Been my favorite fight since I first saw it and it's still my #1. The build-up, the staredown, the tension, the grueling battle, the leg locks, the huge punches, the split decision. Such an epic war between two legends of the sport.
I'm also always amazed at Ken's performance considering what was going on there. First, he was coming off of that disappointing loss to Fujita where he gassed and had to throw in the towel. Ken was always known for his conditioning and fought in - and won - a number of 20+ minute fights in his career. But at the time, he was going through a nasty divorce and his wife dumped the kids on him while he was supposed to be in training camp, so he fought Fujita without even having a camp for the fight. He was nowhere near fighting shape but he decided to still go out and try to take him out quick. But they didn't call Fujita "Ironhead" for nothing. After that, though, Ken was determined not to gas, so against Frye - who was a monstrously roided up 250 with his skin looking like it was about to tear open - Ken came in at a super lean 212 pounds, the lightest that he ever competed at as a HW.
Added to which, Ken's knees were gone, to the point where he literally couldn't shoot a TD. Going in against a power puncher with legit boxing and being unable to shoot a TD is insanity, which is why Ken stayed in the clinch and took that punishment to the body.
Lastly, Frye didn't technically cheat, but he gamed the system brilliantly: He knew that Ken was going to go for his feared leg locks, so inside of his wrestling shoes, he taped the fuck out of his feet to where they barely had any rotation on them, which he hoped would make it that much harder for Ken to torque a heel hook. Even so, Ken fucked Frye up so bad with those heel hooks that not only did Frye nearly fall as he limped back to his corner at the end of the first round, and not only was he in absolute agony backstage post-fight as he iced his ankles in the locker room (which footage is on the two-disc PRIDE 19 DVD), but after the fight he got addicted to painkillers and it fucked him up for a while. It's such a brutal case of winning the battle but losing the war. And that wasn't the only time that this happened. Ken also jacked up Rich Franklin pretty good with his heel hook, who even after beating Ken still ended up going to the hospital.
The kind of tough that Ken Shamrock and Don Frye were doesn't really exist in MMA anymore, but it's always a pleasure to go back through the sport's glorious history and see legit warriors throw down with absolutely no intention of quitting. This fight even has my all-time favorite commentator moment, when Bas Rutten - who'd been on the receiving end of Ken Shamrock leg locks and who knew very well how excruciating heel hooks are - is losing his mind at the end of the fight when they're trading heel hooks and just goes, "Jesus Christ, 30 seconds!"
One of the GOAT fights between two legends.
