATEJ (CRO) PTS 30:16

(-64 kg)
KATALINIĆ BORIS (CRO) vs ANDREEV ANATOLIY (MDA) PTS 36:15

(-60 kg)
ALEXANDRU ADRIAN (ROM) vs PALIĆ FILIP (CRO) PTS 47:26

(-69 kg)
KATALINIĆ BORNA (CRO) vs STRETSKYY OLEXANDR (UKR) RET - R3

(+91 kg)
TOMASOVIC MARKO (CRO) vs TIMURZIEV ISLAM (RUS) RET - R2

I've put "die hard" title, but it seems that our boxers are becoming too easy targets for their opponents, only Boris Katalinić managed to win in his first appearance, one other thing is bothered me more than this early loses.

Apparently in today issue of Sportske Novosti, Filip Palić thru the autor of that article words mentioned that his major problem/reason why he failed to succeed wasn't because he was in a bad shape and below the class of european top amateur boxers, but because city of Zagreb didn't give him a public flat here in Zagreb.

Somehow they forgot to mention that someone paid their preparations and trainings and someone is doing that for years, and only thing Palić ever did is winning european bronze back in 2001 (and after that followed his transfer to Zagreb in which they promised him a public flat on service), not to mention a honor for representing his country on international level. So our dear Filip Palić if you're so worried about material things - I've got one little advice for you: take a chance and go to the pros!

I'm aware about all the existential difficulties in amateur sports here in Croatia, but in sports like boxing where any athlete can make a decision: to fight amateur or to go professional, bitching about bad situation is pointless specially after you lose against first decent opponent on your way.

At the time I'm writing this Vedran Đipalo is fighting, so instead of waiting for his result I decided to go out and to drink a few beers, and the results of his fight I'll post later this evening

and he lost too...

(-91 kg)
DIPALNO VEDRAN (CRO) vs ROSBERG JARNO (FIN) PTS 25:31

Bulletin for July 9th

BOXING

Preskar wins



Last night in St.Louis (Missouri, USA); croatian heavyweight pro-boxer Mario Preskar defeated Matthew Greer of USA by unanimous decision (60-54, 60-54, 60-54)

Bulletin for July 7th

MMA

Mirenić signs for Pride

Croatian middleweight/light-heavyweight mma fighter Damir Mirenić (Cro Cop Team) has signed a contract with Pride FC. His Pride debut is scheduled for 26th of August, opponent is still TBA, but it'll probably be one of japanese fighters.
And here are the highlights of the interview Mirenić gave to croatian web-portal
www.profightstore.com
...

Bulletin for July 4th

BOXING

EABA Tournament for Juniors in Rijeka
2nd Frano Blagonić Memorial

gold medals
Marko Čalić (-91kg) - & voted as the best boxer of the tournament
Ivan Andrašić (+91kg)

silver medals
Zoran Kralj (-69kg)
Pavao Kunčić (-91kg)

bronze medals
Danijel Gaši (-48kg)
Davor Mohorić (-69kg)
Karlo Carev (+91kg)


TAE KWON DO

Austria Open

cadets
gold medal - Stela Šimunić (-38kg)
bronze medals - Dorotea Oroši (-35kg), Iva Marinčić (-50kg) & Antonija Marinčić (-61kg)


JUDO

Cadets European Champioship in Hungary

sliver medal - Andrea Bekić (-52kg)
bronze medal - Ivana Maranić (-70kg)


MMA

Post-fight Mirko Cro Cop


At least I've got the answer to my dilemma after his fight:
- Kicking Yoshida with his right leg was a part of his gameplan - (only) because Mirko wasn't able to kick with his left one. Here are the best of Mirko's post-fight thoughts:

- "All the time during the fight I felt completely secured. I realized that I can control fight with my right low-kick, so I didn't wanted to put myself in any kind of un-neccessary risk. And that clinch we had, when Yoshida wasn't able to throw me down additionally pumped-up my self-confidence."

- "Till September I'll have a plenty of time to completely heal my left leg, and become 100% fit. When I wasn't able to with it during the fight, so I decided to kick with my right and made a lot of damage to Yoshida's knee and thigh. That was first KO caused by low-kick in history of Pride."

- "It is irrelevant for me who is gonna be my opponent in the semis, but I think it won't be Barnett cause we had 2 fights recently - so another fight probably won't be too attractive for the fans. I think that Wandrelei Silva could be the one, and in fighting Silva I'll be highly motived because of one other thing; Silva's bad behavior. But we'll have to wait and see what Pride will decide.

- "From now on till next Monday - I'm on vacations - and afterwards I'll spend whole summer with nothing but hard training."

