Mirko Cro Cop Quotes

Whether it's Bellator, OneFC, World Series, whatever, the door's open for me. Financial stability is the most important thing for me.

I've been fighting professionally since I was 18, and I've been doing three or four fights a year, just doing camp after camp.

After I won my first amateur fight, I figured I would do fighting on the side while I was going to school. I got an offer after that amateur fight to take a professional fight. The opponent kind of wanted to have an easy win for her pro debt, and they said they'd pay me $1,500. I was like, 'Yeah, might as well get paid for what I was doing.'

I'm very happy to have been a one-club man, but I wouldn't shoot down guys who have gone off and played in multiple clubs either because, essentially, it is an earning that people are after.

I wanted to win the gold medal and then go home and further my education in college. I had no intentions whatsoever to become a professional fighter because I had heard horror stories about former boxers who made money but, in the end, ended up with nothing. I didn't want to be one of those guys.

Currently, I'm working with a company called DRL Promotions with my partners Dan Wise and Luis De Cubas. We're currently representing over 30 fighters.

I want the best money, and obviously the highest ceiling that you can be the best is in the UFC. But yeah, I praise Bellator. They gave me a great offer.

Fighting is my livelihood, and jeopardizing my body without a full understanding of conditions doesn't make any sense. No professional fighter will go into a risky match without a contract.

To do eleven fights in four months is pretty crazy. In some shows that we do in Asia, there are three or four fights over a six-month period, so you have time to recover and gain your stamina.

I went to college, I wrestled and I took some amateur fights. When I graduated, I wanted to start using my degree, but I figured I would start fighting professionally. Then I won 18 in a row and I fought Eddie Alvarez on pay-per-view.

Once I started fighting in UFC, things took a big U-turn. After my second fight, I came home and paid my mortgage off.

When I entered free agency, I said whatever team I end up on, I'm going to work.

I think a knockout over Elkins will really put me on the radar internationally.

I think for the UFC to re-sign me, that would be something that's great.

I'm a guy who likes to keep fighting five, six times a year, so if I ask for too much money, they might say, 'Well, we pay you too much. We can't let you keep jumping backwards and forwards and promote it.' The money I'm making is good to keep grabbing short-notice fights. I love them; they're my favorite ones.

I'm one of those heavyweights who'd like to fight as often as possible.

I've been a free agent a couple times now. It's a process. You got to be smart with your decisions.

Every fighter has a different agenda. Every promoter has a different agenda for their fighter. Every manager has a different agenda. So things change all the time.

I knew I wanted to fight. It's a great way to continue competing and not to mention actually make money. You can make a career out of it.

My dream has always been to be a UFC champion. It wasn't to be a main event fighter.

I'm a Chicago kid. So, of course, I'm open to playing for the Chicago Bulls if that's a team that's interested in me. At the same time, any decision that is made, it's never personal. It's always business. I have to make the right decision for me and my family.

People can say what they want about Eric Bischoff, and I've heard a lot of people make negative comments about him. I'll comment on his booking. His booking is not what I look for in wrestling, but that said, I will always be appreciative and thankful to Eric Bischoff for offering me the contract he did, when did because it saved my financial life.

I'm a superstar. And I move like a superstar in that Octagon, and I expect somebody to move like that when they signed that dotted line with me.

I'm lucky that I get to do the bigger movies and the smaller movies.

Leaving active duty was so I could become the best fighter in the world at my weight class.