Mirko Filipovic Out of DREAM 5

According to Mirko Filipovic's offical blog, the feared Croatian striker will not be fighting on the DREAM 5 card, set for July 21st. Instead, CroCop will be scheduling a surgery for a knee that has been bothering him for quite some time. From the man himself;

"Unfortunately I have some bad news– I won’t be fighting at DREAM 5 at all. I was about to face Jerome LeBanner but he decided to fight in K1 against [Semmy] Schilt. Mighty Mo was the alternative and I accepted this challenge, but unfortunately Mighty Mo pulled off from the fight. I was ready to face Mo, but maybe this scenario wasn’t that bad for me at all…"

"I’ve been having problems with my right elbow for years and the injury got even worse over last 6 months. I’m already receiving a proper treatment but the recovery won’t happen over night. The second problem is a knee injury, something that troubles me for quite a while. I had difficulties using my kicks and over last few weeks I focused more on boxing and grappling. I really wanted to fight on July 21 and I was even ignoring doctor’s suggestions, but now I’ve reached the point from which I can’t continue with my normal training regiment due to my injuries."

CRO COP Scheduled For Surgery Today

Filipovic is scheduled to go under the knife for arthroscopic knee surgery this morning and will not be cleared for any type of MMA training for two or three weeks. Once he is back to training, it is expected that he will fight at DREAM 6 in September if all goes according to plan and that could be when he faces off against current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Alistair Overeem. Alistair has been challenging Mirko for some time and has also accused Filipovic of ducking the fight.

CRO COP about Alistair Overeem

Alistair Overeem claims that Mirko's is ducking him, this is what Mirko thinks about it:

"I've just stopped by to comment some statements made by Alistar Overem and his team.

It seems to me that some people should mind their own business. I've never been offered to fight Alistair Overeem. Why would I decline this offer? I came to DREAM to fight the best and I'm looking forward to see DREAM signing more top level heavyweights. Now when Alistair is officially in DREAM, I'll be expecting an official offer from DREAM to fight him and I'm going to accept it with pleasure.

I'm not on vacation here, I train hard and I've never picked my opponents. I fought the best fighters in the world already, I don't see why I should have seconds thoughts about fighting Alistair Overeem? On my way back up I need to fight top level competition and I believe that DREAM is perfectly able to put up a strong heavyweight match-up soon. So it's up to DREAM, let's bring it up."