Last week we detailed some of the highlights and big moments in the career of Royce Gracie. This week, we delve into the career of another one of MMA’s ‘godfathers’, Ken Shamrock ‘The Worlds Most Dangerous Man’.
Shamrock emerged as one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, headlining over 15 main events and co-main events in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships during the course of his career and set numerous pay per view records with his drawing power. In addition to being the first UFC Superfight Champion (the title that was eventually renamed the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC), Shamrock has been ranked by Inside MMA as one of the top 10 greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time. We’ll get into some of the reasons why after the break.
Shamrock became a big star in Japan fighting in a promotion, which he helped to form in 1993, called Pancrase, named by ’60s wrestling star Karl Gotch after the sport of Pankration in the ancient Olympics, which combined all different forms of fighting into one sport. Shamrock eventually had a falling out with Pancrase management in early 1996 and left the company to compete in the UFC full time. Shamrock left Pancrase with a record of 17-3, and all three of his losses have been rumored to be works.
After the first three Pancrase shows, Shamrock returned to America to fight in the newly formed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), despite fighting in Japan just four days earlier. The event was held under a one-night tournament format with minimal rules (in contrast to Pancrase, which had extensive rules and a gentleman’s agreement not to strike on the ground). Shamrock’s first opponent was Patrick Smith. In the opening seconds of the fight, Smith came forward and threw a leg kick, but Shamrock shot off the kick for a double-leg takedown. Following some ground and pound, Shamrock seized Smith’s right leg and dropped back, applying a heel hook, forcing Smith to tap out.
Shamrock’s opponent in the semi finals of UFC 1 was Royce Gracie. To start the fight, Gracie immediately shot for a takedown on Shamrock, who sprawled and following a brief scramble, ended up in Gracie’s open guard. Shamrock then grabbed Gracie’s ankle and sat back to attempt a heel hook. However, according to Shamrock, Shamrock’s arm had gotten tangled in Gracie’s gi and when Shamrock sat back, it pulled Gracie on top of him. Gracie then secured a gi choke and advanced to the finals. The bout was a source of controversy at the end because the referee did not see the tap and ordered the two fighters to continue fighting after Gracie had let go of the hold. Shamrock paused for a minute but declined, admitting to the ref that he tapped out and that it would not be fair for him to continue fighting.
Shamrock was originally scheduled to compete at UFC 2 but broke his hand after blocking a high kick while sparring with a teammate. He still wanted to compete, but when doctors told him that he might never fight again if he injured his hand any further, he reluctantly withdrew from the show.
Shamrock returned to the octagon at UFC 3 in an event that was marketed by the UFC as the ultimate rematch between two time champion Royce Gracie and #1 contender Ken Shamrock. After defeating his first two opponents, Shamrock advanced to the finals of UFC 3. However, when he learned Gracie had dropped out of the tournament, Shamrock refused to come out for the finals. Bob Shamrock, Ken’s father, tried to explain to him how much money Shamrock would make by winning the championship, but he refused. “When something is taken from you, you lose everything…everything I trained for, everything I had wanted…you get so hyped up for it and now it’s gone!” Shamrock said. AlternateSteve Jennum took his place in the final and won the title, having not fought previously.
Shamrock was unable to compete in his rematch with Gracie at UFC 4 either, as he was fighting in the King of Pancrase Tournament to determine the first champion of Pancrase. Shamrock defeated Alex Cook and future UFC Heavyweight Champion Maurice Smith in the opening round and defeated top Japanese fightersMasakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada in the final round to win the tournament. With this win, Shamrock became the first King of Pancrase.
At UFC 5 in April 1995, Shamrock finally got his rematch with Gracie in a match that would determine the UFC Champion. The match, called “The Superfight”, was the first singles match in UFC history and it was created to match the best fighters in the world against each other in a non-tournament format. The match was the most anticipated match in UFC history to that date, which resulted in a massive 260,000 pay per view buys. Hours before the event, the UFC suddenly instituted a 30 minute time limit, mainly due to pay per view time constraints. Both Gracie and Shamrock were upset at the sudden rule change. For Shamrock, it ruined his game plan, who had been training for months to utilize his natural advantages in size and strength to wear Gracie down over the course of two hours, not in spectacular fashion but incrementally. Shamrock did not change his strategy to better fit the sudden 30 minute time window which resulted in a dull match that did not live up to its high expectations. Shamrock and Gracie fought for the entire allotted time of 30 minutes along with 5 minutes of overtime before the match was declared a draw due to the fight not having judges. The fight ended in a draw, but most people watching the fight feel that, if the UFC at the time had ringside judges, Shamrock would have easily won the decision.
Despite popular opinion that Shamrock unofficially won the UFC 5 Superfight with Gracie, the UFC was still without an official reigning Superfight champion. Shamrock was then matched up with UFC 5tournament champion Dan Severn at UFC 6 to determine the reigning champion of the UFC. The ‘superfight’, a match presented as a fight between the “best of the best”, was still the match that would determine the UFC champion and the tournament winners would be considered the #1 contender for the newly created UFC Superfight Championship, the first single world MMA championship outside of Japan.
Shamrock proceeded to win the fight with Severn quickly and easily, choking out Severn in 2:14 to win the UFC Superfight Championship. Shamrock displayed excellent wrestling skills in this fight, having out-wrestled Severn, a four time All-American Division 1 wrestler at Arizona State University. With this win, Shamrock became the reigning UFC Champion and became the man who the tournament winners would challenge for the title. As the UFC Superfight Champion, Ken Shamrock was considered by many to be the best no holds barred/mixed martial arts fighter in the world.
