#2 Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Mirko Cro Cop – UFC 70: Nations Collide – 04/21/07
Onwards to a fight that I actually witnessed live as UFC 70 was the first UFC show that I was able to attend. At the time the feeling was that Cro Cop – arguably the UFC’s biggest marquee signing to that point – was a formality to beat Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event and go on to face Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Title.
At least, the Croatian fans thought so. A huge contingent of them headed to Manchester, England to watch the fight, basically guaranteeing the former PRIDE star a partisan crowd.
There were some question marks – Gonzaga’s ground game was known to be far superior to Mirko’s, and nobody was really sure how Cro Cop would react to fighting in a cage and taking elbows on the ground, both new to him after a career in PRIDE, but there was no doubt that Cro Cop was the heavy favourite.
Early on, it seemed that those questions would be answered, as a nasty body kick from Cro Cop was caught by Gonzaga, who turned into a takedown. A steady diet of elbows followed for the Croatian as Gonzaga looked content to keep him grounded and work from there.
Referee Herb Dean had other things on his mind, possibly due to the Cro Cop support from the crowd. He called what looked like a premature stand-up and immediately, the crowd were on edge, anticipating the possible deadly head kick from Mirko.
They got half of what they wanted.
As the fighters circled around, Cro Cop looking slightly tentative, Gonzaga suddenly uncorked a right high kick that wrapped over Cro Cop’s shoulder and caught him on the side of the head.
Live, it sounded like a gunshot.
Mirko went down, his right leg twisting underneath him at a disgusting angle, and the follow-up punches Gonzaga landed only knocked him further into the realm of unconsciousness. What everyone saw on TV was a myriad of replays, interspersed with shots of Gonzaga celebrating wildly.
What we saw live was poor Cro Cop being laid into the recovery position and in a scary scene, it was quite some time before he came around. This was a terrifying knockout and remains possibly the greatest head kick KO in UFC history.
