(Props: Bloody Elbow)

Drop whatever you’re doing and watch the latest brilliant MMA documentary from our pal Genghis Con, which follows the careers of Frank Shamrock and Kenny Florian. Two very dissimilar subjects, you’d think, but Con manages to make it work frighteningly well. As with his past videos, Con’s choice of supporting footage (like Shamrock’s body-control demonstrations around the 12-minute mark) and soundtrack (Led Zeppelin’s "No Quarter," bro, and whatever that behemoth groove in the intro is) elevate TFL3 into something much greater than "highlight reel." Incredible stuff.

(‘Sup.  Can we talk?)

Hey Ken.  Do you mind if I call you Ken?  Awesome.  Look, Ken, it’s about this Tim Sylvia stuff.  I’m concerned.  I know, I know.  Your management said you weren’t interested, and I was glad to hear it.  But then I heard that these Xp3 people are pressing the issue, planning to put you two into a pay-per-view bout in the spring of ’09.  Pay-per-view, Ken.  

The reason I’m concerned is because I think I know how this will play out.  First you’ll say no, then Big Tim will launch some half-assed personal assault against you in the media, and that’s when, easily infuriated as you are, you’ll give in.  Also, there’s money involved.  You know how you get when you’re mad and there’s money.  It isn’t pretty.

But Ken, I’m here to tell you that no matter how much you’re tempted – and you will be tempted – you can’t take this fight.  It’s like the sirens’ song: you’ve just got to tie yourself down and resist it, because it will only result in ruin.  Don’t believe me?  Well here are five good reasons why it’s a horrible idea.  Please, take a look.

1. You’ll lose…again.

I know everyone said the same thing about the Kimbo Slice fight that you had to pull out of.  And while I think they were probably right then, they’re definitely right now.  With Kimbo you had a reasonable shot to get him down and submit him.  You have much less of a shot against Sylvia.  His takedown defense is good and his jiu-jitsu is solidly in the ‘aiiiight’ range.  So he’ll just stand at a distance and hit you with those weird, lanky arms of his until you fall down.  Then he’ll act like he’s the king of the world and you’ll complain to the ref that it was an early stoppage.  It will be a huge mess.

(Props: NBCSports via BloodyElbow)

Saturday’s episode of Strikeforce on NBC presented a countdown of the league’s all-time greatest knockouts, including KOs from Cung Le, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Duane Ludwig, and Paul Buentello; part 1 is above, parts 2 and 3 are after the jump. Watch as Joe Riggs finds himself on the happy and unhappy ends of two featured bouts, Buentello gobbles up the #2 and #3 spots, and color-man Ken Shamrock uses the "sack of potatoes" knockout metaphor twice.

#10: Rashad Evans serves Tom Murphy on TUF 2

Believe it or not, Rashad Evans used to be a cocky son-of-a-bitch. Finding no challenge from an outmatched Tom Murphy on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, Sugar entertained himself during the fight by popping, locking, and striking poses until the judges awarded him the victory. The performance also earned him some serious scorn from opposing coach Matt Hughes, but the two eventually put aside their differences and learned to love each other. Now when Rashad dances in the ring, it’s only to pay tribute to the late, great, Redd Foxx.

#9: “Mayhem” Miller mixes clown-and-smile with ground-and-pound

What do you do when Dream gives you a guy who’s nowhere near your level? If you’re “Mayhem” Miller, you have a little fun with it. You start the fight with some kung fu posing, get him down, move to the mount, flash a peace sign for the camera (1:55), then resume punching. Maybe even throw in a double-chop, Sakuraba-style. Why not? The fans love it. What they don’t love is Miller’s faux-retirement. Isn’t it time he dropped that charade? The MMA world is running dangerously low on antics these days.

#8: Anderson Silva’s “52 Blocks” against Patrick Cote

Though Cote continues to tell himself that Silva was simply “lost” and “confused” in this fight, this moment serves as evidence to the contrary. Late in the second round (10:04 in the video) Silva decided to pay homage to his favorite kung fu movies, exhibiting a little Wing Chun action to show his defensive hand skills. At least Silva seemed to be entertaining himself at this point, even if he was the only one who really got a kick out of it. Too bad the fight ended early with Cote’s knee injury. The Dim Mak couldn’t have been far away.

MMA Scraps dug up the above video of Randy Couture‘s first-ever UFC fight, which took place at UFC 13 (5/30/97; Augusta, Georgia) against Tony “The Viking” Halme, a former pro-wrestler who made a completely unsuccessful run at being a mixed martial artist. This was Halme’s fourth and final pro MMA fight after three losing appearances in Rings. After Couture made short work of Halme, he went on to score a TKO over Steven Graham the same night, winning the event’s heavyweight bracket.

Below: I don’t want to call BJ Penn a bitch, because clearly he isn’t — I mean, his record speaks for itself. I’m just saying that the sounds he makes while putting up 150 pounds in the gym are somewhat bitch-like. He’s like the Maria Sharapova of free-weights. But I do like the GSP-directed dig his wrestling coach gets in at the end: “You don’t have Hollywood agents reprensentin’ ya, man. We’re just normal guys that like to beat somebody up.” Bonus: Our pal Dewey at Yardbarker filmed a ten-part MMA tutorial video series with cage-legend Frank Shamrock. Part 8 (“Leg Locks 101″) is after the jump; the rest can be seen here.

