The world's most dangerous man legally changed his name to Ken Shamrock in tribute to Bob Shamrock: owner of the Shamrock Ranch Facility for troubled boys in Susanville, CA and helped turn Ken away from a life headed towards crime and violence along with fellow adopted brother Frank Shamrock, who also turned out to be a champion MMA and UFC fighter. Ken claims to being abandoned by his parents and forced to sleep in cars as a child to survive.
Coming from his rough street upbringing, Ken Shamrockwas a natural for mixed martial arts and its no holds barred structure. He made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at the inaugral event on November 12, 1993. Shamrock won his first match against Patrick Smith with a heel hook in the first round but dropped his second match to the eventual four time king of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Royce Gracie: the eventual tournament winner.
The two hall of fame inductees squared off again at UFC 5 in May of 1995 in the first UFC Superfight where they battled to a slow moving draw that saw Ken battling very conservatively in respect of Royce's Gracie Jiu Jitsu.
Shamrock continued on in the UFC where he was successful, but dropped a match to UFC fellow legend Dan "The Beast" Severn at UFC 9 in 1996. He closed out the year in style with a win over Brian Johnston at Ultimate Ultimate with a choke. Ken Shamrock wouldn't compete in the Octagon again for six years, and it took some flagrant disrespect from the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, Tito Ortiz, to get him in there.
Before his highly anticipated bout with Ortiz, Ken spent the better part of six years cementing the foothold into his MMA legacy while competing in events like Pride where he won a few and suffered a loss due to exhaustion in his corner while battling the amazing Kazuyuki Fujita at Pride 10. A tough loss where Shamrock was faring very well for himself.
Back in the UFC, Shamrock's Lion's Den saw two of its members, Jerry Bolander and Guy Mezger, drop matches to former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz. At the end of a match where Tito raised his midle fingers and flipped off the Lion's Den, Shamrock went ballistic and a match between the two was soon signed. They fought at UFC 40 in one of the highest selling mixed martial arts Pay Per Views ever where Ortiz bested The Worlds's Most Dangerous Man and sent the Lion's Den a third loss.
After a two year sabbatical, Shamrock thrilled the UFC fans when he battled the ever entertaing Kimo Loepoldo at UFC 48. Kimo repeated what made him a legend in the UFC in the first place: he looked great, but lost. A knee bar submission brought Ken Shamrock victory in the first round.
2005 was a year of tough luck. Ken slipped while thwrowing a kick to the head of rising star, Rich Franklin. The youngster siezed the moment and landed a thunderous blow that ended the bout in the opening round. Adding to the bad taste in his mouth was the controversial stoppage in his match against Kazushi Sakuraba at Pride 30. Shamrock suffered a knock down and fell to the ropes preventing him from avoiding "The Gracie Hunter." Shamrock turned away and under Pride rules the bout was halted even though Ken immediately jumped to his feet totally coherent.
His adopted brother, Frank Shamrock, commented on the stoppage in an interview with the site Sherdog.com: "…if you’re sleeping with your head through the second rope, you’re in a bad way. He got clocked. He went down. According to the rules he was no longer defending himself and that’s the end of the fight. Was it early? Sure it was early. But was he getting his ass kicked? Yeah. It just depends on how you want to look at it. I tried to look at it abstractly and I saw a guy sleeping with his head through the second rope. That’s not good, because if I’m there, please somebody stop this."
At UFC 56, it was announced that Shamrock would be one of the coaches on third season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV which will culminate in a UFC 61 Shamrock and Ortiz rematch. Ortiz is the coach of the rival team.
Shamrock lost his second and third bouts with Ortiz, both by first round stoppages.
Ken Shamrock is the father of three sons: Ryan, Connor, and Shawn along with a daughter from his first wife. He also has 3 step children with Tonya, his second wife.
Ray Mardo
Ray Mardo is a former freestyle wrestler. The Austin Film Festival honored writer now spends his days as the webmaster of several websites about ultimate fighting championship and mixed martial arts, extreme championship wrestling, world championship wrestling, who is the coolest guy on the planet, and DJ training.
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