The first man to win the belt that would become the Ultimate Fighting Championship's light-heavyweight title announced his retirement tonight at Strikeforce's show in San Jose. He hasn't fought since losing to Nick Diaz at a catchweight bout of 179 pounds in April 2009, on Strikeforce's first show under its current arrangement with Showtime.
"My time has come," Frank Shamrock told the crowd at the H-P Pavilion in San Jose. "The stars like Gilbert Melendez and Cristiane Cyborg. They are the future and I am the past. Tonight I announce my retirement and I say this will be the last time I walk into this cage as a fighter."
It has been years since Frank Shamrock was a truly significant fighter, but Frank Shamrock helped pave the way for the current generation of mixed martial artists.
Frank Shamrock learned catch wrestling techniques under his adoptive brother Ken in the Lions Den during the early 1990s, and eventually followed in his footsteps to become a titleholder for Pancrase in an era when it was still the top MMA promotion in Japan. Frank Shamrock's battles with Pancrase pioneers Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki and Bas Rutten in the mid-1990s were among the most memorable in that organization's history.
After Pancrase's relationship with Lions Den deteriorated, Frank Shamrock found himself fighting in Rings and other promotions while drawing UFC's eye. He made his UFC debut by winning the organization's 200-pound championship in 16 seconds with an armbar on Olympic champion wrestler Kevin Jackson.
Frank Shamrock defended his belt four times in memorable fights, including a March 1998 knockout of Igor Zinoviev that remains arguably the most brutal slam in UFC history; a difficult, gritty 16-minute grappling battle with jiu-jitsu expert Jeremy Horn; and a four-round triumph of endurance over Tito Ortiz.
Frank Shamrock walked away from UFC after tapping out Ortiz and fought only sporadically over the next several years, while spending more time as a trainer and TV commentator. The last bout in which he was truly competitive ended with a broken arm inflicted by Cung Le in March 2008.
Beyond the fight record, Frank Shamrock's most important contribution to the sport was emphasizing the "mixed" part of MMA. He and Rutten were among the first fighters to train extensively in both striking and grappling techniques, and introduce advanced physical training techniques.
They were so far ahead of their contemporaries in the 1990s that at the end of the decade, there was virtually no argument about their status as the top fighters in MMA. If the sport eventually passed them by, it only did so because of the work they laid down in the first place.
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