Frank was the man. His body type reminds me of Eddie Guerrero all of a sudden. Swole shoulders, traps and pecs.
keep it coming paisan. Love this kinda content. Thanks.
Thanks alot I will add you to the Tag list for future segments
Add me please dude I love posts like this
Frank had some good ass fights in the UFC. I was surprised to see Tito gas and tap to strikes. He ruled that division for a while though and carried the promotion through some tough times after losing to Frank. I think he was a little better on the mic back then too.
Hello fight fans,
Since the beginning of 2022 I've decided to take more of my posting here on the Sherdog more seriously ,less about the back and forth and more about the actual sport or sport related content.Thats not to say I wont be busting hype trains or exposing fools but I wanted to take some time on the cusp of another fight card this weekend to shine some light of key fight in MMA's history.Along with these threads I will be making another series breaking down major fights of upcoming fight cards from a coaching perspective as i hope to one day coach and would like to see how accurate my breakdowns are against reality and how well my suggestions or coaching directives would work with said fighters,the first one being UFC 272 Colby v.s Masvidal i will be releasing the break down post weigh in March 5th 2022 keep your eyes open.
For the hardcores this fight should be well known but for the newer fans i pick this fight to start off what i hope will be a re-occuring thread series for me because a lot of new fans seem to think all the best fighters exist now only and the old guys couldn't hang with todays fighters. Although there is some merit to this when your talking about the fighter Frank Shamrock this simply doesn't apply the man had it all a solid stand up game,great wrestling both offensively and defensively ,submissions , ground and pound and a fight IQ to rival GSP and Jon Jones and the kicker being he had all this in the NINETIES.This fight was to be a passing of ages or guard with the steam rolling young fierce Tito Ortiz representing the new age of strong ,huge wrestler base fighters but this "older lion" (get it ex lions den) wasn't quite ready to be quiet.
For your viewing pleasure
(Also lmfao at the commentary back then at some points,we've come along way boys. Goldie trying his best out there)
Things to Notice:
This fight was in 1999 look how complete of a fighter Frank Shamrock was , he was clearly the better striker then Tito landing great leg kicks, boxing combos and clinch strikes all while dealing with the takedowns by Tito quite well no wasted energy, kept Tito in guard and even swept him all while never stopping to attack from the bottom.Many new age fighters could learn from Franks approach here on how to fight effectively from the bottom in MMA against larger wrestling based fighters.
Another key thing to notice the size difference , Tito was huge compared to Frank and certainly used it but Frank having the Fight IQ advantage decided not to fight strength with strength a losing battle for sure something Ken Shamrock would try and paid dearly for, instead Frank used technique we clearly see Frank working back to feet in the way we see many modern MMA fighters do today which meant less energy used and in the end made the difference as Tito tired over the rounds.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt MMA has grown and evolved in certain elements of the game since the 1990's , it's however important to take time and remember those fighters from the past who were really timeless in their skill sets Frank Shamrock I think embodies for me what these Retrospective Threads hope to represent as I believe you transport this Frank Shamrock to the modern day MW or LHW division and there is little doubt in my mind he would be top 5 or even champion, not bad for a guy from the 1990's.
Feedback: Please let me know if you liked this kind of posting and any ideas for future series episodes i will tag you in future posts.
This was a great read and beautiful breakdown. I’d love to see more of this on the ‘dawg. Please keep up the great work! And please tag me on your next write up
I tend to think that at this stage we hadnt REALLY seen MMA evolve past the era of the power wrestler, we'd seen guys like Frank, Rizzo, Igor, Bas etc evolve who were good enough to avoid being finished on the ground whilst having threatening standup but still I think for those guys to win you tended to need the big wrestler to show a weakness in cardio in very long fights, if they could hold them down for the full lenght they could still generally win and with knees on the ground still threaten.
I think Herring was a little further along that evolution as he was becoming more active on the ground, someone like Erikson was having to work harder to control him and gassed earlier as a result but still waiting for cardio to become a factor was part of it. Really I think it was the appearance of people like Nog that really signaled the end, someone who was good enough on the ground not just to out last the wrestler but to actually threaten him.
I tend to think that at this stage we hadnt REALLY seen MMA evolve past the era of the power wrestler, we'd seen guys like Frank, Rizzo, Igor, Bas etc evolve who were good enough to avoid being finished on the ground whilst having threatening standup but still I think for those guys to win you tended to need the big wrestler to show a weakness in cardio in very long fights, if they could hold them down for the full lenght they could still generally win and with knees on the ground still threaten.
