The MMA Digest

MMAonTap brought to light the following comments made by Joe Rogan in a radio interview discussing the bout between Mirko Filipovic and Cheick Kongo:

“If you watch the last UFC, this is something nobody knows, the Mirko Cro Cop fight that was on Spike last week - he got kneed in the balls, he went down and said to “Big” John McCarthy, “I’m too old for this shit.” and Big John said “No man you’re fine, you’re fine.” and he goes, “No I should just quit right now.” He said this while he was down and Big John goes, “If you want to quit just let me know and he said no, no I don’t.” So he had 5 minutes to recover and said he was too old for this.”

A specialist in the mental aspect of competition, Brian Cain, sports psychologist of Georges St. Pierre, David Loiseau, Tom Murphy, Rob Macdonald and other MMA fighters, noted the following regarding the situation. “Hit in the balls, major yellow lights and if you have nothing to get you back to a green you are in trouble.  The fact that he was talking about quiting during the fight is a red light.  Cro Cop is one of the best fighters in the world.  After a devastating loss like he had to Gonzaga, a fighter can have a lot of self-doubt about their abilities and until they toatally flush that loss, it can pop into their mind at the worst times and cause a serious tail spin in their fight game.”

Filipovic’s website posted a comment by the Croatian heavyweight on the Kongo fight:

“My rib was broken and I had trouble breathing. I did bad, there’s no excuse. I don’t know, maybe I got too old. I’m in pain, my rib is broken and he kicked me 2 times to the groin, also resulting in reduced power. Oh well, we’ll see what happens next.”

Filipovic’s next fight has yet to be announced.