Mirko Cro Cop vs. Mauro Ranallo
Bas Rutten teamed up with legendary heavyweight Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic to play a classic prank on his fellow commentator Mauro Ranallo in the PRIDE Fighting Championships.
During an interview with Ranallo backstage, Cro Cop called out the commentator for criticising his grappling skills in his last fight with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
The puzzled Ranallo assured him that he hadn’t actually called that fight, but Cro Cop insisted that he had and continued to berate him for it.
Eventually Cro Cop refused to answer any more questions and the increasingly nervous Ranallo made a swift exit from his dressing area, at which point Filipovic grinned and gave Rutten a wink.
Then the producer called Ranallo back to continue the interview, at which point he asked the production team to confirm his claim that he hadn’t called the fight, but they stayed silent and Cro Cop soon removed the mic from his hand and escorted him back out of his dressing room.
Others then went out to try to coax Ranallo into apologizing to the star, but then as Cro Cop came out and started bouncing on his toes like he was getting ready to fight he finally let the cat out of the bag and confessed it was all just a joke set up by Rutten.
“Of course I was scared, it’s Mirko Cro Cop!” Ranallo said afterwards, adding, “I’ve never been through anything like that in my life.”
