KEN SHAMROCK - THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS MAN

“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” Ken Shamrock 03/26/05

Eric Gargiulo: Ken Shamrock welcome back to the program. How are you?

Ken Shamrock: I am doing great. I am just preparing for this fight on April 9, we are going to be on Spike TV it’s the first time ever that we will be on regular television, regular cable so we are pretty excited about it.

Eric: How is your knee holding up since your last fight and through training?

Ken: It’s been good man you know my training’s going well everything seems to be falling right into place. You know I am really excited about stepping in there against Rich Franklin. He has got a good reputation and he seems like a pretty good guy. He’s got great skills and I get to step in there and challenge myself once again so I’m pretty excited.

Eric: Do you thrive as the underdog going into this fight?

Ken: Yes I am. It is one of those things where everybody is going to doubt. As you get up in age people are going to question whether or not you can still do it. I think for me it is not that I take it personal it is just a natural instinct for people to question when you turn 30, or 40 they are going to question whether or not he’s still got it. For me I take that as a personal challenge for myself to go out there and prove to myself that I’m still in it and I can still do it.

(Eric comments how fighters like Ken and Randy Couture are proving the age myth wrong and are not slowing down)

Ken: When you find a true competitor, someone that truly enjoys competing, not against other people although that is part of it. But to compete against yourself, that defines true challengers defines true people that way and I enjoy competing against myself because everyday that I go into training and I train I have to challenge myself more than a kid that comes in there at 30 or 31 or even 22. They recover quick, and they bounce back fast but for me it is a challenge every single day to go in there and keep going so I enjoy that challenge for myself everyday, it keeps me young, it keeps me excited, so I enjoy it.

Eric: I read an interview in which you said that you have changed your training from your fight with Tito to your fight with Kimo. What kind of changes did you make?

Ken: Yeah when I trained for Tito there were a lot of things I could not do. I had some injuries and different things like that kind of kept me from doing different stuff that I actually wanted to cut the weight that I need to cut to get down to 205. I wasn’t able to do the things that I needed to do and I did not get to spend a lot of mat time. What I did was basically I went and got myself fixed up and I got back into training and I was able to train properly t he way I needed to in order to win a fight. I went out and got different people to help me change up my program a little bit. I got some different people to spar with not that my guys were not good enough but I have been training with them for ten, twelve years, and I was just getting too comfortable. So I challenged myself once again and I went out got some different sparring partners and they push me everyday, they were young kids trying to prove themselves at the same time so every time I went into practice I was always having to fight, always having to go for it, so it worked out real well for me.

Eric: As a fighter how great of an accomplishment was Bernard Hopkins’ twentieth straight successful title defense? How rare is that in fighting?

Ken: That’s real rare you know and that’s an accomplishment that Bernard should be real, real proud of and something he will probably hold for awhile. I am kind of excited about my challenges that I am going through at the same time. I want to do things in this sport that no one else has never, done and I have done a lot of things like that already but I continue to want to do more. Bernard Hopkins is somebody that you like it and go, “Man that dude’s just incredible.”

Eric: What were you thinking at UFC 51 when Tito left the cage and started running through the crowd?

Ken: You know, the minute you think the guy is going to do something well like for instance when he fought Vitor Belfort I thought both of those guys came out, put it on the line and tried to win the fight, and that’s something that we hadn’t seen in awhile from either one of them. I thought that was awesome to see that. So, you start getting respect for Tito because he got hit hard in the first round, Vitor pretty much dominated him in the first round and then he comes back in the second round and pulls himself together although I still think he lost the second round. In the third round he came on so strong that he totally dominated Vitor Belfort. Then as you start to get that respect for him he jumps out of the ring and runs into the crowd. That fight was not a blow out, that fight was close! It could have been 2-1 Vitor’s way or it could have been 2-1 Tito’s way, it was very close. I had the fight as I was watching it a draw. Just for the fact that Tito Ortiz came on so strong in the end that he made that second round probably sway a little more in his favor. I would have said that fight was a draw. So when he went out in the audience like that it’s just like everything he did in the fight just kind of went to the side like you know, he totally disrespected Vitor Belfort by running out in the crowd and doing that. He gave his competition no credit.

Eric: Do you think Tito really wants to fight you or he tried to use you to manipulate himself into a better bargaining position for a new contract?

Ken: No I think and he has been doing this all along so it has been proven that he doesn’t want to fight. Because prior to him fighting Vitor Belfort, prior to him even having a contract to fight Vitor Belfort, that fight was presented to me and Dana White, and Vitor Belfort, and Tito Ortiz decided to put that fight on but Dana White said that I would fight Tito next and asked if I would want to fight him and I said, “Absolutely.” Well then when the fight was put to Tito Ortiz he made every excuse in the book not to fight me. But yet continue to say he would fight me in the public’s eye he would always say, “I’m not afraid. I’ll fight him, I’ll fight him.” But when it came down to actually signing the papers and fighting he never did it. So, I think there is a lot of talk that goes on with Tito Ortiz and what people don’t really understand is that he is not willing to fight me. But he will say that on interviews, on the Internet, on websites, and he will say that I’m not doing this, and I’m not doing that. The reality of it is that Dana White put the fight out there, the fight was supposed to happen and he didn’t take it.

Eric: Have you had any talks regarding your future with UFC following the fight regardless of the result?

Ken: No because right at this point in time I don’t get involved with negotiations, I leave that up to my agent because I have tried to do this kind of stuff before and it just doesn’t work out while trying to prepare for a fight. So I don’t get involved with interviews and things like that when it comes to my future in the UFC. I’m very confident in Dana White and the UFC for them if I choose to fight another fight which I would like to that we will make something happen. Dana White and the UFC have been good to me and I don’t see any reason why we would not be able to do something after this fight. I’m not going to negotiate anything before this fight because I am preparing and I am very focused on this fight.

