Some eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic had a weird-looking right elbow during his GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES fight with Jarrell Miller.
The veteran Croatian’s arm joint bore a strange protrusion, as if a golf ball were being smuggled inside it.
“CroCop” has now revealed that the elbow was in fact badly infected. He had received antibiotics in the run-up to the fight and was apparently fortunate that the California State Athletic Commission doctor did not spot the problem.
“I think it was a good fight. I was full of injuries for this fight like never in my career. I remember my fight with Mark Coleman [in PRIDE FC] I had a very, very high temperature bit doctors let me go and fight because in Japan they don’t care too much..
“But now I was really hurt. A few weeks [before the June 21 fight] my elbow got hurt and it got infected. I was taking antibiotics for 25 days, no work, no use of it. Then I hurt my calf one month ago.
“Such [an] unlucky period for me… maybe the body is just exhausted from hard training but I just hoped that everything would go fine and I wouldn’t have to cancel the fight. I was close to cancelling the fight because my doctors suggested to me not to go [to the USA] but I decided to fight anyway.
“I was lucky the athletic commission didn’t notice. The doctor was really old and didn’t pay attention to my elbow. But I think if he saw it I wouldn’t have got permission to fight. But everything is behind me, thank god.
“I was so happy. This is the hardest time in my sports career concerning injuries, unbelievable. It was a really serious infection and I still have to fix it. But at least the fight is behind me and that is what is most important.
“I don’t want it to sound like an excuse, I don’t need excuses, but I didn’t know how it would go with my elbow. It went OK.”
“CroCop” beat Jarrell Miller by unanimous decision in the card’s headline bout.
The 39-year-old veteran is now ranked #9 in the heavyweight division and is 7-1 since returning to kickboxing, 3-1 in his last four outings. In 2013 he won the K-1 Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament staged in his native Croatia.
About the author
