Mirko Filipovic is convinced that his career nearly came to an end on Thursday morning. Forget the fights. Forget the bloody battles he's been in, the knockouts he's suffered, the countless training sessions he's suffered through. This was serious.
The Croatian heavyweight, the Pride legend and veteran of nearly 40 MMA bouts, the great "Cro Cop" was nearly done in by a couple of stairs.
In his defense, the stairs were wet. It was raining out and he was headed off to training, but as he bounded down the stairs his foot hit a wet spot and he almost went down hard.
"I can't believe I didn't fall. I cannot remember when I was so scared," he said. "I could have broken my spine just like that. My foot slipped on the stairs because it was wet, and I was shaking for five minutes because I was so close, and I was so happy."
For Filipovic, the lesson in all this was clear right away. He's known his whole career that, in this sport, it could all be over in an instant. But it's one thing to know it intellectually or theoretically, and another to feel that fluttering fear that comes when your feet slide out from under you -- that irrational, trembling panic. He got the message: you're on borrowed time, pal.
For the 37-year-old Cro Cop, it won't necessarily take a freak injury to push him the rest of the way out of the sport. It could be as simple as getting beat by Roy Nelson at UFC 137 next Saturday night, and he knows it.