(Ken Shamrock: master of the silly face staredown.)

Frank Shamrock won’t stop talking about how much he wants to fight his older brother. In fact, the older and slower Ken Shamrock becomes, the more Frank seems to want a bout with him. Weird. Now the adopted brothers are telling ESPN.com that the bout is basically a done deal, while the ever-questionable Head of Operations for EliteXC, Jeremy Lappen, sounds more cautious.

The reasons EliteXC will probably end up making this fight are obvious. At least, they’re obvious once you consider the way EliteXC thinks. The fight has a “cool hook,” according to Frank, and that’s more than enough for the people who brought us Kimbo Slice-Tank Abbott. The reasons they might not make it happen? How about a mix of financial concerns and worries over whether Ken will be engaging in any headbutting contests the day of the fight and end up pulling out at the last minute again.

Beyond those obvious risks, here are several other reasons why we can do without Shamrock vs. Shamrock.

1. It’s eight years too late. The time to make this fight was when both guys were at or at least near the top of their game. Frank’s last great moment was his victory over Tito Ortiz in 1999. Since then he’s been reluctant to fight genuinely dangerous opponents, and has usually come out on the losing end when he does. Ken had a good showing in a decision loss against Don Frye in 2002, then started to go downhill shortly after. At this point, what does it matter who wins? Obviously, it will be Frank, but still, so what? It’s meaningless beyond the tepid personal grudge, which brings me to…

(One of those days where it really sucks to have just one waist.)

Frank Shamrock has yet to encounter a situation that is not, at its core, about Frank Shamrock. It just hasn’t happened. It probably never will happen. The main event at EliteXC: Heat last Saturday night is a great example. You remember that one, right?

Kimbo Slice was set to face Ken Shamrock, but instead squared off against (and was quickly defeated by) Seth Petruzelli. You might have seen it. What you probably didn’t know at the time was that this situation was all about Frank Shamrock. He was the grown man with braces calling the fight for CBS. But really, he should have been in there fighting. If he had, MMA history could have been altered. At least, that’s the story he told Sherdog:

“I think it was a mistake to not let me fight [Kimbo Slice],” said Shamrock, who claims he offered to step in to face the notorious streetfighter.

[...]

“When I realized we would have to cancel the show, I said, ‘Look, I’ll fight the guy. You know, it’s a great story — little brother steps into the spot, comes out of the booth. It’s very compelling, but we need a fight to happen that’s compelling,’” Frank said. “That went around for hours. Then I put my shirt on and went to work. No one committed to it, so I just kept talking.”

Of course you did, Frank. Because that’s what you do. A lot of talking, and occasionally some fighting.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

So here’s a clip of Frank Shamrock giving some predictions for EliteXC’s October 4th event. What caught my attention was the fact that EliteXC has quietly announced a title for the show, which they’ve included in the video. It’s called “Heat,” and even though it’s just three weeks away, this is the first time I’ve seen it. Pretty lazy, if you ask me. I’m sure we could come up with some more fitting titles. I’ll start…

“The Old Can and the G”
“Miami Pound Machine”
“$kala’s Last Stand”
“Paycheck”
“Roadkill”
“Sideshow”
“Maybe That Chick From American Gladiators Will Show Her Tits, You Never Know”

Any other suggestions?

(Props to jamesmmafisher via parklife.)

As Gay Robot might say, “pass the tissues, we all got issues.” For Frank Shamrock, working out personal demons is a primary motivation for being a professional fighter. Sure, the lifestyle of an MMA star can be attractive, with the arenas full of screaming fans, and the money, and the groupies, and the ability to punch people without legal repercussions. But that’s still not enough to convince the average person to “make the worst bet in the world with their body,” as Shamrock says. Does the sport particularly attract men and women who have overwhelming needs to prove themselves? Can old emotional hurts be resolved through new physical ones? If you happen to fight professionally, drop some wisdom on us in the comments section. What drives you to do what you do?

(Nick’s just going to proofread this sucker before sending it out.)

Did Elite XC hold some kind of writing workshop for their fighters’ and their fighters’ camps recently? Maybe one with a special seminar on “Shit-talking statements and rebuttals”? Because suddenly it seems like everyone under the Elite XC banner is putting pen to paper to bash someone else. Not that we’re complaining.

The Gracie camp — home to Nick Diaz — is the latest to get in on the act. KJ Noons’ statement listing his grievances with Elite XC made mention of Diaz several times, and you didn’t think he was going to be able to do that without waking the beast, did you? We’re a little disappointed that this is coming from Diaz’s camp and not Nick himself, who has been known to do some really great work in the ‘stream of consciousness’ field of shit-talking, but we’ll take what we can get.

