CRO COP TO GRAPPLE GRACIE AT DREAM 4

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CRO COP TO GRAPPLE GRACIE AT DREAM 4
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - by MMAWeekly.com Staff

Japanese fighter promoter Dream on Wednesday made official Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s return to the ring on June 8 at Dream 4.

As rumored, the bout will not be conducted under mixed martial arts rules. Instead, Filipovic will compete in a special-rules grappling match against Ralek Gracie.

In a post in his blog on the MMA-ID website, Filipovic stated, “Since there was no opportunity for me to fight under MMA rules in June, I accepted this challenge and I'm going to face Ralek under modified Abu Dhabi rules. The fight is set for two 5-minute rounds, there are no points, so the only way to win this fight is by submission. If we make the distance the fight will be automatically declared a draw.”

He continued, “This is a unique opportunity for me to test my ground game against top level competition and it's going to be exciting.”

Also announced for the Dream 4 fight card is an MMA bout between Hideo Tokoro and Darren Uyenoyama.