I started watching mixed martial arts in 2007, when I was 13. At the time, the UFC-Pride merger was well underway – fighters like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and the Nogueira brothers had swept in and started causing havoc.
It was all very exciting. It was like a big pro wrestling angle, but real! It was all enough to inspire me to go on YouTube and start watching videos of Pride’s heyday. And when I did, I swiftly became fixated on one of history’s greatest heavyweight knockout artists, the stoic Balkan Terminator known as Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.
Today, Cro Cop is one of my favorite fighters of all time. A big part of that is the aura that surrounded him at his peak, and surrounding his fabled left high kick. Now, mixed martial arts isn’t pro wrestling. Finishing moves don’t really exist. But if they did, Cro Cop’s left high kick would be the Stone Cold Stunner: sudden, badass and deadly. It’s also maybe the only MMA move that came with its own catchphrase: the iconic “right leg hospital, left leg cemetery.”
But while Cro Cop is forever associated with the left high kick, and it was always a steadily used and valued part of his striking game, only six of his 30 career MMA knockouts came as a direct result of that move – there would be quite a few more if we included his kickboxing career, but this is an MMA website. Without further ado, here is my definitive ranking.
6. Vs. Yuji Nagata, December 31, 2001
If you’re a big pro wrestling fan, there’s a decent chance you’d know the name Yuji Nagata, one of the major wrestling stars of Japan over the last 20-25 years. You’d also probably be wondering why the hell Yuji Nagata ever fought Mirko Cro Cop in a mixed martial arts fight.
The answer: Antonio Inoki was mentally ill. Inoki, one of the great foundational stars of Japanese pro wrestling, was the founder and booker of New Japan Pro Wrestling, the promotion where Nagata was one of the top names at the time. By the turn of the century, Inoki – most famous for his bizarre 15-round “fight” against Muhammad Ali in 1976 – had become obsessed with his pro wrestling promotion having the legitimacy lended to it by mixed martial arts.
Inoki had long had the concept in his mind of pro wrestling as the “king of sports” – a motto that’s still a part of New Japan’s logo to this day – and he wanted his stars to be real fighters. That resulted in New Japan’s top title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, finding its way around the waist of guys like Bob Sapp and Kazuyuki Fujita, legit MMA fighters who were limited wrestlers at best. When aging, forgettable midcarder Tadao Yasuda won a surprising MMA upset against kickboxing champ Jerome Le Banner, Inoki put the belt on him. When a young rookie named Shinsuke Nakamura showed some aptitude in a few MMA fights, Inoki pushed the kid to the moon.
All in all, that era was a disaster for business and it nearly cratered NJPW. That’s not only because he was making booking decisions based on stuff that happened in a completely different athletic endeavor, but because he often pushed his untrained or little-trained wrestlers into real MMA fights, often at his traditional big New Year’s Eve show that Inoki directly promoted. When they lost, usually humiliatingly, they then looked like dopes to the wrestling audience. It was a pretty bad time, all things considered.
So that’s how Yuji Nagata ended up in the ring with Mirko Cro Cop on New Year’s Eve 2001. Now, Nagata could probably kick the ass of any average Joe – he was once a top Greco-Roman wrestler in his home country who had some martial arts training – but he had little to no real fight experience. Cro Cop basically immediately booted him in the head and went home. It was all pretty gross and unsatisfying.
It gets worse: two years later, Inoki booked Nagata in another MMA fight against the world’s top heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko. I’ll let you guess how that one went.
5. Vs. Dos Caras Jr., October 5, 2003
This one is along the same lines, although not quite as bad. Dos Caras Jr. was a Mexican luchador who, unlike Nagata, actually had a decent bit of pro fighting experience: he had a 3-2 MMA record, and just the month before had scored a win over UFC veteran Brad Kohler.
Dos Caras Jr. had a little bit of a better sense how to hang in the MMA arena, and he had some shooter bona fides. He had once been an elite Greco-Roman wrestler who was competitive on the international stage, although he ultimately missed out on his spot in the 2000 Olympics because Mexico didn’t have the funding to send a team. He was also somewhat serious about MMA: he continued to fight for several years after the loss to Cro Cop, ultimately retiring with a 9-6 record.
