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It is very easy for those who didn't see Cro Cop at his best in PRIDE and in his early career with K-1 to not understand why he is so highly touted as a striker. By the end of his UFC career. Cro Cop seemed to be nothing more than Cheick Kongo—an accomplished striker on paper used to hype up heavyweight prospects.

Unlike Kongo, however, Cro Cop's striking was legitimately terrifying in an MMA context. When he was at his best, Cro Cop rarely threw combinations in excess of two strikes—but the two strikes that he had mastered worked so well together that it wasn't even necessary.

Cro Cop's southpaw straight was among the best to grace our sport or kickboxing, and he threw it with such pace and power that it forced an overreaction from his opponents. Even experienced opponents such as Igor Vovchanchyn got drawn into using their right hand to parry Cro Cop's left straight.

This was tactical suicide because against Cro Cop, a fighter's right forearm should have always been in position to brace against the murderous left high kick. That was the catch 22 of fighting Cro Cop on the feet—if you committed to defending the high kick, Filipovic's left straight would shoot inside your elevated right forearm and bloody your nose. If you parried his straight or worse, attempted to slip it as Mark Hunt did, you ate the force of his legendary high kick.

Add in the savage body kicks (still rare to see done well in MMA) and it is easy to understand why Cro Cop was never the best heavyweight on the planet, but for a long time was the most feared.

To learn more about Cro Cop's methods, such as his sidestep left straight, I highly recommend checking out this article I wrote last year.