{"id":540308,"date":"2026-03-14T16:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/540308\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:49:10","slug":"mirko-cro-cop-offered-fight-with-francis-ngannou-years-after-retiring-due-to-health-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/540308\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirko Cro Cop offered fight with Francis Ngannou years after retiring due to health issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mirko Cro Cop had a brilliant response when he was offered a fight against Francis Ngannou.<\/p>\n<p>Ngannou is set to return to MMA as the co-main event of Most Valuable Promotions\u2019 card on May 16.<\/p>\n<p>The bout caught plenty of fans off guard, especially after Ngannou later revealed that Rico Verhoeven was the original plan.<\/p>\n<p>Taking on \u2018The Predator\u2019 may seem like a huge chance for many fighters, but one MMA legend didn\u2019t hesitate to turn it down.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMirko Cro Cop laughed off the offer to fight Francis Ngannou in May<\/p>\n<p>              <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265330770-1024x683.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" border=\"0\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                    Photo by Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images\n                <\/p>\n<p>During a chat with RMC Sport Combat, Mirko Cro Cop mentioned he\u2019d been approached about an MMA fight with Francis Ngannou by someone he described as \u201ca serious guy,\u201d adding the person is the \u201cCEO of one big organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cro Cop, who finished his career on a high note back in 2019, walked away from fighting due to health issues, including a stroke. Since then, he\u2019s been selective about any opportunities that come his way.<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed out that even if he was interested, there wasn\u2019t enough time to get ready for a bout scheduled in May. He didn\u2019t specify whether the offer was directly linked to Most Valuable Promotions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018What do you mean, did you say fight? Did you use the word fight, or did you use the words playing cards, chess, swimming, or running? You mean fight?\u2019\u2026 I started laughing,\u201d Cro Cop explained. <\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cIf I had to fight now and they said make a list from the worst to the best that you will fight, of course, Francis Ngannou will be the last one that I fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Croatian legend joked that while he\u2019d only ask for $500k himself for such a bout \u2013 knowing full well it wouldn\u2019t end well for him \u2013 he\u2019d want to give his mother $19.5m after telling her what he was planning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should have called me three months before, but who would pay 20 million? Who would spend that money when he kills me?\u201d, he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mirko Cro Cop had a brilliant response when he was offered a fight against Francis Ngannou. Ngannou is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-540308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}