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Who will Floyd Mayweather fight next? Plus, what to do with Ken Shamrock?
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2010
If you have not read my article already on the top 5 MMA fights so far in 2010, go read it. I should note that when you click on the article link, you can vote/rate on any of the fights there. You can also find any fight using the Event Search tool on that page’s sidebar.
Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz says ‘we’ll move on’ from the fight with Floyd Mayweather. I still don’t know who Mayweather will fight next, if even he fights someone else before eventually giving in to fighting Pacquiao. Erik Morales?
The Daily Telegraph in Australia says that Vic Darchinyan wants to train for MMA.
Jamie Penick has a brand new interview with Rich Franklin today, in which Rich explains why he doesn’t really care who he fights next and for the rest of his career in the UFC. He also talked about being open to fighting Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz.
Jeremy Botter says that Ken Shamrock’s sad decline is not easy to watch. He’s referring to Ken getting beat up by Pedro Rizzo. My take from that fight is that Pedro Rizzo will just never quit and he will continue to knock out opponents. God bless him if he can continue getting the pay days as long as he stays healthy. My amigo Dave Walsh says that Ken Shamrock is imitating Randy the Ram from The Wrestler. The truth is that Ken does need the money. As Jonathan Snowden put it, an aged legend dances for nickels down under.
Count both Vitor Belfort and Shawn Tompkins in the camp of fighters rooting against Chael Sonnen to win his fight against Anderson Silva? I’d love to see Vitor fight Anderson, no question about it. The bigger question remains for Chael Sonnen — what happens if/when he loses to Anderson? Where do you go from that point forward?
A very long and extensive interview with Ariel Helwani. During the interview, he says that no one in the sport of MMA can replace Brock Lesnar as a draw. Ariel also talks about how pro-wrestling fans have ‘graduated’ into becoming MMA fans and that MMA should learn from the mistakes of pro-wrestling with the massive amount of PPVs being booked each year.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What I don’t understand about Ken is why he’s never tried to get back into wrestling. I suppose there’s more nickels to be had in indy MMA than indy wrestling.
Ed. — He has been. He’s been wrestling on the shows with the Juggalos lately.
Yeah, a Randy the Ram comparison is an accurate one. I can really envision him inviting over neighborhood kids to play UFC Throwdown with him as he gets frustrated they don’t know who half of the roster is and keep putting over how much better the new UFC games are.
He really should stick to wrestling. Even spending the rest of your career associating with promoters who wear clown make up has way more dignity than the last two fights of Shammy.
What happened to the Jordan Breen show?
Ed. — He’s been in Australia.
I know this is off topic, but have you SEEN how he looks? I just checked out the Fight Week thing on Sherdog, and dear God, that was an atrocious looking hair cut. I obviously, do not get it.
Zach said:
“The truth is that Ken does need the money.”
This might be a silly question, but what about the MMA gyms with “The Lion’s Den” name attached/affiliated with them ?
I’m assuming he doesn’t own them all himself, but do they pay a francising fee or something to use the name?
Can’t he become a high profile trainer and make a living off of his name with that? I think the UFC would throw his name around & put him over and hype up his ability to train (be it existant or not)if it would help him out and since it wouldn’t cost them a cent.
I know it’s his love & life, but he is going to end up like Muhammed Ali if he keeps getting his head knocked around like it has. Training would be a way to stay involved with the sport and he could pass along a legacy training a whole new generation.
There were more people involved with Lion’s Den than Ken. His business partner(s) probably owns it. He seems dumb enough to get swindled out of a trademark. Hell, he seems dumb enough to get swindled out of a parking space he just put money in the meter at.
Who would want Ken to train them? Superstar or not, the guy hasn’t evolved in MMA since 1995. Sure, he could open up some rinky dink MMA schools like lots of washed-up pro wrestlers and take a bunch of money from marks, but the real money is in training high profile fighters and nobody would call in Ken Shamrock. Well, maybe if they wanted to bring somebody in to show you what not to do….
