8 UFC Dream Fights Fans Never Got To See

For so long, Mirko Cro Cop was one of the biggest stars in Pride and made a name for himself as one of the greatest strikers in MMA – most famously thanks to his powerful left high kick.

While Cro Cop was getting big wins over major names such as Wanderlei Silva, Mark Coleman, and Josh Barnett over in Japan, Randy Couture had been making himself a superstar in the UFC thanks to wins over fighters of the calibre of Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, and Vitor Belfort.

Both the Croatian and the American had put on some of the greatest fights seen in MMA by the time that Mirko finally signed with UFC late in 2006. And like that, fans immediately began to salivate at the prospect of Mirko Cro Cop going on a tear in UFC as he put Randy Couture and the UFC Heavyweight Championship in his crosshairs.

Unfortunately for those desperate to see these two icons face off against one another, Gabriel Gonzaga threw a major spanner in the works at UFC 70. With the victor of Cro Cop vs. Gonzaga to challenge Couture for the gold at UFC 74, Brazilian Gonzaga shocked the world with an upset KO win over the former Pride favourite.

Truth be told, Mirko wasn’t quite the fighter he once was by the time he signed with the UFC, and that was only further highlighted by losses over the next few years to Cheick Kongo, an up-and-coming Junior dos Santos, Frank Mir, Brendan Schaub, and Roy Nelson.