Ken Shamrock was once a great fighter. He was one of the fighters that helped mold what the UFC is today. Should he stop fighting? No. But until he wins against more worthy opponents, people will not take him seriously.

Tank Abbott also won against Mike Bourke and it’s rumored that Shamrock and Abbott may square up against each other in the future.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ken Shamrock Breaks His Losing Streak By Beating An Overweight And A Lot Less Skilled Fighter

Rumors:

Tank Abbott Vs. Ken Shamrock: Ok, neither of these guys are in their prime, but if this does happen will it really be worth watching? I mean Tank Abbott has been over the hill for some time now. He never was a technical fighter and even though Ken is getting up there as well and hasn’t won a good fight in awhile, I think he would pick tank apart in the first round.

Brian Stan Vs. Krzysztof Soszynski: This could be interesting, Krzysztof Soszynski has some ring experience, but Brian Stan can take a hit and is a good striker. This could go either way, but if I had to put money on it, I would put it on Stan. This fight may take place at UFC 97.

Not Rumors:

Miguel Torres Vs. Brian Bowles: This is not a rumor, this fight is actually set for WEC 40 in Chicago, Illinois on April 5th. Miguel Torres cut down Tapia in his last title defense and it’s going to be interesting to see how many more he can keep at arms length. Brian Bowles is no slacker and I think if he plays his game right, he could give Torres a run for his money.

Matt Hughes Vs. Matt Serra: We’ve been waiting for this fight since TUF 6 and now we will finally get our chance. This was supposed to happen after the season ended, but Serra got injured and Hughes had to fight Georges St. Pierre, whom he lost to. Not too long afterwards, Serra faced St. Pierre in a title (re)match, which did not go as well as Serra thought it would. St. Pierre was back and better than ever. We’ll see which one of these fighters has their game face on for this one. This fight is set for UFC 98.

Chuck Liddell Vs. Mauricio Rua: Chuck’s didn’t fair well in his last fight against Rashad Evans, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking a step back either. Mauricio Rua better step up his game and endurance if he wants to make an impact in this fight. After his less than stellar, yet winning performance in UFC 93, Rua may have his hands full if he can’t polish off his ring rust. This fight is set for UFC 97.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

MMA Upcoming Fights, Rumors And Views

MMAFighting.com reports:

Kimbo Slice could be headed to Japan for "Dynamite!! 2008" on New Year’s Eve, possibly for a rematch against Seth Petruzelli.

Sharon Robb of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel confirmed Wednesday that "Dynamite!! 2008" is one of the options under consideration by Slice and his agent Mike Imber

So if this does happen, and the outcome is the same then everyone that has been saying that Kimbo Slice is NOT a real MMA fighter will have their lungs full of air, ready to spit out a big, fat "Told You So". Can you blame them though? Let’s look at some of the fighters he has stepped in to the ring with.

Kimbo Slice has had 4 fights in the Elite XC and one in Cage Fighting Fury Championship:

Kimbo’s first professional fight matched him up against Ray Mercer, a professional boxer in his first professional MMA fight, just like Slice. Ray Mercer was 46 years old at this point and as I said, this was his first professional fight. Slice actually won this fight by a guillotine choke.

His first Elite XC fight was with Bo Cantrell, a fighter that did have quite a few fights under his belt. The round started off with both fighters kind of playing it safe until Slice caught Cantrell with a strong right that looked like it stunned him and Cantrell dropped to the ground. Cantrell didn’t make much of an effort to defend himself and actually tapped out before taking too much more of a beating. A lot of people say that this match looked fixed and if you watch it, you could say the same thing. Slice’s first fight in Elite XC a set-up to draw a crowd and make him look bigger and badder than he actually is? Maybe. Perhaps Cantrell has never been hit that hard, who knows? Take a look…

Slice’s second fight was with a "Veteran" unorthodox MMA fighter "Tank" Abbott. Tank is and was, during this fight, far beyond his prime. No submission specialist here. Tank is a brawler and often overwhelms his opponents when he used to win. At the time that Kimbo fought Tank, Abbott had only won 3 of his last 10 fights before his bout with Slice. Was Abbott a credible opponent for Slice or just a "Big Name" to draw a crowd and money?

His third fight in Elite XC matched Kimbo Slice up against UK fighter James Thompson. Thompson had 23 professional fights under his belt. At the time he was matched up to fight Slice he had only won 4 of his last 10 fights. Are you starting to see the pattern here? However, this was probably the better of the matches because it lasted 3 rounds but still ended by ref stoppage 38 seconds in to the third.

His fourth and last fight in Elite XC was supposed to be against Ken Shamrock. Ken is not a dude that is in his prime anymore either, but if I was sure that it was a legit fight, I would say that Ken would definitely win this one. Unfortunately Ken "cut" himself during a warm up and had to be replaced by a lesser known fighter that was a contestant on the UFC’s Ultimate Fighter 1. Seth Petruzelli took the fight and under contract would be paid 35K just for fighting and another 15K to win. Kimbo earned 500K for fighting and would have won an additional 100K if he won. This fight only lasted 14 seconds with the underdog winning with a controversial knockout. Watch the fight and then read a little conspiracy theory below that.

So Ken Shamrock is not a cheap fighter. Makes you wonder what he was going to get paid had he fought. Given the financial state or ProElite at the time it kind of makes you wonder if they told Ken that they couldn’t pay him and he refused to fight. They ask another guy that’s much cheaper to pay because they still want to hold the fight. They fix the fight so the lesser paid fighter wins and they save another 100K. You see where I’m going here? ProElite just closed it’s doors and plan on filing for Bankruptcy. It all makes sense, but why would Kimbo agree to less money? Maybe they told him it was either 500k or nothing? It’s tough to say but it leaves you wondering, doesn’t it? None of these fighters had a good fight record in their last ten fights with the exception of Seth Pteruzelli, who had only LOST two of his last 10 fights. I understand that you have to fight your way to the top, but it just seems a little fishy that they kept matching Kimbo up against fighters out of their prime or with loss records higher than win records. And they were paying him an insane amount of money. It’s no wonder ProElite shut down.

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Slice And Petruzelli A Possible Rematch?