Mirko Cro Cop will not fight on Dec. 31st

[Hibbert]

Cro Cop made this statement on his website:

Today, I, Mirko Cro Cop, have an important message to announce. I have decided not to participate in any event as a fighter on Dec. 31st.
I have been adviced by my physician, Dr. Bucan, to refrain from intense training for 2 weeks and to allow my back to recuperate from injury that has been bothering me for a while. I have decided to take his advice seriously this time and to nourish my body in order to fully recover and to prepare for 2004.

From now on I will be communicating with any promoters directly, for year 2004. offers.
I will be totally fresh mentally and physically next year, and I will fulfill my promise to become the champion and meet your expectations.
Thank you very much for all of your support.

Sincerely,
Mirko Cro Cop

[DaBigHurt]

yea i heard about that one, its a shame he wont fight, cuz i really wanted to see the fight, but i guess his health comes first. DOCTORS ORDERS! lol

[urkin]

it's not really a big deal because on the 31st he would have completely destroyed takayama. Hopefully this means he will be ready for February 1st and a good fight with Fedor.

[Tony Montana]

That's a huge blow to Inoki's show. On such short notice too. Oh well, I don't care because #1 he was fighting Takayama (whopee) and #2 it wasn't going to be on PPV.

[TheRockSays]

I'm glad he isn't fighting cause we wouldn't have been able to see it any way :lol:

[just Brian]

That's a huge blow to Inoki's show. On such short notice too. Oh well, I don't care because #1 he was fighting Takayama (whopee) and #2 it wasn't going to be on PPV.
Ditto

[Zato]

Good news for Takayama...the dude has taken enough damage as it is

[fist]

I`m very glad that Mirko isn`t fighting on ny`s eve. That`s very good news for Takayama and very bad for every other hw fighter. He`l come back in full strentgh and totaly dedicated to take Pride`s hw belt. 2004 is going to be a beautiful year!!!

[grapplingengineer]

Probably not good news for Fedor...

[Cbear]

That sounds to me like a face saving way of Mirco taking himself out of the NY eve war between Pride and Inoki. This promotional war has really caused problems in Japan. I think Mirco, Nog and Silva wisely found reasons not to fight and are backing up to make their moves carefully. Fedor is all alone hanging out there twisting in the wind now. One thing I read is that he was amazed at the money offer Inoki threw at him, but I suspect he might be about to find out that money comes with conditions (such as being based on ticket sales?). Jumping at Inokis promise might be a very bad decision for Inoki in the long term.

One name that hasn't been mentioned hardly at all is Mr. Iron Head (Fujita). Fuj has been an Inoki guy since the New Japan days. I wonder where Fuj will end up in 2004. It certainly looks like Inokis show might be in trouble since he booked a stadium (as I recall). With Nog, Mirco and Silva not fighting, that leaves a hurt Sakuraba as Prides main draw. Not sure what will happen with Fedor/Inoki or if their lawyers will get it worked out in time. K-1 seems to be on track with Akebono and Sapp. I suspect that the tv ratings will be close on at least K-1 and Pride, perhaps with Inoki too, but with alot of channel changing depending on which fight in happening at the time. If the promotions are smart, they won't schedule their top fight head to head in the same quarter hours as the other promotions top fight. Better to win their share of quarter hours than to hurt the whole show rating wise.