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Frank Shamrock: I tried to put a lot of money in my brother’s pocket but it didn’t get done
By Zach Arnold | June 28, 2010
- Josh Gross: Frank Shamrock’s legacy stretches beyond the cage
- Dave Meltzer: Early years of training damaged Frank Shamrock’s body
INTERVIEWER: “Emotional night for you as you just mentioning. Like how hard was it for you to kind of come to this decision?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “It really hard. I mean… This is my sport. This is what I do. This is what I love. This is who I am, so… You know, hanging it up is sort of changing a little of bit of who I am but you know it’s time. Change is good. It’s time for change and I’m not a young man any more.”
INTERVIEWER: “Was there any particular fight, though, that was still out there that kind of gave you hesitation about kind of hanging it up and wanting to see one more through?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “Well, I’d love to you know get some of my losses back and get victories over them but you know years ago I realized that it wasn’t about that for me. It was about this whole journey and this art and this experience and I’ve been looking for some guy to kick my ass. I mean, that’s what I’ve been waiting for, so, you know now that they’re here, it’s like, well maybe it is a good time for me to rest.”
INTERVIEWER: “On that note, everybody knows about the feud between you and your brother and what your brother has been saying. Like, is that something that you know you’ve thought about seriously doing at some point?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “Well, he’s my brother. Yeah. In the past? Absolutely, I mean it was my whole idea, the whole blood brothers. It just… Ken is way past his day and Ken should hang it up and you know I was hoping to do a very good thing for him by putting a lot of money into his pocket and helping him out but he wasn’t, couldn’t get it done.”
INTERVIEWER: “Did he know about your decision?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “No. No. You know, just my son and my wife and my immediate family and everybody else, you know, we really wanted to save it for a television audience and the crowd and let them experience it with us.”
INTERVIEWER: “Was there any particular ailment that you were going through you know injury or anything that kind of hastened your decision or was this a long term? You are able to keep your, keep it together and not break down like some guys when you retire. Was it a long time coming or did you have a particular ailment?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “… My L-3 and L-4 are missing the arms on them, which technically should make me a very disabled man. When I was 16 they told me that I had a broken spine and I had scoliosis and needed immediate surgery and never play sports. My problem was that I had this whole dream of becoming a world champion and all this stuff. I’ve been doing chiropractic ever since. So, it’s something that’s manageable for me. The injuries are not so much what is really taking me out of the game but you know the injuries are stopping me from training at a high-level so even if I could train I just can’t train at that level any more because my body just can’t withstand it.”
It should be noted that there was discussion of Frank Shamrock having one last match against Cung Le, but that his back problems became much more serious as of late and that idea got nixed.
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