Only two weeks after the event in Zadar, the Final Fight Championship arrives in Osijek. The third event this year will feature the FFC debut by former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez.
The thirty-five year old American entered the world of free fighting with an impeccable bjj background, making his MMA debut in 1999. Only a year later he fought in PRIDE and in his first fight for the Japanese promotion he defeated Gary Goodridge by decision. Before coming to the UFC in 2001 he won the King of the Cage title in a fight with future UFC and Strikeforce contended Pail Buentello. Following five consecutive wins in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, in September 2002 he was given the opportunity to fight for the title with legendary Randy Couture. In the fifth round Rodriguez landed some merciless elbow strikes in ground fight, forcing Couture's verbal submission and becoming the first fighter of Mexican origin to carry the UFC belt. While preparing to fight "The Natural" he had help from the best fighters of the time – "Smashing Machine" Mark Kerr and Tito Ortiz. He lost the title in his first defense to "Maine-iac" Tim Sylvia.
Rodriguez continued his career fighting in Israel, Brazil, England, the Philippines, Russia, Poland, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, and after fighting Ante Delija in Dubrovnik, Croatia, he signed a three-fight contract with the Final Fight Championship. At FFC05 in Osijek, he will face 24-year-old Pole Blazej Wojcik who will go into the clash with the former UFC champion with the career score of 3-2.
Ante "The Walking Trouble" Delija will follow-up on a convincing win over Michail Lamprakis in Split with a fight against the biggest Albanian talent Egzon Selmani. Only two weeks after beating Bojan Kosednar in an excellent match, another Gladiator member Antun Racic will make his return in Osijek. He will enter the ring with talented Ukrainian Artak Nazaryan who boasts an undefeated record, having forced each of his four opponents to submission.
The successful MMA duo from Split is back as well – Ivan Gluhak and Matej Batinic. The welterweight Gluhak defeated Dejan Milosevic in his FFC debut and will now face Hungarian Laszlo Senyei (3-0 professional MMA score, 5-0 amateur score). Batinic will fight in the light heavyweight division against another Hungarian, Sandor Okros, who won 14 out of 16 fights in his career to date.
The kickboxing part of the FFC05 brings the return of the Superkombat Grand Prix winner Pavel Zhuravlev. "The Caiman" is already a well-known name to the Croatian audience, and he confirmed his knockout power once more against Luca Panto in Split. Also here is the "Son of Dracula" Sebastian Ciobanu. In his career, the Romanian has defeated Dzevad Poturak, Roman Kleibl, Mighty Mo, Ali Cenik and Doug Viney. Ivan Stanic, member of the OFC, WBC and KOTR world champion is set to have his first fight for the FFC in Slavonia, facing Josip Semren. Fight Channel viewers got to see Semren at the Sarajevo Fight 2 tournament. Two weeks after Zadar, veteran Igor Mihaljevic is back in action as well. After his fantastic left hooks defeated Varnica in Zadar, Cro Cop's sparring partner is waiting to find out the name of a new opponent as Slovenian Rok Štrucl was forced to cancel due to a knee injury.