Orsat Zovko: Such a great event did not deserve an empty venue!

June 9th, 2014

Orsat Zovko: Such a great event did not deserve an empty venue!

The FFC 13 event that took place Friday June 6 in Zadar, Croatia, was followed by the press conference with the FFC President, Orsat Zovko, FC Editor-in-chief, Marko Petrak, main star of the event, Igor Jurkovic, local hero, Ante Verunica, excellent fighter Shkodran Veseli as well as Jurkovic's opponent from Cape Verde, Luis Tavares. Zovko was pleased with the event, but he was disappointed with the number of visitors. However, the fighters were in a quite a good mood since they all scored impressive victories.


FFC President made an opening statement. Zovko decided to bring FFC to Zadar once again in hope that the number of visitors would be better than the last year since there were three local fighters included in the fight card.


“This was yet another great event in the FFC organization and I believe we are all happy and pleased with Igor's victory who returned to the victory path. We did everything to offer a great event to the spectators. I would like to thank Denis, director of the Sports Center Visnjik, as well as Mirko whom we molested on daily basis. We molested Josip a bit more last year. The matches were great, we made it our routine and things are going extremely smooth when it comes to the organization. However, we are never completely satisfied. But I have nothing to say to my team, we do event by event and we are getting better and better. I hope we'll deliver more great events by the end of the year“, said Zovko.


After that he made a comment about the fighters who performed at the event: “I would like to stress that we have Ante and Skhodran here with us. They did, together with Igor, the best two matches tonight. I've been following Ante's career a couple of last years and this was one of his hardest matches, but it was technically the best on his part. That was a top level match and he delighted us all. I am happy with him and he will get another chance to fight for FFC. When it comes to Skhodran, I don't have to waste my words in his case. This guy is now European top class and he is on his way to the top. We will help him to make it there as soon as possible. He is a type of a fighter I respect a lot, no compromise from the beginning to the end. I would also like to mention Ivan Brkljaca. The guy got beaten up so bad, he was demolished, but he never thought about giving up. He was bleeding all over, from his nose, he suffered an eye cut… He was completely demolished. But he would stand up again and he made it really hard for Batinic. That was one of the most attractive matches I've seen lately. We will surely call Ivan again.”


After his quick and convincing victory, Igor Jurkovic was brief and clear. "In Denver I was not really myself, but I'm back on the winning track and I think Luis and I provided a very attractive and a good match and that the audience enjoyed it along with me. I was preparing with my coach Leonardo and our tactics proved to be good. We are both pleased. Now I will take a break and start all over in autumn.”


His opponent Luis Tavares did not provide the kind of performance that was expected of him. "This was not a good match for me. Crowd was on Igor's side and he was a better fighter. I have no excuse. Tonight he was better“, briefly said this 22-year-old fighter form Cape Verde.


Local hero, Ante Verunica, defeated excellent Elmir Mehic in a fight that was probably the best fight in his career. He was, of course, extremely happy: „I would like to thank FFC and my coaches. My opponent was good, in fact, he was excellent, but we did our best to stop him in his intentions. This was probably the best match in my career. Everything was at the top level and I think I deserved this victory. I hope it will not be the last one.”


After an excellent fight in Osijek, Croatia, Skhodran Veseli did yet another amazing match. „I would like to thank Orsat Zovko and Marko Petrak who gave me the chance to fight at FFC 13. It was all great. Zadar was great and people too. I had three fights for FFC so far. Now I fought Konsky. He is an excellent Muay Thai fighter and he fought excellent guys. I prepared well for him. It was a good fight. I would like to thank the FFC team”, said the Albanian fighter whom Zovko once again praised calling him the most likely candidate for the FFC belt title.


At the end of the conference, Zovko once again made a comment on the Zadar audience: „We will not return to Zadar because we cannot afford such a luxury. This was our second try and we did everything at the top level. I would like to thank everybody who tried to help us, but we simply cannot afford it. We worked hard, we invested a lot of money in the production and then we had empty venue in the end. We tested some cities and we were always sold out in Osijek and Porec. We simply have to go where people wanna watch us. We have offers from European capital and this year we will visit one of the top European destinations. We already have a date set in Vienna. Unfortunately, it is like that. We did not deserve empty or half empty venue. Once again I would like to thank to everybody who helped us.”