Ah, Fight Pass. The red-headed stepchild of the UFC broadcasting family. At this point it’s pretty clear that since I am only considering live UFC fights and not the additional content that Fight Pass has to offer, the value will not be worth the subscription price. Especially with Fox Sports 1 gobbling up Fight Pass-worthy cards such as Maia-LaFlare, and sometimes even showing the lowest of the prelims, e.g. Fight Night 63.
This leads us into the first Fight Pass-exclusive event of the year: UFC Fight Night 64, live from Krakow, Poland. As these cards usually tend to be, it has very few recognizable names or highly ranked fighters, and is mainly designed to appeal to the local crowd. There are usually one or two interesting fights at the top of the card, but in this case UFC decided to cap it off with one of the most pointless rematches in the history of the organization.
Main Event: [#23 HW] Gabriel Gonzaga vs [#27 HW] Mirko Filipovic
Worth: $1
Why: For some odd reason, the UFC match makers really love rematches. After all, if the first fight between the two fighters was great, why not do it again, right? While sometimes a rematch makes all the sense in the world, unfortunately this is not one of those instances, because in 2015 this fight makes no sense at all.
When these two first met at UFC 70 back in 2007, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic was near the very top of the heavyweight heap. Fresh off winning the Pride 2006 open-weight Gran Prix, capped off by a knockout win over Wanderlei Silva and a TKO stoppage of Josh Barnett, Cro Cop was ranked #2 in the division, and predicted by most fans to run over the UFC heavyweights when he joined the promotion. Despite scoring a first-round TKO against a deer-in-the-headlights Eddie Sanchez, Mirko looked a bit tentative in his UFC debut. This was attributed to the infamous ‘Octagon jitters’ and he was still on a collision course with then champion Randy Couture – until Gabriel Gonzaga spoiled his plans with a bit of ground-and-pound followed up by the kick heard around the world.
Defeating Cro Cop with his own biggest weapon marked one of the most memorable, jaw dropping finishes in history of the sport. The win secured a title shot for Gonzaga, and marked the begging of Mirko’s decline: though he went 8-6 with 1 NC since then, he has never again beaten an elite opponent. Gabriel Gonzaga hasn’t fared much better, amassing an 8-8 record with his biggest win coming over Ben Rothwell in 2013, after a very brief retirement. It’s very unlikely to expect a Mark Hunt-like late career resurrection from the 40-year-old Mirko, and just as unlikely that Gonzaga will ever be more than a gatekeeper for the elite: though at 35 he might have a few more good years left in his career, his lack of conditioning, porous striking defense, questionable chin, and non-existent game planning cancel out his world class grappling and immense striking power. Cro Cop, on the other hand, is still essentially a one-dimensional striker who complains about his dislike for elbow strikes in MMA and thinks that the ground game should be limited in the UFC.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Gonzaga takes it based on age advantage, psychological advantage from the first fight, and besides that simply having more ways to win. But really no matter how this fight goes, anything short of a flying gogoplata will be a disappointment compared to the outcome of their first bout. I understand that Mirko wants to end his career in the UFC and avenge the most brutal loss he has suffered, but would much prefer both fighters to face someone else. Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, and let old fight results stand. There was no need for a do-over in this one, and I have very little interest in seeing it.