Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American mixed martial artist Frank Shamrock.
Last updated on September 12, 2024.
Frank Shamrock is an American former professional mixed martial artist. Shamrock was the first to hold the UFC Middleweight Championship and retired a four-time defending undefeated champion. Shamrock was the No. 1 ranked pound for pound UFC fighter in the world during his reign as the UFC Middleweight Champion. Shamrock has won numerous titles in other martial arts organizations, including the interim King of Pancrase title, the WEC Light Heavyweight Championship and the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship. Shamrock is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, as well as one of the first complete mixed martial artists, adapting his game from a grounded style of fighting to a more complete, well-rounded, and versatile style that included always improving striking to go along with his skilled ground game.
To win in my hometown is just a whole 'nother level.
Am I cocky or conceited? I'm definitely cocky. But at the root is confidence and humility.
I am a professional martial artist, and I am a professional fighter.
I'd love to fight Dan Henderson.
My first ten fights or so it was like that. I was just so scared. You can see if you go back and watch them that there are moments where I just stop and look around, like, what's going on here? I was so scared for all those fights.
I've been pioneering for this sport since before there was weight classes and gloves.
I hate to say it but I'd much rather have Viacom behind me than the UFC.
I like Cung. He's a good guy and a good martial artist. He doesn't sell a fight very well, but he looks great and he fights hard. He definitely fills two very important requirements for building a fight.
I look back at my life fighting and I can't believe I did all that. This sport is totally nuts.
Kimbo Slice is a character in a world of energy when it comes to the art of fighting.
The problem is that the top five guys in UFC make all the money, and the rest make scraps.
The truth is, I have nothing to gain from ever fighting anybody.
From day one I knew Pro Elite didn't know what they were doing.
I didn't care about the Pride championship or the Pride tournament.
I know what it's like to be older and banged up.
In boxing there are only two ways out: you get knocked out or you quit.
With Strikeforce, we didn't have the capitalization to take advantage of our initial success.
The sport really hasn't changed, but the world did. That's why it's more acceptable.
You're trying to control somebody? Take wrestling, because that's how you get it done.
I was raised by the state of California, and then various families and mentors.
Coach is still my favorite, it is still the thing that I'm best at.
When you have harmony in the different areas of your life, with your mind, body, and spirit, you're just so much stronger, especially in really intense, stressful situations, like 'Fight Master.'
Frank Shamrock knows what he's doing.
I want to fight until the body says 'no.'
I've always had trouble with long guys because as a shorter guy I have smaller explosive movements and a lot of long guys I can get trapped inside of them.
I think I'll be the face of the sport.
Fighting Cung Le in San Jose is an absolute dream not only for myself but for the city.
We have been conditioned as a society to believe that you stand there in a gentlemanly fashion and punch each other in the head until someone is unconscious and we celebrate. We celebrate the fact that I can punch him in the head until he is unconscious and can't think straight and stand up. I gotta tell you, I have a problem with that sport.
Fighting is fighting. You close your fist and it's all pretty much the same.
I've got a few tricks when it comes to psychology and stuff.
I had spent three years in jails and prisons, and then all of a sudden I'm in Japan in this dojo. It was just so surreal. I was this young kid and nobody even knew what I was doing there.
My kickboxing coach Maurice Smith is one of the best ever.
I want retire at 45 and have a 24-year-career. I feel I can do it.
Now that the sport has gone mainstream, there's a lot of money in fighting. It's always what I've loved to do.
Guys taking damage need to be compensated for the shortness of their career.
I don't want to get punched in the head anymore. I spent a couple of thousand dollars on the nose and teeth and everything's been readjusted, so I don't want anybody hitting me.
I've won titles all over the world.
The lesson I learned from the Cung Le fight is this: What we do is very dangerous and really shouldn't be played with. I should have just knocked him out, not let him dance around and look good.
I'd been an entrepreneur, a very focused businessman, spokesman, and ran multiple companies based around Strikeforce. When it changed hands, my whole life stopped.
I let my talking happen in the ring.
I started in this sport when I was 21 and I helped bring it to network television and the one thing I missed was wrestling or fighting Sakuraba.
It's so much fun to be competitive amongst champions and champion trainers.
I'd said no to every person, and everybody, for every amount, but I'd wrestle Sakuraba for free.
I don't think the Hall of Fame has any credibility unless I'm in it.
Every time you get hit in the head, time slows down just a bit.
What mixed martial arts is being marketed as is not the truth. We're not a bunch of idiots in a cage drinking beer all the time. It's a lifestyle, but it's a positive lifestyle.
All those fights I've done since 1999, I was either the promoter or co-promoter.
I came to a realization in 1999 of how important striking was going to become in this sport because it's the most efficient way to finish a fight.
I had so much personally invested in the vision or the dream or the chance of Strikeforce. It was my whole life. I didn't have another life. That's all that I did.
I speak the truth on what happened to me because it's happening to a lot of people that grow up in displaced and disadvantaged communities.
Strikeforce was amazing.
I had a rough upbringing. Group homes. Foster homes.
You saw what network support did for Strikeforce when Showtime came aboard. You saw what Spike TV did for the UFC when they came aboard, because the UFC was dying before Spike came along.
My goal is to become the best fighter in the world, and I did that and at a time when there was no money or interest in the sport.
I used to live on the streets.
I grew up in a terrible home of abuse and I didn't realize I was in a home of abuse.
Mixed martial arts chose me. After all the trouble I'd been in, it felt really good fit to find a discipline to train and build a community around my goals.
The world I live in is vastly different than what other people are living in. It's a dream.
You have to remember, I had come from a pretty hard life. There was all this abuse and everything else, so the idea of fighting for sport was pretty heavy. Fighting to me was about fighting for your life, you know.
I wasn't fighting because I was a sportsman. I was fighting because I had no other way. I didn't have a career. I was a multi-felony convicted guy.