Roque Martinez (Guam) vs Mirko Cro Cop Filipoviс (Croatia) | KNOCKOUT, MMA fight, HD

There is just something special about Mirko Prokop making his way to a ring, to that song, the look on his face, and when he walked into the ring, he looked over to his right, saw Peter Eerts, he gave him a wink, looked over at you and I, nodded his head, and we just know we're in for a show. On top of it, every one of these fights going forward could be his last fight. This could be it, the next one could be it, we don't know, so this is something special, watching a legend like Mirko Prokop get ready to retire from the sport. He said it's his 56th time coming to Japan. He says he's heard all the talk that MMA has evolved. He says, but you know what? You still punch with two hands and you kick with two feet. The basics haven't changed. Took some time off because of his left knee, his surgery was done. People ask, why do you still fight? He's like, it's my job. It's my passion. I talked to him a little bit before the weigh-ins and he was like, I'm getting pressure from my family, my wife, my mom, to stop fighting. He goes, I don't know what else to do. I love this. He has other things he can do to make money, but they don't interest him as much as fighting guys and training guys. He's got his investments, he's got real estate. He's got a ton of stuff going on. His manager, Ken Amai, set him up, taught him how to deal with real estate, taught him how to keep investing in his future. He makes more money off his other stuff than he does fighting now. But he's like, I just can't stop. I don't know what else to do. This is the thing that he wakes up trying to do every single day. He's loading up. Tamar, vantage point here. There was that left there for Roque Martinez. More than glad to stand and bang with Mirko Krokop. Check. Left kick was checked there by Mirko. Roque now trying to go for the body. See him picking up the pace here. He's got to watch his distance, though. Don't stand there waiting. You've got to keep something with Mirko's face. If you don't keep a jab in Krokop's face, he's going to catch that left hand. Yeah. The one thing about Mirko Krokop is you've got to keep... There's the kick there. You've got to keep him going. Oh, that's got to be... That's just... That left to the body. It's weird because Mirko's got redness on his left side. Roque with the body shots, then the left. Oh, he's waiting for the kick. He caught it. Looking for the takedown. Good job by Mirko keeping his balance. Good job by the officials inside and outside to keep the ropes together. I thought they were going through the ropes on that one. They charged it so fast and so high. Roque doing a good job keeping the pace, keeping the pressure. Using his right knee to punish the left leg, the surgically repaired left leg of Mirko Krokop. Good head pressure. Good head pressure, good positioning by Krokop to keep the pressure off. It's been scheduled for two rounds. Opening round is ten minutes. Second round is five minutes. Elbows are allowed. Oh, body shot. A thunderous body shot by Roque Martinez. He's caught Mirko with that a couple times now. Mirko right down the center with that left. Oh, beautiful left there. It is getting through, frankly, right. You can hear Ken Amaya's daughter and Mirko's manager yelling to Mirko. Oh, he's attacking now. He's picking up the pace. If you remember Roque's last fight, it looked like he was always hurt, but he just kept going and going and going. He just wouldn't go away. Oh, there's a high kick. He's very durable. It looks like it takes a lot of damage, but they're all glancing gloves. He does a really good thing with his defense. It's a little late at times, but he does get part of the punch taken off and makes it miss slightly, which allows him to fight later in the round. Last fight, I thought he was done for sure, and he still came back. He did a great job. Mirko's just timing that left there. Oh, nice left elbow there by Mirko. Roque's like, nah. He just basically works for it. Come on. These guys are exchanging shin kicks. Roque's doing a good job of keeping the pressure on and staying in his face. Causing stress. Just keep him under duration. He's punishing that left leg. Side punches don't seem to do much. You're just punching on the guy's thigh. It doesn't seem like it's doing much, but it all adds up come later, especially when that's the lead leg. He's working every angle. Every angle of that leg. Fight! I feel like when junior high school, I'd pass him notes. Oh, an uppercut landed by Roque. Mirko now engaging the clinch here. Left underhook. Roque making him carry his weight. Putting all his weight on him. Tiring. Roque Martinez now trying to throw knees. Uppercut, body shots. Mirko with the left uppercut. The guys are fighting in a forever booth. Another uppercut by Mirko Krokop. A left. He's cut. Oh, one. Look at that. Wow. Roque Martinez bloodied up by Mirko Krokop. One of his uppercuts snuck through. Oh, it's his elbow. The elbow's what caught him. Oh, it's in the forehead. Okay. I thought it was coming from his nose. It looks a lot worse than it is. Leading into his eye. Look at that. Perfect technique. Perfect technique by Mirko Krokop. I wonder if he learned that last night. Just turning the elbow over. Is that something Mirko just added? Or has he done that before? Look at that. Oh. Instantaneous. The referee saw it right away. They called the fight. The cut is too deep. Mirko Krokop. Four minutes and 58 seconds. With a left elbow. Ends Roque Martinez. Roque is not happy right now. At all. Not happy. He wants to continue to fight. He wants to keep going. But with the cut. And I'm sure they could have got the bleeding stopped. But it was probably too deep. And it's fighter's tape. There's no more reason to go in and get your head cut more open. As a fan, I want to see more of that fight as well. I want to see what would happen with that in the second round. With everybody's energy. And everybody's punching power. Roque was picking up the pace there. Was really getting the execution going. And then Mirko just with one opportunity. Was able to get that elbow through there. And then boom. Game over. Martinez's corner man just came by. And just looked at us. And gave us a little hey. Little sign. Small cut man. Small cut. Very. Jason Herzog got to escort him back out there. That's good though. That's Mirko's run. Hopefully he'll see my knees. I don't want him to see my knees. I want to see. Yeah. I want to see his last fight. And have a great fight going. He's going to lose. He's not going to get damaged. That's what I want to see happen. Right now. He's aged. Mirko's still tough. Unbelievable. Mirko and I have always had a good age relationship. And I couldn't tell he was penetrating inside. I was told he was very scary. He wouldn't talk to anybody. I walked in and was like. I walked in. So Mirko throws that fish puff to us. Yeah. It's the first time I saw Mirko's fist coming at me. And his glove was the size of my hand. Yeah. It's huge. Huge. It's huge. It's hard. The first time I knocked him up. I had to give everything to him. I mean. Give everything to him. Pulling gauges. Pulling it open. Showing it off. He never does that for anybody. He does that all the time. It's very simple. And years later. I saw him running around.