Nevertheless, there was no way on God’s green Earth that he belonged in the ring with a guy like Cro Cop. Dos Caras Jr. looks like kind of a dope fighting in his luchador mask, but at least he does a little bit better than Nagata did: he lasts 46 seconds instead of 18, and actually lands a leg kick! Offended, Cro Cop corners him and kicks his head off. If you’re a pro wrestler, please stay away from Mirko Cro Cop.
Ultimately, things kind of ended OK for Dos Caras Jr., and then they kind of didn’t. He later unmasked and signed with WWE, having a big run as a main eventer in the early 2010s as Alberto Del Rio. He drove out to the ring in a Rolls Royce, it was all pretty cool. He then went down in a spiral of drug abuse and insanity, and is now probably going to prison for sexual assault. Maybe Cro Cop should have hit him harder.
4. Vs. Satoshi Ishii, December 31, 2014
Cro Cop was one of the Pride stars who matriculated to the UFC in 2007, but his run stateside was underwhelming. Dozens of MMA and kickboxing fights had taken a toll on his body, and he struggled with adjusting to the UFC’s rules and having to fight in a cage, which took away his ability to trap opponents in a corner and unleash holy hell. He went just 6-6 in the UFC, getting knocked out five times, and he left in 2011 no longer one of the world’s top heavyweights.
But in Japan, he was still a legend. And from 2014 onward, he went on a feel-good little career-ending run of 10 straight wins, including a quick little pop back into the UFC to avenge an infamous loss to Gabriel Gonzaga. He won Rizin’s World Grand Prix in 2017, and let me tell you, even against lesser competition, it was just nice to see a confident Cro Cop kicking ass again.
Two of those wins came against Satoshi Ishii, an Olympic judo gold medalist whom Inoki had pushed as a major Japanese MMA star. 12 years younger than Cro Cop, Ishii was a major favorite in their first fight in August 2014, coming in at 12-2-1 with an eight-fight win streak. Instead, Cro Cop pieced him up on the feet and opened up a big cut that forced a doctor stoppage in the second round.
That surprising win naturally caused a rematch at Inoki’s New Year’s Eve show, and God bless, because Cro Cop beat his ass again. Ishii is no slouch as a fighter, but he doesn’t have the stand-up game of even a faded Cro Cop, and the Croatian legend stalked Ishii like a tiger after his prey. At the end of the second round, Cro Cop trapped Ishii in the corner, turned the judoka’s legs to jelly with the left high kick, and put him away with punches.
It was a wonderful turn-back-the-clock moment, and I enjoyed it immensely.
3. Vs. Alexander Emelianenko, August 15, 2004
Alexander Emelianenko was more than just Fedor’s little brother: in his day, he was a combat sambo world champion who fought at a decent level in Pride. But on August 15, 2004, Emelianenko caught one of the most immaculate ass-beatings in MMA history, from one of the most motivated versions of Cro Cop we’ve ever seen.
By this time, Cro Cop had become recognized as one of the world’s best heavyweights, and he desperately wanted a chance at the reigning champion, Fedor. But his rise to the top had met a couple of roadblocks: jiu-jitsu icon and former world champ Minotauro Nogueira caught him in an armbar in November 2003, and six months later, former UFC titleholder Kevin Randleman stunningly destroyed him with a downright animalistic left hand.
Those losses didn’t deter Cro Cop’s ambition. And when he got himself booked in a fight with Fedor’s little brother, it was Cro Cop’s chance to send a message directly to Fedor. After shrugging off a few early takedown attempts, Cro Cop stunned Alex with a flurry of punches in the corner and tossed the Russian to the ground like he was Marshawn Lynch heading for the end zone. Despite having the advantage, he then let Alex up to his feet and sent his opponent packing with the left high kick and some vicious punches.
Message goddamn delivered. There is some great footage of a pissed-off Fedor reacting to Cro Cop whipping his little brother’s ass live backstage – Pride later used it in the intro video for the Cro Cop-Fedor fight, which to this day is the single best intro video for a fight in the history of combat sports.
A year later, Cro Cop got his shot at Fedor, so mission accomplished. He lost, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about some cool-ass kicks.
Alex Emelianenko later went to prison for rape, so that’s two Cro Cop head kick victims that have later on committed horrible crimes. Turns out Mirko was doing the Lord’s work, punishing these men.
