Why this is the earliest card
The 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73 should stay at the head of his run, and the archive is right to call it his earliest card rather than his rookie card. Sports Card Investor keeps a price-guide entry for it and PSA-graded copies are catalogued at that number, so the card and its number are solid; what is not solid is the word rookie. No manufacturer, grader or database designates any Cro Cop card a rookie, and the '(RC)' and 'Rookie' tags that attach to the 1997 Bandai, the 2001 Epoch and both 2010 Topps UFC issues come from seller titles and automated marketplace fields. Presented as the earliest card it is defensible; presented as a rookie card it is not.
The earliest Filipović card anyone offers, and the only one that predates his MMA career: a Japanese Bandai carddass card from the 1997 K-1 Grand Prix series, printed under his early kickboxing name 'Mirko Tigar'. It is his first solo card, four years before he fought Kazuyuki Fujita in August 2001, and copies surface almost exclusively out of Japan.
Listings sell the 2010 Topps UFC (Series 4) #6 Gold/Onyx/Ruby/Diamond and Bronze /88 parallels as 'the rookie' when they are parallels of the same base card. One eBay title bundles '#6 RC 137 115 110 99' as though those were all Cro Cop rookie numbers; #6 is his base card in that set and the rest are other cards in the lot.
Identifying it
- Card #73 in the 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix series
- Named 'Mirko Tigar' on the card, not Cro Cop or Filipović — the usual reason collectors miss it
- Japanese-language Bandai carddass format; the same series carries dual cards at #121 (with Jerome Le Banner) and #127 (with Ernesto Hoost)
- A PSA 6 example exists, cert 67784726 per the listing
What gets mistaken for it
| What you'll read | What's true |
|---|---|
| Cro Cop's first card is a PRIDE or UFC card. | His first cards are 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix kickboxing cards issued under the name Mirko Tigar, nine years before the 2006 DSE Pride set and thirteen before any Topps UFC card. |
Card milestones
Five separate questions, kept separate. How these are defined.
- Earliest licensed card1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73 Probable
- First MMA card2006 PRIDE FC #055 High confidence
- First UFC card2010 Topps UFC Main Event #43 High confidence
- First certified autograph2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Ultimate Gear Autographs #UGA-MCC Probable
- Recognized rookie cardNone documented Uncertain
The evidence behind each
- 1997Earliest licensed card — Sports Card Investor maintains a price-guide page for '1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73 Base' under Mirko Cro Cop, and PSA-graded copies are catalogued at that number. No 1996 Bandai K-1 card of him surfaced in any index, and no earlier card of any kind exists — he began kickboxing in 1996. The number itself rests on a single graded listing, which holds the confidence at probable.
- 2006First MMA card — Cardbase's page for the 2006 Pride FC set names '#55 Mirko Cro Cop' directly, and marketplace copies agree. The 2006 DSE release is the first MMA-licensed set to carry him, five years after his MMA debut at PRIDE 17 in August 2001.
- 2010First UFC card — Main Event was released 24 February 2010, ahead of 2010 Topps UFC Series 4 (in shops by May 2010) and 2010 Topps UFC Knockout (December 2010), and he is not in either 2009 Topps UFC product. SportsCardsPro and Collectibles.com both carry the card at #43.
- 2010First certified autograph — Jeff Allender's Series 4 checklist lists 'UGA-MCC' under Ultimate Gear Autographs, hobby exclusive and numbered to 25, and Cardboard Connection's checklist for the same product lists 'UGA-MCC Mirko Cro Cop' in a 20-card Ultimate Gear Autograph Relics subset and dates the release 24 September 2010 — three months ahead of the December 2010 Topps UFC Knockout Fighter Autographs #A-MC the archive previously carried as his first. 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, released 24 February 2010, guaranteed an autograph per box and has no published checklist, so an earlier signature cannot be ruled out.
- —Recognized rookie card — SportsCardsPro answers 'No' on both 2010 Topps UFC issues; the rookie language attached to the 1997 Bandai and 2001 Epoch cards comes from seller titles and marketplace catalogue tags only. The archive is right to present 1997 Bandai #73 as his earliest card rather than as a rookie card.
Grading & population
Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.
Sources & research Probable×2Uncertain×1
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Mirko Filipović's earliest card: 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73 — Mirko Filipović.
Filipović has no card carrying an RC logo. His first three card eras are Japanese kickboxing and PRIDE issues, and by the time Topps put him in a UFC-licensed product (2010) he had been fighting professionally for nine years — SportsCardsPro's 'Is Rookie Card' field reads 'No' on both 2010 Topps UFC (Series 4) #6 and 2010 Topps UFC Main Event #43. Under the archive's earliest-card rule the key points at the earliest significant card: 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73, his first solo card, issued under his early kickboxing name Mirko Tigar. Two independent eBay listings and an ebay.co.uk catalogue entry establish the set (1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix) and that Mirko Tigar is Filipović; #73 itself is confirmed by a single PSA 6 listing, which is why the card's own confidence is 'probable'.
- eBayMirko Tigar (Crocopp) 1997 BANDAI #73 PSA6 K1 Rookie Card, accessed September 22, 2026
- 1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix, accessed September 22, 2026
- 2001 Epoch K-1 Grand Prix, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProMirko Cro Cop #6 | 2010 Topps UFC, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProMirko Cro Cop #43 | 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, accessed September 22, 2026
- NSListsUFC Round 1 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- eBayMirko Tiger rookie card K-1 1997 cro cop MMA, accessed September 22, 2026
1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73 — Mirko Filipović.
The set and the Tigar/Cro Cop identity are corroborated by several listings, but card #73 specifically appears in only one listing (the PSA 6). No checklist for the 1997 Bandai set has been located — no card-guide site covers Japanese carddass.
Copies available
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
Go deeper
- The card record1997 Bandai K-1 Grand Prix #73
- Mirko Filipović archiveKey cards and eras