After seeing Jean-Claude Van Damme's performance in the film Bloodsport, he began training in his parents' garage with his father's boxing equipment and weights.

His father, who worked as an electrician for a railway company, fashioned his son a crude but effective punching bag filled with sand and cotton, and would bring home track scraps for Mirko to use for weight training.

[3] He defeated Jérôme Le Banner in his debut, but after losing to Ernesto Hoost in his next match, he turned his attention back to boxing and his law enforcement career.

He had success in both areas as a three-time national amateur boxing champion and later joined the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit where he served for six years until he was elected to the Croatian Parliament.

[15] At the time, he was working as a commando in the Croatian police anti-terrorist unit Alpha (stationed in Lučko near Zagreb), which earned him his nickname "Cro Cop".

He defeated veterans Kazuyuki Fujita (twice) and Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba, while drawing with Nobuhiko Takada and reigning PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva.

Cro Cop then defeated Dos Caras Jr. via head kick KO in 46 seconds, and then told the fans that he would see them in his next fight for the title against Fedor Emelianenko.

Cro Cop dominated early in the stand up; even knocking Nogueira down at the end of the round which prompted Yuji Shimada to wave the fight off, but the bell had already rung.

[33] Coming into the 2006 Openweight Grand Prix, Cro Cop TKO'd two Japanese legends, Pancrase veteran Ikuhisa Minowa in the opening round, and 1992 Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida in the quarterfinal.

[34] On his 32nd birthday, he met Wanderlei Silva at Pride Final Conflict Absolute in the semi-finals, where he put on one of his best performances, defeating the Middleweight champion with his trademark head kick knockout.

At 7:32 of the first round, Barnett tapped to strikes, earning Cro Cop his first belt in his MMA career - the PRIDE 2006 Openweight Grand Prix championship.

Many have cited the performances that night as Cro Cop's finest - leading Wanderlei Silva's trainer, Rudimar Federigo to say, "That was Mirko's day.

[37] After winning the belt, Cro Cop revealed some more of his emotions behind the victory in the backstage interview with Frank Trigg, All I can say is this is the happiest day of my life.

[43] It has been speculated that the reason Cro Cop did not receive an immediate title shot - despite being ranked #2 across many media outlets - was due to his lack of popularity with the UFC audience.

[44] On 21 April 2007, Cro Cop faced Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70 in Manchester, United Kingdom to determine who would challenge reigning champion Randy Couture for the heavyweight title.

Cro Cop trained with Remy Bonjasky and Gilbert Yvel, and 2003 Abu Dhabi Combat Club champion grappler Dean Lister for this fight.

After the one-fight agreement with the UFC, it was announced Cro Cop was scheduled to return to Dream to face Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga on 20 July at Dream.10.

He then took his back and defeated Barry by rear-naked choke, earning him Submission of the Night honors which Cro Cop had joked to Dana White and the crowd earlier that he deserved it.

He revealed that the Canadian officials had asked for details of his activities in the Lučko ATJ in which he had served, his service starting several years after the Croatian War of Independence.

[65] There was a brief scare the weekend before the fight when Cro Cop suffered an eye injury in Croatia during his final day of training, but upon arrival in the U.S., was medically cleared to compete.

[66] Neither fighter managed to deliver any significant damage to the other until Cro Cop was defeated by Mir at 4:02 of the third round by KO due to a knee strike to the head.

[73][74] In the third round, after a break and restart, Cro Cop attempted to apologize for a late uppercut, failing to put his hands up to defend and leading to a straight punch by Blake that resulted in a knockdown.

In the final, he fought Ismael Londt and floored the Suriname fighter with his patented left high kick in round two en route to yet another unanimous decision victory to win the tournament, thirteen years after he had finished as runner-up in 1999.

[120] Cro Cop was scheduled to face Wanderlei Silva in a trilogy bout on 29 December in the Rizin Open Weight quarter finals.

Filipovic revealed he had previous neck issues which hindered his movement and balance and that physicians strictly forbade him to fight, fearing that a blow to the head might even render him paralyzed.

[134][135] Aside from his kickboxing and mixed martial arts career, Cro Cop had a special appearance for professional wrestling promotion Hustle, which was owned by Dream Stage Entertainment along with Pride.

[140] Despite the relative predictability of his technique, Cro Cop was able to hit it consistently by speed and timing,[141] gaining 28 KO/TKO wins in his career, of which four were by head kick alone.

On the other hand, his defense featured a signature left sidestep used to avoid his adversary's lunges and a solid ability to sprawl,[139] having stopped takedowns from Olympian caliber wrestlers such as Mark Coleman, Olympic judoka champions like Hidehiko Yoshida, wrestling champions like Kazuyuki Fujita or veteran wrestlers like Heath Herring and judoka and sambist Aleksander Emelianenko.

[139] His persona has inspired many newer generation fighters, notably Demetrious Johnson, who once referred to Cro Cop after his record-breaking title defense, saying, "There was a long time ago in PRIDE: (Mirko) 'Cro-Cop' (Filipovic), it was his birthday, and he had that look on his face like nobody was going to take that championship away from him... That's how I felt (Saturday).

Filipović admitted to the use, attempted use, and possession of human growth hormone (hGH) following an out-of-competition test conducted on 4 November 2015, in Zagreb, Croatia.