Bulletin for July 2nd

BOXING

Mario Preskar update

First of all - Mario will fight again, and moreover against opponent with a pretty decent boxing record



source: Sportske Novosti

Croatian professional boxer Mario Preskar is facing Matthew Greer (7W-2L-0D) of USA, this heavyweight fight will take place in Savvis Center (St.Louis, Missouri/USA) on 8th of July under Don King Productions.

How serious are Preskar preparations for the fight you can tell by the fact Željko Mavrović (38, croatian boxing legend and former EBU heavyweight champion) joined Preskar in the ring as one of his sparring partners.

Mavrović explained why: - "Most of his sparing partners are not at the Mario level, and from my expirience I can't tell how important is sparring in a preparations for the match. So I'm here to help Mario with my knowledge and expirience."

And this is what Mario said about his upcoming fight: - "Having just a fighter's name can't tell you much, opponents should be analysed by watching tapes of their fights, and such a opportunity I had so far with only 3 of 10 boxers I fought."

Asked about his long periods of non-fighting Preskar added: - "Unfortunately, that's correct. But for me personally, a bigger problem is lack of adequate sparring partners, and my coach Leonardo Pjetraj is trying hard to give me the best ones he can get, but without satisfactory results. Therefore opportunity to have someone like Mavrović as my sparring partner is a huge benefit for me, though he's retired I still can learn a lot from him."


MMA

August 9th 2006. - Nokaut Promotions
Sukošan Fight Night

fight card - subject to change

under ("K-1") thai-kickboxing rules
Hrvoje Kišiček (Cro Cop Team) vs TBA
Igor Mihaljević (Nokaut Team) vs Igor Barić (KBK Croatia Zadar)

under mma ("Pride") rules
Igor Pokrajac (Cro Cop Team) vs Lukasz Jurowski Juras (Poland)
Maro Perak (UFK Gladiator Dubrovnik) vs Jacek Butcher (Poland)
Ivan Kralj (UFK Špansko) vs TBA
Saša Mučnjak (Cro Cop Team) vs TBA
Danijel Mrkoci (Nokaut Team) vs TBA
Neno Alilović (Nokaut Team) vs TBA
Petar Matijević (Nokaut Team) vs Ivan Brkljača (KBK Croatia Zadar)

in negotiations with:
Ilija Skondric
Branislav Zeman
Nino Pekoč
Dražen Glavaš
Luka Kalmeta
...

Bulletin for July 1st

MMA



Mirko wins via 1rd TKO


photos by DSE INC

Mirko Cro Cop Filipović put up another decent performance. He beat brave japanese judokai Hidehiko Yoshida with a brilliantly executed gameplan: combination of accurate punches and devastating low-kicks destroyed Yoshida. Interesting fact is that Mirko was using mostly his right leg as a weapon with Yoshida's left thigh as his main target, and that move was - surprise or not - a crucial for today fight. Clearly injured and unable to stand up Yoshida refused to tap-out, which made both Mirko and a referee a slightly confused, specially problematic was a referee who made a similar mistake in Fujita/Silva fight when also he was too undecisive in stopping/ending the fight. Apparently the fight was stopped, maybe even by towel thrown from Yoshida's corner. At the end Mirko showed his respect and sportmanship with helping Yoshida to get back into his corner. After the fight Mirko said (something like): - "I admire Yoshida's courage, looking forward to the final round."

Two questions about Mirko's condition, in my opinon, stayed unanswered:
- What is really going on with his physical condition, cause once again he looked exhausted and very tired after only 4-5 minutes in the 1st round
- Was an idea of using mostly right leg just a part of his gameplan or his left leg is still causing him troubles

I wanna end this with Mirko's thought before the 1st round of GP:
- "I sincirely believe that I can win the belt this year, I think that all the jinxes are behind me now... I'm focused on my goal and it's time for me to have some luck too. Grand finale of this year GP is scheduled for 10th of September – exactly on my birthday - symbolic or not..."


GP results:

A. Rodrigo Nogueira - Fabricio Werdum
Nogueira via 3-0 judge decision

Josh Barnett - Mark Hunt
Barnett via 1st round submisson

Wanderlei Silva - Kazuyuki Fujita
Silva via 1st round KO

Mirko Fiiipović - Hidehiko Yoshida
Filipović via 1st round TKO



MMA

Rickson... hmmm - Zelg by armbar



Croatian MMA fighter Zelg Galešić defeated his respectable opponent Curtis Stout of USA by submission in the 1st round of their middleweight bout. Zelg executed an armbar and therefore created an upset of the night on the Cage Rage 17 - Ultimate Challenege Tournament