The 5-minute Interview: Mirko Filipovic, Politican and cage fighter

From news.independent.co.uk

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be ...

In the gym. I train from 7am until 9.30am, six mornings a week, boxing, or conditioning, or doing weights. Because I spend so long there, I just had a gym put in my house.

Maybe the reason Cro Cop has droped the last two fights in a row is that he is not training in a proper camp. The proper camp includes coaching and sparring partners.


A phrase I use far too often is ...

"Catastrophe." It's the same word in Croatian and English. Every time something goes wrong, or there's a disaster, we just go "aargh ... catastrophe!"


A common misconception of me is ...

People think I'm a cold person, or that I'm hard to make contact with. Even the other fighters say that. But it isn't true: I like to play practical jokes. Maybe people find it hard to believe that a cage fighter can have a sense of humour.


I wish people would pay more attention to ...

Each other. I wish people would try a little harder not to hurt each other. I don't mean hurt as in what happens when people like me punch each other in a cage, but in the other sense, the emotional sense of the word.


I'm not a politician but ...

Actually I am. I have been a member of Croatia's parliament for four years. I'm, an independent MP, though I was elected on the list of the Social Democratic Party, and my politics are centre left.


I'm very good at ...

Playing cards. I don't drink but I often have friends round and we play Belot. I also play chess. I'm better than most of my friends, though obviously I'mnot good enough to play professionally.


But I'm very bad at ...

Tennis. I just can't do it.


The ideal night out is ...

A night in. I don't drink, so hardly go out at all, except to a local coffee bar in Zagreb, which I own and visit every afternoon.


You might know me asa cage fighter, but in another life ...

I would hardly have changed a thing. I am very satisfied. The only other sport I would have done, given the chance, would be football.


My biggest weakness ...

Is that I'm too open to people, and too ready to help. Of course, I'm an MP, but I have paid the price for it too many times.

Your biggest weakness is your ground game.


The best age to be is ...

Fifteen. You're at school and, there's nothing to worry about. Your parents take care of it all.


In a nutshell, my philosophy is ...

Pretty simple. Live and let other people live.