Igor Jurković (born 15 July 1985) is a Croatian heavyweight kickboxer fighting out of Poreč, Croatia. He was 6 times Croatian national champion 2004, 2005, 2006 in Thai boxing, and kickboxing champion 2005 in full contact, 2005 and 2006 in low kick rules, and also was sparring partner of Mirko Cro Cop. He has fought in K-1 and he is under contract with Glory promotion.
Since of 2 November 2015, he is ranked the #8 light heavyweight in the world by GLORY.
Biography and Career
Igor "The Istrian Warrior" Jurković was born in the city of Poreč, Croatia. He started kickboxing after watching Mirko Filipović knocking out Mike Bernardo, and as Bernardo was falling down, a new kickboxer, decisive to continue Croatian kickbox glory was rising. Igor was six time Croatian kickboxing champion, also W.A.K.O. amateur world champion under Muay Thai rules, also winning bronze and silver medals on other W.A.K.O. championships.
"Le Grand Tournoi" He was K-1 Rules "Le Grand Tournoi" 2006 champion. He had a walkthrough in quarter finals because Frédérique Bellonie, last year's champion, suffered injury before tournament. In semi finals he defeated Frédéric Sinistra and won tournament defeating Magomed Magomedov in the final. Tournament was promoted by the K-1 organisation, it was only a prize tournament, not a K-1 qualifying tournament. After that he had a break in his career because of injury sustained while falling off the motorcycle, but successfully returned to kickboxing and won few international tournaments.
Golden Glory
In 2011 he signed for Golden Glory, and successfully passed his first test on United Glory 14 event. He knocked down Pavel Zhuravlev in the first round, in the second round he dropped Pavel and broke his nose, causing ringside doctor to stop the fight. After the fight Head Kick Legend magazine ranked Jurkovic as 20. heavyweight kickboxer in August 2011. He "sneaked" there due to a Win against Zhuravlev.
It was later announced that Jurković is scheduled to participate on K-1 World Grand Prix 2011 in Nanjing Final 16 on October 29. 2011, however the event was canceled as K-1 was suffering from financial problems.
2012
On 10 March 2012 he made another big step defeating Freddy Kemayo on "Cro Cop Final Fight", he won in a close fight after extra round.
He was expected to fight Ali Cenik on United Glory 15, but it was later changed and he faced Zabit Samedov, losing the fight via unanimous decision after suffering first round knockdown. Later in the fight Jurković was at least equal fighter, but knockdown was enough for Samedov to take deserved victory. In an interview after the fight he said that he was not ready for two tough fights in that short time.
He was scheduled to fight for the championship belt of Cristian Bosch under WBC Muaythai organisation, but he gave up because he was also scheduled to fight in the Glory summer tournament that was planned to happen in Ukraine but cancelled. In an interview Jurković said that he was sorry he could not fight for the belt as he believed that he could take it easily, and that he was never into Muay Thai but he felt the belt would have suited him.
Glory World Series have announced a Glory grand Slam heavyweight 16 man, one-night, single-elimination tournament event in Tokyo, Japan in December, and Igor is expected to be one of 16 participants.
October 6, 2012, Brussels, Belgium, Glory 2, it was last test before Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam, and another great victory. This time against Gregory Tony. Power advantage was on Jurković's side at the very beginning of the fight, his quick distance closing and power hooks were too much for French opponent. In the second round, after a punch Gregory's hand suffered a fracture, an old injury witch reopened. But that does not diminish Jurković's victory, which was achieved with many powerful body shoots. Three knockdowns in round two and referee stops the fight.
Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam
He competed in the sixteen-man 2012 Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam at Glory 4: Tokyo - 2012 Heavyweight Grand Slam in Saitama, Japan on December 31, 2012. At the opening stage, he faced Anderson "Braddock" Silva and gave up ten kilograms in weight. He lost via TKO when the referee stopped the bout in round one after he was floored twice.