While he devolved into something of a caricature late in his
career,
Ken
Shamrock’s long-lasting contributions to the sport in its
formative days should not be swept under the rug with the passage
of time.
“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” won 17 of his first 20
professional bouts, laid claim to the openweight King of
Pancrase
title and reached the semifinals of two
Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments and the final of
another before winning the inaugural UFC superfight belt. Shamrock
was 25-8-2 by the time his rivalry with
Tito Ortiz was
ignited, and though he went 0-3 in his trilogy with “The Huntington
Beach Bad Boy,” their seemingly genuine hatred for one another
pushed business to unprecedented heights for the Las Vegas-based
promotion. The sport passed Shamrock by, however, as he lost 11 of
his last 14 bouts, nearly all of them in lopsided fashion. He made
his final appearance under the
Bellator
MMA flag in 2016, when his third encounter with
Royce Gracie
resulted in a controversial technical knockout loss at Bellator
149. Shamrock announced his retirement some three years later.
As his accomplishments fade in history’s shuffle, a look at some of
the numbers that accompanied Shamrock throughout his journey:
58: Years of age for Shamrock, who was born on Feb. 11, 1964 in
Warner Robins, Georgia.
22: Shamrock wins by submission, accounting for 79% of his career
total (28). His methods of choice: five heel hooks, four
arm-triangle chokes, four rear-naked chokes, two Achilles locks,
two kimuras, two kneebars, one guillotine choke, one forearm choke
and one armbar. Shamrock holds three other wins by knockout (11%)
and three more by decision (11%).
44: Seconds needed for Shamrock to dispatch
Takaku Fuke
with a rear-naked choke under the Pancrase banner in 1993. It was
the only sub-minute finish on his resume.
53: Rounds started by Shamrock as a mixed martial artist. He went
the distance on seven different occasions and carried a 3-2-2
record in those bouts.
9: Consecutive victories for Shamrock between Sept. 9, 1994 and
March 10, 1995. It was his longest run of uninterrupted
success.
2: Stalemates on the Shamrock ledger. He fought to a time-limit
draw with Gracie at UFC 5 on April 7, 1995 and did the same with
Oleg
Taktarov at UFC 7 five months later.
52: Significant strikes by which Shamrock was outlanded across his
final three appearances inside the Octagon. He absorbed 52 such
strikes while offering zero in return in blowout losses to
Tito Ortiz
(twice) and
Rich
Franklin.
5: Countries in which Shamrock plied his mixed martial arts trade.
He went 18-6 in Japan, 10-8-2 in the United States, 0-1 in
Australia, 0-1 in South Africa and 0-1 in England.
15: Minutes fought by Shamrock in a unanimous decision over
journeyman
Johnathan
Ivey at a USA Mixed Martial Arts event on Oct. 16, 2010. It
went in the books as the final victory for “The World’s Most
Dangerous Man.”
345: Combined wins between the 13 men—Gracie (twice), Ortiz (three
times), Franklin,
Minoru
Suzuki (twice),
Kevin
Ferguson,
Mike Bourke,
Pedro
Rizzo,
Robert
Berry,
Kazushi
Sakuraba,
Don Frye,
Kazuyuki
Fujita,
Dan Severn and
Masakatsu
Funaki—who defeated Shamrock. The boast a cumulative .693
winning percentage at 345-150-10.
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