Catching Up with Frank Shamrock

by Ron Merrill

On Friday July 11th I contacted one of the true icons of Mixed Martial Arts, Frank Shamrock, at his office in San Jose, CA. After a short discussion, I hit [record] and it was on to business.

InsideFighting: I want to pick up right after Pride 26. You had been training Don Frye for quite some time. When you come back to the States are you then focused on your own training?
Frank Shamrock: No. I dont train all that much to be honest with you. I only get a couple days a week in when Im not training for a fight. I teach class every night, which is really my training. Im really hard on my body so I dont train much. Im sort of a businessman and I do the whole celebrity thing. I probably get two good days in and you know I lead a healthy lifestyle so that keeps me preserved.

IF: You had mentioned all the hard-knocks that Mixed Martial Artist take. I made a joke one time equating it to aging in dog years.
FS: (laughs)

IF: Its the toughest sport by far.
FS: Its true! I mean, physically as a sport its very damaging because theres so many different things and so many different things can happen to you to injure you while doing those things.

IF: You had mentioned on your website http://www.frankshamrock.com calling-out one of the Gracies.
FS: You know? I didnt. I dont know what the whole deal is. (laughs) He was making some stink about wanting to fight me, this [Cesar] Gracie guy, and someone went on my website and posted this up and I really wasnt aware of it. Then one of my fans sent me an email and said hey, this is on your website. So I went in and read the story and I was like, huh? The story was basically that he wanted to call me out and fight me. So I said, sure, Ill fight him. I asked him to call my office and he did. Ive got a promotional agreement that Im trying to get going, and Im gonna fight him.

IF: Wheres that going to take place?
FS: Well, I figure it will take place in Las Vegas. Thats the only place we can go to make a good chunk of money.

IF: Which promotion are you thinking about? Is this going to be an XFC match-up down the road?
FS: Um? Itll be something different.

IF: Are you keeping this one quiet?
FS: Yeah, I cant really tell you right now.

IF: You said you werent really aware of it when this guy called you out. Whats the beef?
FS: Personally, I think that hes just young and hes probably at a point where he thinks hes ready. Ive met him a couple times, you know Ive met just about everybody in the world it seems but Ive met him a few times. I think hes just at the point where he thinks hes ready to go against the big boys and Im more than happy to do it.

IF: Well weve got to see you back in the ring or octagon eventually.
FS: I enjoy fighting. Its hard to plan a life around with everything else, and eventually you get tired of it.

IF: You had mentioned that once you feel like youve succeeded at something its easy to get bored with it. But what was going through your mind before you came back to fight Bryan Pardoe? You mentioned a multiple fight deal possibly?
FS: Well I came back to fight as you know. I basically got bored. After I got bored of fighting, I got bored of not fighting. You know, the industry had kind of taken some bumps and stuff, and so I wanted to try to get back in and help that out a little bit and do some more fighting. Like I said, I was bored.

IF: Clearly Bryan (Pardoe) was a warm-up fight for you.
FS: Yeah. Hes just a big tough guy. I didnt know anything about him or anything. Id never heard of him.

IF: Its been about 4 months? About time for another one I think.
FS: Yeah its about time for another one. I think the next one will be this Gracie here.

IF: Are you going to consider defending your WEC Light Heavyweight title?
FS: Sure!

IF: Any forthcoming plans? Anything in the works?
FS: No. Ill probably fight like only once or twice a year for the next couple years and then Ill probably stop again.

IF: Is it true that you were told by Pride that you had lost your Japanese fan base?
FS: Um, yeah. Honestly I can see a portion of that and the reason why is I think the fan base has changed since I was fighting frequently over there. Its grown and expanded in different areas. When I was fighting frequently over there we didnt have television, we didnt have Pay-Per-View so it was more of a closed, educated audience. Then when it went mainstream with the pro-wrestling mixing, it brought on a totally different audience. So to say that the audience numbers have changed is correct because those guys are on television every month - national television, and you dont have to pay for it.

IF: It didnt seem to me that when you competed in Ultimate Japan that you were at any loss for acceptance.
FS: Oh no. All the old-timers know me. Im like an old time guy now kind of like an old revered guy. (laughs)

IF: Well you have hit that magic 30 mark.
FS: Yeah! (laughs)

InsideFighting: I know you said youre taking it a day at a time and youve got this Gracie lined up, but what about Pride? What about the big stage?
FS: I have an offer from Pride right now that I am very interested in accepting.