2. Vs. Wanderlei Silva, September 10, 2006
This is where the ranking gets hard. There are two head kick KOs left on the list, and both of them are extremely significant in Cro Cop’s career: one of them represents the moment he became a true star, and one represents the crowning achievement of his career.
But due to the most significant criteria of my ranking formula – Violence Factor – I’m taking the latter at No. 2. September 10, 2006 will probably go down as the peak of Cro Cop’s career, as it was the night he won the Pride Openweight Grand Prix, the biggest title he ever claimed as an MMA fighter.
In the semifinals, he faced off against 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva, who at the time was perhaps the most feared fighter on Earth. Silva was an unhinged Brazilian brawler who fought with the kind of psychotic aggression one would expect out of a man affectionately nicknamed “The Axe Murderer,” and a showdown between Silva and Cro Cop was one of the most tantalizing fights Pride could possibly make.
It was the guy who fought like he had been injected with the Rage Virus from 28 Days Later against an emotionless, almost-robotic killing machine. On that night, it was Cro Cop’s uncannily precise, surgical striking that won the day. Cro Cop deftly avoided Silva’s wild charges before dropping him with a laser of a straight left, ultimately cutting the Brazilian open with some follow-up shots on the ground.
That caused the doctor to step in and check on Silva, who ultimately received the thumbs-up to go back out there. Silva probably should have just stayed in the corner. Just a couple of minutes later, Cro Cop hit him with the left high kick and put his lights out, winning perhaps the greatest single victory of his career.
The knockout itself is unbelievably impressive. Silva was able to fight the way he did because he had a granite chin and seemed to have his adrenaline fully pumping at all times. What’s more, Cro Cop didn’t even catch him completely clean – he sort of whacked the top of Silva’s head, but didn’t get him flush. It still turned the lights out for one of the greatest and toughest fighters of the decade.
It almost doesn’t even matter that Cro Cop knocked out Josh Barnett later that same night to win the tournament. The Silva fight is the one everyone remembers. It was the moment Cro Cop stood tallest as one of the best in the world.
1. Vs. Igor Vovchanchyn, August 10, 2003
Igor Vovchanchyn is one of the forgotten greats of mixed martial arts, a fire hydrant-shaped Ukrainian kickboxer who ruled the sport back when single-night, openweight tournaments were commonplace. He had freight-train hands and scary accuracy. This 1999 knockout of Francisco Bueno is one of my all-time favorites in the history of the sport – Vovchanchyn somehow hits him with four or five murderous punches while Bueno is in the process of falling face-first to the floor. Normal people aren’t able to do things like that. He basically entered bullet time like he was in The Matrix.
By 2003, Vovchanchyn was a bit past his peak, but he was still considered to be one of the top fighters in the world and a tough test for anyone in the game. When he and Cro Cop met in the ring, he still had never been knocked out in nearly 60 pro fights. Cro Cop, who had just started to build his resume as one of the next hot things at heavyweight, took aim at that lantern head.
I don’t even feel the need to write that much about this fight. Just watch that goddamn kick. Trust me, you won’t have to search that hard for it, the fight only lasts 89 seconds. Cro Cop hit Vovchanchyn so hard that he brought the dinosaurs back to life and made them extinct again. Cro Cop hit Vovchanchyn so hard that 400 miles away, the population of Hiroshima panicked and fled for their fallout shelters. Mirko Cro Cop hit Igor Vovchanchyn so hard with his left high kick that one of the toughest men alive, one who had never been KO’d, topples lifelessly to the ground like a fallen oak tree and doesn’t get up.
It’s quite possibly the most perfect kick ever thrown. It’s so sudden that you can hardly see it. The man with the deadliest left leg on Earth throws it as hard and as fast as he possibly can and hits someone right on the side of the head as direct and as flush as you can possibly hit someone. That knockout didn’t just make Cro Cop a star – it made that left high kick legendary.
You can watch a million fights and never again see a kick quite like that. That’s why it’s No. 1. At the end of the day, we’re all just hooting apes who watch MMA for the violence. Ladies and gentlemen, Mirko Cro Cop just gave you some Grade A violence. Toss him a coin and thank him when next you pass him by.
The Big Fight 
