Cro Cop replaces Big Nog @ UFC 119

Frank Mir vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic now official as UFC 119 main event
by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Aug 17, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET

As expected Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (27-7-2 MMA, 4-3 UFC) has replaced injured Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and now meets fellow heavyweight Frank Mir (13-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) in the main event of next month's UFC 119 event.

News of the change first surfaced on Sunday, and UFC executives today made it official.

"UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop" takes place Sept. 25 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, and the night's main card airs on pay-per-view.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) passed along news of the main-event switch on Sunday after "Fighters Only" initially reported the change. MMAjunkie.com subsequently confirmed Nogueira has struggled with a recurring hip injury, one that now requires surgery.

Mir vs. Nogueira would've marked a rematch for the duo, who first fought in 2008 at UFC 92. Mir showed remarkably improved stand-up and scored a second-round knockout, though we later learned Nogueira was slowed by staph-infection recovery and a knee injury. (To his credit, Nogueira admitted he was surprised by Mir's improvement and was beaten fairly and squarely.)

Rather than fight injured again, Nogueira opted for surgery.

Mir, a former UFC heavyweight champion, is just 1-2 since that big win, which marked Nogueira's first-ever stoppage loss, with knockout losses to Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin and a submission win over Cheick Kongo. The Carwin loss, which came at UFC 111 in March with an interim title on the line, marks his most recent outing.

Filipovic, a former PRIDE star who's now in his second stint with the UFC, looks to improve upon his recent and impressive 5-1 run. The only loss during the stretch came to current top UFC contender Junior Dos Santos, and Filipovic immediately rebounded from that loss with recent stoppage wins over Anthony Perosh at UFC 110 and Pat Barry at UFC 115.

The latest UFC 119 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Frank Mir
Ryan Bader vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Chris Lytle vs. Matt Serra
Evan Dunham vs. Sean Sherk
Melvin Guillard vs. Jeremy Stephens
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

C.B. Dollaway vs. Joe Doerksen
Joey Beltran vs. Matt Mitrione
PRELIMINARY CARD

Steve Lopez vs. Waylon Lowe
T.J. Grant vs. Julio Paulino
Mark Hunt vs. Sean McCorkle
Pat Audinwood vs. Aaron Riley*

-Interesting matchup. I have to go with Mir in this one just b/c hes had the most success recently. Besides his losses to the top two HW's in the UFC hes made a pretty big comeback whereas Cro Cop hasnt looked up to par lately. He won against Barry but lets face it, Barry injured himself by beating Cro Cop up. Cro Cop usually has great takedown defense and if he wants to win against Mir, his TD defense will be the key factor.

Stephens vs Guillard is gonna be good as well as Bader vs Lil Nog. Good looking card overall.