As we reported (and reported *first*, at least in the English language) yesterday Jerome Lebanner will be Mirko Cro Cop’s opponent at DREAM.4. As you might expect, Mirko is a huge deal in Croatia and the mainstream media there is all over the news today:

Croatian gladiator Mirko “Cro Cop� Filipovic found out the name of his next adversary in the second DREAM show which will take place on June 16, this year at the Saitama Arena in Tokyo, it is written in the official blog of the Croatian fighter.

His name is Jerome LeBanner, French K-1 fighter, best known for his hitting skills and attractive fights.

Although LeBanner is still part of MMA sports, where he won three fights, drew one and lost another, his experience and physicall structure represent a real challenge to all fighters, also to Mirko. These two fighters have already met each other in October 1996, when Mirko won according to the referee’s decision, and the fight itself was spectacular.

I didn’t do any editing on the quote, so there might be some misspellings and grammatical errors. English is likely the third or fourth language the Croatian journalists speak so deal with it…

We had a full analysis of the matchup yesterday as well:

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Jerome Lebanner @ The Savage Science

Cro Cop vs. Lebanner at Saitama on June 16 @ Javno Sports