THE GREATEST Croatian fighter Mirko Filipovic has been retired for over a year, but he still trains every day and looks ready for the toughest fights.

"That's the drug that I cannot give up," says Mirko as he was talking with journalist Dea Redzic in the private sports hall within his house in a quiet part of Zagreb.

He had to say goodbye to the MMA competitions due to a stroke he suffered during a practice. The conversation topics seem inexhaustible with Mirko, the MMA legend and a fighter who started training in a pigsty in his native Privlaka in Slavonia (a Croatian region), where he would spend nights hitting an improvised punching ball - that's how he perfected his killer high kick - but he often wants to talk about the situation in Croatia and Slavonia. His dream to see Croatia's progress is haunting him.

We remember how he welcomed us for an interview just before his fight with Roy Nelson, a rematch that he had been waiting for seven years since the American knocked him down in the UFC. Mirko was a hot topic in the fighting world, everyone knew that it might have been his farewell tour, but he was waiting with a question: "Will there be anyone else left in the country when I come back?" He told us about the money stolen, arrogant politicians, political patronage, and tax terror. One of the most powerful fighters in the world, who was physically never more ready, had never looked so powerless when he was talking about something.

"When I go to Slavonia, my soul hurts. The people left, we barely grouped one class in the elementary school in Privlaka. The politics don't offer solutions. Some benefited from the war, they became rich, and they are still stealing money today with the support of politics. While some people were losing their houses, some were making a fortune. If the Swiss came with their national treasury, we would fuck up that too," says Filipovic.

We asked him what he would do if he ruled the country one day

"We need someone who will say OK, we have to do this and that. I wouldn't get the second mandate, people would be furious with me, they wouldn't vote for me because I would have cut their privileges that didn't belong to them, but I would know that I had done something for my country. The politicians promise these things, but then as if the devil possesses them for those four years. Believe me, I really don't know whether it happens because of that kind of lifestyle - you enter the room and everyone stands up, you have the power to make decisions about everything, you are being driven in three or four automobiles, which is completely inappropriate, given our economic and social situation as well as our standard. We should look up to the foreigners - just look at the Austrian president who uses public transport and people don't even recognize him. How can Croatia compare to Austria? With what? Absolutely nothing, maybe the number of rivers or islands because they don't have a sea. Firstly, I would protect the most important minority in Croatia, and that is the private sector. The people working in the private sector are the most important minority. Yes, the private sector is a minority, and others that are employed in the public sector can never be fired, they are protected. "Doctor, please, I want to take a sick-leave, I watched a horror film last night, and I have a headache," and the doctor says: "Here's two months' sick-leave for you." God himself cannot boot them out of their jobs. And that's the only minority that I agree to talk about, the people who work in the private sector," says Cro Cop.