Remember that whole Mirko Cro Cop fucking the UFC and heading to Dream thing?  Well, it looks like Filipovic changed his mind wanted to honor his word held out for more money and will fight Junior dos Santos at UFC 103.  Let’s just look at the headlines for Kevin Iole’s two pieces on the subject announcing the split and subsequent recoupling:

Notebook: Cro Cop leaves UFC

UFC keeps Cro Cop in the fold

Hm.  That’s interesting.  Cro Cop didn’t return to the UFC.  The UFC kept him.  Let’s check out some other excerpts for both pieces.

Not long after stopping Mostapha Al-Turk in the first round of UFC 99 on Saturday at Lanxess Arena in his first fight in the UFC since back-to-back losses in 2007, Filipovic informed UFC president Dana White that he had signed a three-fight contract with the Japan-based DREAM.

After turning down much tougher opposition, including Cain Velasquez, who defeated Cheick Kongo later on the card, he wound up with the lightly regarded Al-Turk.

But instead of getting a shot at big names like Randy Couture or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and fighting his way into title contention, Filipovic opted to bolt for Japan.

Filipovic looked unsteady and hardly impressive in defeating Al-Turk, who is winless in the UFC. He never landed one of his vaunted kicks and the fight ended not from a punch but when he poked Al-Turk in the eye with his finger.

While speaking with reporters on a prefight conference call, Filipovic enthused about his return and said he was gunning for a title shot. All the while, he apparently knew he was in it for a one-fight deal.

Apparently, Filipovic, who is from Croatia, wanted to fight in Germany and use the UFC bout as a tuneup. He did and is now Dream bound, but he’ll almost certainly never fight in the UFC again.

As is his custom, Filipovic skipped the postfight news conference and could not be reached to comment on the DREAM deal.

And the follow up:

Heavyweight contender Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has signed a three- fight contract extension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC president Dana White said on Monday.

Filipovic’s rights were in dispute after UFC 99 when Yahoo! Sports, the Canadian Press and several Japanese newspapers reported that Filipovic was going to spurn the oral agreement he made with the UFC and instead fight for the Japanese-based promotion, DREAM.

But Filipovic never signed the DREAM contract and opted instead to honor the agreement he made over the telephone with White. Filipovic’s first bout on the extension will be against Junior dos Santos at UFC 103 in Dallas on Sept. 19.

White blamed Filipovic’s manager, Ken Imai, for the confusion over Filipovic’s rights. Imai could not be reached for comment.

That’s an interesting contrast in language, style, and verbosity.