Oh I agree, he hasn’t evolved or grown with the sport, which is one reason (not the only one), why he hasn’t won a fight in quite some time.
You’d think someone as well known as Ken would cross-train with other styles more to try to keep an edge as he has aged,…but that is only what i would do, so what do I know. 🙂
I figured he was not the only person involved with The Lion’s Den name, but with so many shirts saying “Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den”, you’d think he’d have a bit more of income.
“I can really envision him inviting over neighborhood kids to play UFC Throwdown with him as he gets frustrated they don’t know who half of the roster is and keep putting over how much better the new UFC games are. “
We already kind of saw that on TUF 3 when he made guys watch tapes of his old fights during practice.
The conceit of these “writers” regarding Ken is off the hook.
Their inability to think objectively about the reality of the situation and the proud preference to promote the hollywood side of life is morally and monetarily telling.
Rather than do some homework and try to convey actual news, these “writers” resort to beating who ever is down on the ufc’s shitlist. Does a little red light blinking on their “I-thing” indicate the ufc’s need for another propaganda`esque promotional puff piece?
Not being imaginative, and relying on decades of illusions these “writers” have to relate someones shortcomings to a movie they remembered.
Shammy needs the money. He had 1 fight left with the ufc but they wanted to keep him under contract and not give him the fight.
Ken wanted to fight(or needed the money)but the ufc rather than give Ken the last fight on his contract choose to cut one of the first fighters to be inducted into the hall of fame.
Ken can’t get any money by “not” fighting for the ufc so he apparently sued to get that fight they owed him.
The ufc seemed to just want to keep his name but ice his body to keep him from fighting other events.
It’s just like in the road warrior, where Max saves that guy who promises Max gas. Max gets him back to the refinery but the guy is now dead and the rest won’t honor the bargain. One lost his paycheck, another lost his life and the honor and whatever humanity remained in the refinery/ufc.
Finally the ufc screws Max/Ken with a dead end job hauling a tanker full of sand.
The ufc heads to its promised land leaving max far behind, beaten and battered barely a memory with nothing but the wreckage of his life about him.
Be honest, how long did it take you to come up with that comparison?
Ken is still a draw and was entertaining even in humbled defeat. I heard Ken say he would like to fight the likes of Tank, Coleman and Severn. Those are good fun fights to put forth, too bad strikeforce is so backwards they would rather book freakshow matches with fair weather mma noobs such as Walker and Lashley fighting cans, than living legends of the sport in competitive fights. Its really a disgrace how the ufc used their legends and broomed them. Seems like even a shoddily run organization like strikeforce could see the goodwill value of hiring the legends of the sport exclusively for fights that should have happened years ago.
How are fights involving Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Mark Coleman in 2010 NOT freakshow fights? Of course those would be freak show fights now!
No they wouldn’t. They’re all proven legends of the sport. He’s not saying for them to figh other people, what he’s bring up is a sort of Senior league of MMA. You can’t compare Lashley vs. Bautista to a fight like Shamrock vs. Abbott.
I get what he’s getting at. But it’s still pretty much a circus act. I wouldn’t mind seeing it, but it is what it is. A bit of a freak show.
Hey, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are two legends in the pro wrestling world, but when they go against each other in 2010 (happened in TNA. Flair and AJ Styles vs. Hulk Hogan and Abyss. Oh, and last year in Australia in a singles bout.) it’s a joke.
“Hey, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are two legends in the pro wrestling world, but when they go against each other in 2010 (happened in TNA. Flair and AJ Styles vs. Hulk Hogan and Abyss. Oh, and last year in Australia in a singles bout.) it’s a joke.”
You are comparing a “worked show” to actual competition. Again, it’s just not the same.
And Flair is 61 and Hogan is 57. Severn is the only one close to those two, and he would probably beat all the guys on that list except Coleman…