By Thomas Gerbasi

 

If you’ve followed mixed martial arts for any length of time, you’ve heard the stories. You know about the legendary Lion’s Den tryouts - tests of strength, skill and will that have broken so many over the years with their sheer intensity. The orchestrator of these tryouts, UFC hall of famer Ken Shamrock, didn’t give any breaks to any aspiring fighter, because on his team, if you passed the test, you were truly serious about your craft. 

 

And if you were serious, Ken molded you into a fighter. Guy Mezger, Tra Telligman, Vernon White, Pete Williams, Jerry Bohlander. All UFC veterans, all world class fighters.

 

So there’s got to be mixed feelings among the hopefuls who will eventually share a house with Shamrock when he coaches Season Three of the Spike TV reality series ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ On one hand, they’ll get instruction from one of the sport’s legends; on the other, they may have to go through hell to get there.

 

Shamrock smiles when asked if this type of work is something his future students should dread.

 

“I don’t think they’ve got to dread anything,” said Shamrock. “This is definitely a different atmosphere. These guys are coming in and they have a very small amount of time to prepare for their fights, because they fight every week. So, I’m not going to be able to wear them down and break them down, mentally or physically, to build them back up. I’ve got to take them from where they’re at, find their weak points, and improve on their games. That’s all I’m gonna do here.”

 

That should be more than enough for any rising MMA fighter because with over 12 years in the pro game, Shamrock’s credentials to speak on training and fighting are impeccable. And when he began fighting in the early 90’s there weren’t gyms in practically every city that specialized in teaching a complete MMA curriculum and there were certainly no reality shows to help launch careers. Shamrock sees the state of the game circa 2005 as a mixed blessing for the fighters.

 

“The way things are now, these guys are getting a lot of great opportunities, but at the same time, because there are so many ways of training out there and more schools out there, it makes it a whole lot more difficult to get into this position and be able to compete,” he said. “Where I came from it was tough because there was really no one to train with, but then again, there were very few people to come out and fight also.”

 

Yet once Shamrock began to fight, he stunned opponents with his well-rounded game, perhaps making him the first true mixed martial artist. And win or lose, he always left an impression with the fans, something that remains to this day.

 

“Honestly, I believe it’s the way I carry myself, the way I respect the fans, the way I respect the sport, and the way I respect myself and my family,” said Shamrock. “I’ve been brought up on respect, and respect is a very big part of my training, of my fighters’ training, in my family, and also with the fans. So I think that over the years I’ve been fighting that has touched a lot of fans out there, and therefore they stay pretty loyal to me. There are some out there that want the bad boy image, and I just don’t fit into that. So I have my good fans and then I have the ones that don’t like me, but everybody does know me.”

 

It’s that notoriety, helped by an entertaining style as well as a stint in pro wrestling, which keeps Shamrock in the public eye at the age of 41. In fact, the only fighter in recent years who has compared to him in terms of a love-hate appeal is his fellow coach on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, Tito Ortiz. And it’s safe to say, despite a one-sided win by Ortiz in their 2002 fight, that they still don’t care too much for each other. So how will six weeks in the same house together work out?

 

“This is totally gonna depend on Tito Ortiz,” said Shamrock, whose jaw tightens at the mention of his rival. “I’m one of those people that will roll with the flow and I will do what I need to do. But if I’m disrespected in any way, shape or form, I will confront that disrespect.”

 

Disrespect or not, the two are expected to meet in the Octagon again at the end of TUF’s third season. What’s going to be different in the rematch with Ortiz, other than Shamrock being almost four years older?

 

“Well, one, I’ve gotten healthy,” said Shamrock. “I’ve had some bad breaks along the way, but you pick up the pieces and go on. I feel like every time I’m getting stronger. My age has slowed me down in some spots but I’ve gotten a lot better in others so I think it outweighs the negatives. My hands are getting better, my movement on my feet is getting better, my grappling on the ground has always been good – I can sharpen that up because I had stayed away from it because of the knee injury – and I think by the time me and Tito step into the ring, I will be 100% and all my tools will be sharpened, and we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna get it on.”

 

But is a rematch truly necessary?

 

“Muhammad Ali lost to Joe Frazier; he got a rematch and he won,” explains Shamrock. “The best fights in fighting history are the rematches and the rubber matches. The reason why they’re so exciting is because when the guy loses the first time, they have history. They get to come back and they get to do it again to see if they can change the outcome. If they can, that’s what makes it exciting.”

 

And when you hear Shamrock talk about Ortiz, you can just tell that it’s more about wins or losses with ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’. This is truly personal, no show biz whatsoever. And Shamrock’s pride refuses to let him allow this loss to go unpunished.

 

“When I did lose, I don’t think I gave a good effort, and on top of it, it felt to me like he was disrespectful towards me and all the things that I had done for the UFC, and all the other things people had done for the UFC,” he said. “He just totally disrespected it. Tito’s just one of those guys, I think out of all the UFC, that gets under my skin the most, and I would just love to get in there and just put my hands on him and just get in there and cut it loose.”

 

Say whatever you want, but when next year rolls around, you’ll want to see this fight. 

 

Ken Shamrock wants to see it more, though.   

 

“This is my love, this is where I was born, so it’s always good to come home,” he said. “To have this man to fight, and to be able to come back on this kind of a fight, it’s awesome.”