I think Herring was a little further along that evolution as he was becoming more active on the ground, someone like Erikson was having to work harder to control him and gassed earlier as a result but still waiting for cardio to become a factor was part of it. Really I think it was the appearance of people like Nog that really signaled the end, someone who was good enough on the ground not just to out last the wrestler but to actually threaten him.
I wouldn't mind a segment on one of the 3 HW goliaths Kerr,Coleman,or Randleman . They all had a fun career to watch with some legendary moments for all 3.Though Kerr is the only one with a documentary out, Coleman and Randleman could easily have an amazing documentary put together.Your on it , any topic suggestions for future segments?
Thank you very much ..im mostly a cellphone only poster here this was my first keyboard typed on a computer thread haha..looks like it wont be my last cheers
I wouldn't mind a segment on one of the 3 HW goliaths Kerr,Coleman,or Randleman . They all had a fun career to watch with some legendary moments for all 3.Though Kerr is the only one with a documentary out, Coleman and Randleman could easily have an amazing documentary put together.
It's funny you mention these things, as I believe the new UFC rules (no knees to the head on the ground) hindered wrestlers at this time. More specifically - they hindered Tito a bunch. He was fucking brutal with that shit in the earlier days. Marco Ruas was pretty evolved/well-rounded in my opinion. One of my early favorites. Vitor was pretty well-rounded too, but didn't have to use his ground game much. He did use defensive wrestling and his raw(?) strength a lot to keep it standing and blitz mofos though. Sakurai and Oleg were well-rounded too, among others. There were definitely a few, and those seemed to be the guys with great success! Borat style.
Those both sound great. I liked Bas's reaction when he saw Kevin's vertical when entering the cage against Maurice Smith.The back and forth banter between the 2 post fight when they knew they'd be meeting next was great too.Considering the coverage Mark Kerr has had already im more incline to maybe do one on Mark Coleman or Randleman... Or both of those two as two separate ones..One as a retrospective on American wrestling's impact on MMA and birth of powerful GNP with Mark Coleman being front and center..and maybe one about the Genetic freaks of MMA... with Randleman being a pioneer on that front..i got some ideas floating with this one.
Thanks for the input
No knees did I think make the "outlast the wrestler" gameplan potentially more dangerous to pull off as if you ended up in the wrong position even a superior sub grappler who could stifle regular GnP could be threatened by them.
Vitor was I'd agree one of the first hints at someone who would move beyond "survive on your back and wait for cardio to become an issue" although he also never had to face one of the real monster wrestlers and generally I think had a few too many mental weaknesses and technical holes in his game to pull it off.
I would add as well that Randleman was probably the finale evolution of the "super wrestler", not quite as big as some of the previous ones but had the advantage than it wasnt easy to outlast him along with being a bit less vunerable to striking. He beat Rizzo and really he should have beaten Bas as well and it was only a rival wrestler in Randy who stopped him .
Randlemans win over Pete Williams to win the belt in Japan after losing that controversial fight to Bas was huge.Coleman was so happy for him in the cage.
The freshness and the speed he had in the forth round was most impressive , when he flipped that switch it was like round 1 all over again it really showed without a doubt he had outsmarted Tito and the shot placement and choice of attack with that elbow again speaks to his high level...we dont even see guys throwing elbows from there today
Knees did I think make the "outlast the wrestler" gameplan potentially more dangerous to pull off as if you ended up in the wrong position even a superior sub grappler who could stifle regular GnP could be threatened by them.
Vitor was I'd agree one of the first hints at someone who would move beyond "survive on your back and wait for cardio to become an issue" although he also never had to face one of the real monster wrestlers and generally I think had a few too many mental weaknesses and technical holes in his game to pull it off.
I would add as well that Randleman was probably the finale evolution of the "super wrestler", not quite as big as some of the previous ones but had the advantage than it wasnt easy to outlast him along with being a bit less vunerable to striking. He beat Rizzo and really he should have beaten Bas as well and it was only a rival wrestler in Randy who stopped him .
Vitor did get the diarrhea beat out of him by Randy while he was sick. Although, that was more from clinching, dirty boxing, and wearing him down. Not much wrestling. Come to think of it, we probably should include Randy in our grouping of evolved or well-rounded fighters, eh?