Frank Shamrock
It's part of being successful, just planning your life, catalogue successes, keep track of things that are important to you and make them a reality.
I looked at my own fights: everyone's excited and I was all disappointed that my techniques didn't work.
Anybody who's a super athlete - I mean, Herschel Walker, it doesn't matter - if you're a super athlete and you get the technique of fighting, you're super dangerous.
Most of the martial arts techniques go in waves of popularity and usefulness, but they all work.
I've always picked the fight that I thought would, you know what, that guy's really tough, and it's really competitive, but it's going to be a great show for the fans.
I became a free agent in 1999. I retired, that's how I got out of my contract. From that moment on, I've always been in control of my own destiny.
I mean, I work in television, so every day is like the end of your career and then each day is a new one.
I mean as a human being I'm happy to be working, but, I look back on my career and I mean, you know, a lot of people worry about what didn't happen, but I'm just happy for what I've got.
Fighting is 90-percent mental. It's a lot of emotion.
I mean, I watched Ken train in the gym. Ken was one of the greatest athletes I've ever seen. But when he got into a fight, it would be half of him. He was wrestling with a lot more in there than just beating his opponent.
Only guys who fight for a living know what it's like to be hungry and beaten and tired, mentally, all the time. The average person has no understanding of what that is and what that could be.
My first fighting team was my brother, and I learned that I came from a community where your team was your family. We functioned as a unit. You helped as many people as you could, because they would help you.
Mixed martial arts or whatever you want to call it, it is still martial arts.
I'm the first guy to jump on somebody and pick a fight with them, at least verbally, I try to do it with some class and respect.
My natural body weight is about 183 pounds. I've just always tried to keep 10 pounds of muscle on me because the bigger you were before, the more money you made. I always tried to cut at least five pounds to get to 185.
Nick Diaz brings it every single time and I bring it every single time.
Brothers beating each other up. Everyone wants to see that.
When I first came along there was also only two weight classes, so you can imagine things were pretty crazy back then.
I left the UFC after the fight with Ortiz. Tito was the last super tough guy as I had already handled all of the other guys quite handily.
I didn't want to keep fighting and risking injury to my body when the pay wasn't where I needed it to be. I made a strategic decision to give it up after I fought Tito. I always planned on coming back when the sport was able to right itself and had a brighter future.
My first coach was my brother Ken. He taught me submission wrestling, the catch-as-catch-can style that he was famous for. Then I trained in Japan with Funaki and Suzuki. Then I learned jiu-jitsu and sambo with Oleg Taktarov and Gokor Chivichyan.
I actually threw rocks at a train and in California, that's a felony. I went and did ten days in juvenile hall.
I know what the bottom is like. I know what it's like to have zero. You can always build up. But it starts by changing your mind and taking action.
I wish the sport was much more evolved when I got into it.
I took a lot of physical punishment learning the art of fighting.
I stopped being a fighter in 1999 and I became a fight executive the moment I retired and took control of my brand.
I have a platform to tell the truth.
I had this relationship with Strikeforce that included getting all these investments and really building the brand up, moving it in the right direction. I was constantly looking for financing and opportunities.
As a martial artist, I discovered that there's always so much more to learn.
Fighting is a lot of ego, and that's OK.
Fighters need someone they can trust. We can't trust anybody.
Scott Coker's a martial artist. He's an honest guy. If you ask him to do something he'll do it, or else he'll tell you why he can't do it. That's what fighters need.
I just want to be known as the guy who made a difference because he really believed.
I think this sport can change a lot of things. It changed my life.
This sport started with the question, Who would win, a karate guy or a boxer? A judo guy or a wrestler? That was the original draw behind the sport. That's what caught everybody's attention.
Above all things, Strikeforce is a stable, established business that has experience with live events, and it has the martial arts culture. I worked closely with EliteXC and they had no martial arts culture. They didn't really understand what they were doing, so the odds of them being successful were kind of a crapshoot.
I'm the black sheep of the family.
Everyone loves MMA once they see it. But you've got to watch it.
The face of our sport is Dana White and out here in conservative New York, the way people think, bald-headed, tattoo'd, swearing people are just not a good representative of our brand and unfortunately people think that Dana White speaks for MMA, and they're confused.
I don't believe that Dana White is a martial artist. I don't see a martial way that he is following.
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.
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've been pioneering for this sport since before there was weight classes and gloves.
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.
I want to fight until the body says 'no.'
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.
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.
Frank Shamrock knows what he's doing.
The truth is, I have nothing to gain from ever fighting anybody.