Ken Shamrock (26-13-2)– the 44-year-old mixed martial arts pioneer who has not won a professional fight in more than four years — is the next man to challenge Elite XC’s most coveted possession, Kimbo Slice (3-0), according to Sherdog.com.
The bout will serve as the main event of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS from the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., on October 4.
Shamrock was a among a short list of possible opponents for the Miami native that also included Sean Gannon — the only man to defeat the YouTube.com sensation in underground fisticuffs — and Brett Rogers.
Out of the trio Rogers was far and away the most qualified and would have likely given Slice the stiffest competition. However, that could have been the problem — Elite XC matchmakers still feel the need to shamelessly build its biggest star.
And what better way then to have him wallop an over-the-hill, past-his-prime UFC veteran on national television.
Shamrock — a UFC Hall of Fame inductee — dropped his first and most recent bout under the ProElite banner, losing to Robert “Buzz” Berry via first knockout at Cage Rage 25: “Bring it On” earlier this year.
That, too, was supposed to be a warm-up for the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” to groom him for a big money match down the road against either Slice, or his younger brother, Frank.
It seems like it didn’t matter — at least one of those fights (Slice) is going to happen. Although a win against Berry would have made this appear (to the casual fan at least) to be somewhat of a fair fight.
Shamrock has lost eight of his last 10 fights dating back to 2001 and he’s on a five-fight losing skid.
The only thing in his favor going into this fight is experience and his submission game. Shamrock has won more than 80 percent of his fights via submission, which poses somewhat of a threat provided he can get close enough to Slice to take him down.
Don’t count on it. But then again stranger things have happened … kind of like this match up in the first place.
MMAMania.com
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