(Eric comments that with the cross over now of UFC and wrestling fans that Ken is the perfect spokesperson for both.)

Ken: Absolutely and that is the great thing about this fight April 9 is that it is the grand finale of the Ultimate Fighter and Ultimate Fighter does come on after the WWE. But yet still they haven’t even really promoted it yet on the Ultimate Fighter. But when they do and the wrestling audience gets wind that I am going to be fighting on that show it is going to pull a lot of that audience to that show Saturday April 9.

(Eric comments that due to the lack of publicity on Ken’s fight he wasn’t even sure if the fight was still scheduled prior to the interview.)

Ken: Yeah there has been no advertisement and I don’t know what their reasoning for it is but it does not really matter to me because right at this point in time I have to focus in on training and having to prepare for it so whatever it is I am sure they have got their plan on whatever it is going to be so I am just riding the wave, waiting for my time, waiting for the lights to come on, the camera to come on, and Big John McCarthy to go, “Let’s get it on.”

Eric: Do you think MMA can over take Pro Wrestling in the sports entertainment business?

Ken: Absolutely not I think wrestling has its’ fans it will always have its’ fans. Wrestling’s been around forever and it has its’ ups and it has its’ downs and it has always been that way and I think it is going to continue to be that way. I just think that the UFC and Mixed Martial Arts are a different type of event. Wrestling’s going to have its’ movie-type characters and it is going to draw that audience. And the UFC is going to have more of the show-time type fights where you have people, that in there and actually fighting. You are not going to have your big ups and downs because it’s a fight. I think it is just that it is a different event and for people to worry whether it is Vince McMahon, or it is UFC, or it is anybody else wondering if this is going to overtake wrestling, I think boxing has to be more worried about that than wrestling does.

Eric: Do you think that it is too hard for UFC to compete financially with the other MMA companies?

Ken: Yeah and you have seen some of that happen with the UFC losing some of their fighters to Japan because they were willing to pay them a lot more money. But, it doesn’t necessarily mean and I think people need to understand well the fighters, not people the fighters really have to understand that if you are in this for a short period of time and that’s your goal, just to make money then you will see them jumping back and forth. But if you are in this because you enjoy the sport and you want to see this thing go, and you want your reputation to last you can’t jump around. You know what I mean? You have to find something that you are enjoying or that you want to do. UFC is something that I helped create and I want to see it stay here. Not saying that I won’t go over to Japan and fight if that’s where it leads me. But I will do everything in my powers to stay where I’m at, stay where I’m comfortable.

Eric: What are your thoughts on the Ultimate Fighter television show?

Ken: You know I would have done it differently, it’s doing great. It is doing great ratings and things like that but you have to be careful that you don’t create a monster to where you can’t control something once it gets big. It’s hard with these kind of fighters that come in there. They’ve got some good skills, they’re tough but it’s like, they need to earn that spot. You know they’re being given a contract and you got guys coming in off of the show that are disrespecting the President of the UFC, on live TV. You got guys disrespecting the home in which these fighters live in. You got guys disrespecting other guys by doing things to their bed or pouring water on them, pissing on them, or doing those type of things you know what I mean? It’s all entertainment, and it all looks pretty good on TV, and it all makes the people want to come back and watch the next week. But what kind of people are you going to have once you give them that contract and they win a few fights, are you going to be able to control them when you can’t control them in a very small type setting? You’re hoping that the guy that respects this business and respects the fighters is going to get that contract but that doesn’t mean that it is necessarily going to happen. You get a guy that doesn’t respect that and he gets that contract and he wins a few fights, man you got somebody that is going to be worse than Tito Ortiz! You know? You have to protect your sport man. Boxing had a lot of bad, bad people wear that championship belt, it hurt them, and look at where they are at now as opposed to prior to that because you have to protect your business man, you have to protect the people that you have coming up, and if they are not going to respect it you don’t give them a chance.

(Eric comments that that is what helped Ken when he went from MMA to the WWE. Eric notes that Ken spent a lot of time working on the indys and in Japan early in his career in MMA)


Ken: Absolutely and what happens with that is the fans with wrestling, not so much the UFC, but with wrestling the fans don’t want to see a guy get in there who is just up and coming and beat Ric Flair or beat Hulk Hogan or beat The Rock. They want to see guys work their way up the ladder and earn on that spot on there and right now the wrestling business has so many new faces and they are shoving them down the fans throats. And I just don’t think it’s getting over.

Eric: Did you ever see the tape of the Daniel Puder-Kurt Angle shoot from Smackdown, and if so what are your thoughts on it?

Ken: No I didn’t. Was that on TV? Well who knows whether that was real or not (laughs)?

Eric: One last wrestling question before I let you go. What do you remember about the night of Survivor Series 97’?

Ken: Yeah, you know actually I was in the locker room when Vince came in to talk to Bret and we all got shoed out of the locker room and then Vince and Bret. I think Bret had, well I don’t remember which one he had in the locker room with him and I think Vince had one or two people in the locker room with him but everybody else got shoed out. And rumor has it that Bret punched Vince and I guess that’s what Vince wanted to happen (laughs). Because then one could sue the one and the other could sue the other. I don’t know how it worked out because I wasn’t there to eyewitness it but it was definitely an interesting story and there was nothing fake about it, you know they swerved Bret and Shawn got the win. The thing with that is Shawn Michaels had to do what he had to do and Bret had to do what he had to do. Who knows what was said behind closed doors but I do know it wasn’t fake.

For more information on Ken check out Kenshamrock.com and for more information on the Ultimate Fighting Championship check out UFC.tv




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