At UFC 7, Shamrock successfully defended the UFC Superfight title against UFC 6 Tournament Champion “The Russian Bear” Oleg Taktarov, in what would have been a very lopsided decision victory for Shamrock if there had been judges. Shamrock again defended his belt against Kimo Leopoldo, who was best known at this time as the man who ended Royce Gracie’s consecutive UFC tournament wins dating back to their fight at UFC 3, at UFC 8.
After defending his UFC title at UFC 8, Shamrock was scheduled to face number one contender and rival Dan Severn at UFC 9. Severn was coming off winning the Ultimate Ultimate 1995 tournament and by all accounts Severn and Shamrock did not like each other. In a fight that would be called “The Detroit Dance”, both Severn and Shamrock circled each other with little to no contact for almost thirty minutes. “I took the center of the ring understanding that I was going to be fighting for my life and Dan never came at me,” Shamrock said. Severn later said that his strategy was to purposely not engage with Shamrock and wait for the fans to boo, hoping that the booing would affect Shamrock psychologically and force him to make a mistake that Severn could capitalize on. The judges eventuall gave a split decision win to Dan Severn, which upset Shamrock because he felt as though Severn had broken the rules by utilizing closed fisted punches to the head and headbutts.
After taking time off away from the octagon, Shamrock entered the UFC’s Ultimate Ultimate 96. Before the event, Shamrock promised to be aggressive in this fight to make up for the dance with Severn. Shamrock honored his word, demolishing Brian Johnston in the quarterfinals. Shamrock, however, broke the same hand during this fight that kept him out of UFC 2 and had to withdraw from the tournament.
After UFC 9, Senator John McCain was successful in pulling UFC pay-per-view broadcasts from numerous cable systems, including TCI cable, which greatly hurt pay per view revenue. Combined with money drying out and being burnt out from fighting, Shamrock left MMA for professional wrestling, signing with the World Wrestling Federation. Shamrock left MMA for pro wrestling while he was seemingly at the top of his game; he was in his prime and he was at this time considered by many to be one of the best fighters in the world. Shamrock was never the same fighter after the transition to pro wrestling, largely due to the amount of injuries he suffered while in the WWF.
In 2000, Shamrock made a comeback to the mixed martial arts scene following a 4 year hiatus from the WWF. He signed with Pride Fighting Championships and defeated Alexander Otsuka by TKO due to punches at the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals in the superfight. Shamrock was very impressive in this fight as he was able to knock out Otsuka, something that powerful striker and PRIDE superstar Igor Vovchanchyn could not do to Otsuka in their fight a few months earlier. This was the first ever Pride event to be broadcasted live in America and Pride strategically used Shamrock’s drawing power in America by making his Superfight with Otsuka the co-headliner of the event.
Shamrock engaged in a feud with Don Frye during his career in the Pride Fighting Championships. The feud ended in a match during Pride 19 – Bad Blood. In what was the last great match of Shamrock’s career, he lost a razor thin split decision even though he got several leglocks on Frye, who refused to tap and had his knees and ankles ruined in the process. Many feel that the war with Frye was the last great bout of Shamrock’s career and his final showing as a top level MMA competitor. Both Frye and Shamrock would go on to great decline after this point.
Shamrock returned to the UFC at UFC 40, three and a half years after the confrontations at UFC 18 and UFC 19, to fight Tito Ortiz in a title match for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Although it was understood that Shamrock was past his prime, many people gave Shamrock a good chance to win based on his punching power and submission skills. Shamrock showcased his power early in round 1, dropping Ortiz to one knee with a punch to the jaw. However, Ortiz recovered and went on to defeat Shamrock in a one sided fight when Shamrock’s corner threw in the towel after the third round ended. It was later revealed that Shamrock fought Ortiz with a torn ACL.
The rivalry continued as the two faced each other in a rematch, and eventually faced off as competing coaches in season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter. At the conclusion of the show, on October 10, 2006, at Ortiz vs Shamrock 3 – The Final Chapter, Shamrock was dominated again by Ortiz by KO after referee John McCarthy stopped the fight following multiple undefended fist strikes. Immediately after the fight, Ortiz initially celebrated his victory with a mocking “grave digger” routine and an offensive t-shirt that said, “Punishing Him Into Retirement” after giving him the finger. However, Shamrock approached Ortiz and, after the two talked for several seconds, Shamrock said they could put all of their animosity aside as it was always “just business”, shaking hands and burying the hatchet. Ortiz then declared that facing Shamrock had made him a better fighter and thanked Ken for “passing the torch”. Ortiz added in his post-fight interview that he has always looked up to Shamrock. Shamrock gave a gracious speech after the fight but left it ambiguous whether he would retire from the sport.
On November 21, 2003, at UFC 45, Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock became the first inductees to the UFC Hall of Fame. The event celebrated the 10th anniversary of the UFC.
Here’s Ken’s career record courtesy of Sherdog.com (via Wikipedia). You can click the link to view this breakdown as well as read up on more in depth details of Ken Shamrock’s career and personal life. I hope you enjoyed our second fighter profile. Next week, Dan Severn.
*Editors Note: Similar to my articles on the history of MMA, the UFC, and the other main organizations, these fighter profiles are fancy reproductions of the Wikipedia pages for these fighters, as well as some of my own thoughts, and tidbits from other great websites.
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