IF: Did they approach you about the Middleweight tournament?
FS: You know, they did but they werent really serious about it. They were like, eehhh. They werent taking it seriously.

IF: Do you still feel that need to fight Sakuraba?
FS: Yes, absolutely. I dont really know about the need but the desire. I think we have the same style. Thats why I want to fight him. Thats what I think would be fun about it. We have the same Japanese-based, chain wrestling, submission-fighting program. You know, my striking is much better and I think Id just clobber him. (laughs) The submissions and the movement is just fun. No one in the United States moves like that. Theyre either passive or wrestling aggressive. Therere no people that are in-between.

IF: Do you want to do a little word association with fighter names? Basically your quick thoughts, maybe some weaknesses. Lets make this interesting.
FS: Okay.

IF: Wanderlei
FS: Wanderlei? Caveman. Weaknesses? He comes in with his chin sticking out and leads with his head.

IF: Tito the current Tito.
FS: (laughs) The neewwww Tito. Tito is big, large, very large! His weakness is that he doesnt like to get hit. But his strength is he can take a shot.

IF: Chuck Liddell
FS: Chuck Liddell? He is scary. Yeah, I always liked him.

IF: Chuck seems like the consummate nice guy.
FS: He is, but not as a fighter. As a fighter hes a completely different person with the Mohawk and the whole thing.

IF: Vitor the new Vitor.
FS: I think hes awesome. I still havent seen that [fight with Marvin Eastman at UFC 43]. Ive seen some pictures of a big hole in Marvins head. His weaknesses? I dont know.

IF: Id love to see you come back to the UFC and fight this next name, Phil Baroni.
FS: Phil Baroni? I dont know. I havent seen enough of his fights. Hes good for the sport though I can say that.

IF: Come on Frank. A little smack-talk about Phil? Lets make some papers!
FS: Well I dont know Phil. Who is Phil? You know what I mean? Hes my kid brother. I dont know who he is.

IF: Murilo Bustamante.
FS: I think hes really good. Underrated. I dont know when hell fight again.

IF: Anderson Silva
FS: I like him. I like the jumping and leaping, the kicking. Weaknesses? The ability to block chain submissions.

IF: Carlos Newton
FS: Ah, the Ronin. Hes cool, very cool. His weaknesses are theres just no power in his striking but awesome, awesome grappling skills.

IF: How about Randy Couture?
FS: Randy Couture is Captain America, same story. Hes Captain America. He should run for governor and kick somebodys ass.

IF: How about Rampage?
FS: I like him. I really like him.

IF: Ricardo Arona
FS: I dont know much about him but I like the way he fights. Hes got a good tact. I dont know, I dont see any weaknesses on him.

IF: If you could wave a wand over Mixed Martial Arts in the United States to change anything, what would you do? What can be done?
FS: I would start over from the beginning.

IF: What changes would you make?
FS: Hmm? I dont know. I honestly dont know because although the sport was created by accident, it was still created.

IF: What do you think about an American version of Inoki-Bom-Ba-Ye with the WWE, UFC and one of the kickboxing organizations?
FS: I think it would go over big. I mean its all about talent and stars, and selling those people. If you look at all that the networks do, they get one person for 28 million dollars and they capitalize on that by building them into personalities and stars. With people that are already stars, you just have to put them out there in front of people and it sells.

IF: Do you think that if Vince McMahon were to purchase Zuffa it would be good or bad for MMA?
FS: It would be good. But the bad things about MMA are only going to grow, as it gets bigger. You know, its not going to get any less dirty like wrestling. Wrestling is the dirtiest industry there is but it has a giant community that supports it, follows it, moves into it and keeps it going. Were slowly building that. If we can expand that community or go mainstream then its all good.

IF: I just wanted to thank you for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
FS: My pleasure! I have a new line of training videos that just came out. We're in just about every martial arts magazine. You can find them at http://www.CenturyVision.com

Everyone should take a moment to check out Frank Shamrocks brand new line of training videos over at

http://www.CenturyVision.com
As always, they are exceptional!

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