This Saturday night the UFC Fight Night series makes it’s debut in Poland as they land in the Krakow Arena with a show headlined by the heavyweight rematch between Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic and Gabriel Gonzaga. The entire event is available for streaming on the UFC.TV during the afternoon in the United States.
Gonzaga has been with the UFC for over 10 years and is one of its most inconsistent fighters. The high point of his career came in 2007 when he was able to knockout Filipovic with a surprising head kick. Unfortunately for Gonzaga, that remains the high point of his career as he has gone a pedestrian 8-8 since.
Filipovic, who a decade ago was one of the most feared fighters on the planet, is now 40 years old and getting one more shot with the UFC to main event a card close to his home country of Croatia. The motivational factor of avenging the loss that set off his career decline is high for “CroCop,” and depending on what version of Gonzaga shows up, he has a chance to write a storybook ending to his career.
The rest of the card is loaded with Polish and Eastern European talent, as is to be expected. If you’re not used to the names or have not seen the fighters perform, start getting used to it. Poland is likely here to stay as a UFC market, as they have long supported combat sports including MMA and boxing with a great deal of passion.
Click here to check out our blog on the odds for the UFC Fight Night opening fights. In our latest video blog, we review the odds for the top five fights scheduled on the card.
