![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s Shamrock and Kimbo charging the UFC cavalry with Bellator standards raised. It’s one in the eye of the UFC no matter how much they pretend it’s a joke match up. This fight intrigues me, and its also getting a lot of media attention, something Coker knew would happen. I can honestly say aside from the Chandler vs Alvarez fights I am actually as excited to watch Bellator as I have been for any UFC fight. Something that should have happened years ago has been reignited under Bellator – a true, striker vs grappler match-up to rival fights of old like Tank Abbott vs Oleg Taktarov or Minotauro Nogueira vs Mirko Cro Cop. Giving us this match up now is a master stroke from Scot Coker, it’s a fight for the ages. Ken and Kimbo were due to fight all the way back in 2008 at Elite XC, but Ken had to be replaced on fight night by Seth Petruzelli after he cut himself warming up. A 51 year old washed up fighter vs a 41 year old brawler who has dabbled in MMA and boxing, and I admit that I also shook my head and muttered why Ken, why? Then the more I thought about this, the more excited I got. The MMA community let out one big sigh when this was announced. He hasn’t fought now since 2010, yet he feels it’s the right time to step out of the shadows and back into the lime light when he takes on back yard brawler Kimbo Slice at Bellator 138. Ken was a shadow of his former self, a fighter from the very beginning of his life who found it too hard to hang up his gloves. Robert Berry? Who is that I hear you ask. I even got tickets to see my hero when he came to London to lose to Robert Berry at Cage Rage 25. KEN SHAMROCK vs KIMBO SLICEĪfter the other 2 fights Ken had with Tito I was forced to watch his bouts from behind a cushion with gritted teeth. What it did tell us is that Tito got it right, and fighters have trained using his blueprint ever since. What he hoped to learn from guys that until then were his students, only he can tell us. While Tito bought a ranch in Big Bear to train at altitude and hire in guys like then Heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez to train with, Ken stayed in Detroit training at his Lion’s Den academy. As well as a changing of the guard and the gulf it showed between old and new, it showed what fighters needed to do to survive. This was such an important fight in the history of MMA. He was barely as dangerous as my dad, and it broke my heart. The fight was as one sided as it could get, Ken just couldn’t cut it anymore, the world’s most dangerous man had suddenly shot down the danger scale. I’m going to be honest, I thought Ken would give Tito a whipping – I was well and truly wearing my fan-boy glasses, and the world of MMA was a tint of Shamrock green. The pre fight commotion was massive, Ken threatening to beat Tito into a living death is one of the greatest MMA quotes of all time, and just added to the hype train as it gathered speed. He helped make the UFC what it is today and is the first man in the UFC to ever be multi skilled, the prototype for modern day MMA fighters. In the Far East fighting in Pancrase and Pride he was a monster. Ken Shamrock was single handily responsible for introducing me to the sport I love, and I have followed his torrid career ever since. He was intrigued enough to do what most fans did in the 90’s, which was venture down to the back of the video store among videos like Faces of death, and Tetsuo the Iron Man, which is where he found UFC 3. In his early days Jim Ross used to say Ken hailed from something called the UFC, and Jon thought nothing more of it until he saw Ken fight in a WWF style cage match. Having a youthful obsession with martial arts, there was one man that stood out as someone different, one man that was not only crazy, but was technical, and would tie people up in all sorts of eye opening submission holds. Now it was all about leather waistcoats, Diva’s, and Stone Cold Steve Austin telling everyone what ‘ the bottom line was’, and it was all done with a pelvic thrust and middle finger up to authority. Gone were the feather boas, clown costumes and telling kids to eat their vitamins. One was Baywatch, the other was the WWF, and to be more precise the Attitude era. As an awkward teenager uncomfortable in his own body, trying not to focus on spots, body odour, and involuntary erections, only 2 things could help him tear his mind away from such teenage angst. A young Jon Shipman sits aside his friends circa 1997. ![]()
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