On Noons’ claim that Elite XC failed to promote his boxing career, as promised:

1) Earth to KJ; you don’t have a boxing career. No one in the boxing world knows who you are. 2) Another MMA company would have paid you less and not given you a title shot, especially when you were 1-1. 3) If you will not fight Diaz due to a breach of contract by EliteXC then why would you fight Alvarez for the same terms?

On Noons’ insistence that Elite XC isn’t promoting him, instead asking Diaz to sign baseball cards for the DVD of their fight:

1) Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and Frank Shamrock were flown in to shoot an instructional trailer on grappling for the CBS show. The signings were an after thought. You weren’t flown in because you aren’t a grappler. We are sure they will fly you in if they need an instructional on whining. 2) Your contract was for Showtime. Diaz and Shields both signed longer deals for CBS. Nathan Diaz signed a special long term contract for Spike TV etc…This is a business not Burger King, you can’t have it ‘your way’.

I used to be a huge fan of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”. Then they started doing it too often and exhausting a lot of the good subject matter. There’s just not as much as you think happening outside those lines. This look at children’s MMA, though, is interesting to say the least. There are some good points raised, but there’s also a lot of selective thinking going on here, like the pediatrician at the 8:30 mark who claims that children don’t naturally fight one another. Either he was never actually a child himself or he didn’t grow up on planet Earth.

Below, Frank Shamrock (MMA’s greatest ambassador, no doubt) debates a basketball coach who’s written a book, and the result is both frustrating and entertaining.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

When Vitor Belfort knocked out Terry Martin at Affliction: Banned (see above video, in case you didn’t get the FSN broadcast), it was hard not to think that “The Phenom” was back. But what we didn’t know was that he did it with a broken hand. As he told the Xtreme Couture blog, he basically fought the whole bout that way:

XC: When did you break your hand?

Vitor: The first punch I threw. It was a straight left. I knew right away it broke. But I had to keep going. I couldn’t throw my combinations I had worked on. Coach Tompkins was yelling at me to throw my combos. At the end of the first round I went back to the corner and Tompkins was yelling at me, “Why don’t you throw your combos?” I said, “My hand is broken”. He said, “Ok” and Randy said, “Just go first. Go for it and finish the fight”.

I said to myself, “Ok, I’ll do that”. It was great chemistry in the corner. I went out and I did what they said. I was looking to land a big shot and get it over with. It’s my left hand, which is my power hand. I went out and threw the kick at Terry. When he caught my kick I let him take me down so I could soften him up with the elbows. I knew I could get back to my feet when I needed to. Then I set him up for the knee. After that I was able to pick his head up with the uppercut and end it with the straight left.

Belfort says he won’t need surgery, but will have to take about four weeks off before getting back in action. He also says that he has a contract with Affliction and wants to fight for them again soon, hopefully against Frank Shamrock. While that might not be the most feasible request at the current time, perhaps a derogatory t-shirt (always a favorite of ours) will get things moving in the right direction.

An unrelated but also interesting moment in the interview comes when Belfort comments on how he first got into MMA under the guidance of Carlson Gracie, before things got ugly:

We’re not going to dignify this clip by going to IMDb and finding out the movie’s actual title, plot, and year of release, so we’ll just say that Randy Couture and Frank Shamrock got together at some point to film a remake of Never Back Down, with all the teenagers replaced by 40-year-olds. We defy you to watch this ten-minute highlight-reel without grinning your ass off. The way Randy kicks over the bench at the 0:58 mark makes me LMFAO every time. We can only hope that Rise of the Akkadian turns out half as good. Anyway, if you’re interested, there’s more…

When Frank Shamrock starts off this video by saying he wants to “clear up all rumors,” we thought he was going to assure us that his fight against Cung Le was absolutely not a work. Well, he doesn’t do that, but apparently his wife hasn’t given birth yet. Good to know. The most notable part of the video is Frank’s claim that his arm was already broken in the second round, but the bones didn’t separate until the third. Sounds terrible no matter when it happened, and Frank has the fat cast to prove it. The song at the end is a strange choice, but whaddya gonna do, the guy’s 35 years old; his favorite TV show is probably still Friends.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

(Suck it up! You just made $300k!)

The numbers are in for the Cung Le/Frank Shamrock-led Strikeforce/EliteXC event from this past Saturday. The 411 on the payroll for the fighters comes from the California State Athletic Commission and as expected, the main eventers took home the lion’s share. It was a night where the HP Pavilion in San Jose pulled in 15,192 at the gate — with 14,710 of those paying — for a solid total of $1,117,855 in tixs. Half a mil of that went to Cung ($200k) and Frank ($300k), which amounted to about 3/4 of the overall fight purse of almost $668k.

The amounts:

– Cung Le ($200,000) over Frank Shamrock ($300,000)
– Drew Fickett ($10,000) over Jae S. Lim ($3,000)
– Gilbert Melendez ($50,000) over Gabe Lemley ($7,000)
– Wayne Cole ($10,000) over Mike Kyle ($10,000)
– Joey Villasenor ($36,000) over Ryan Jensen ($6,000)
– Billy Evangelista ($10,000) over Marlon Sims ($2,500)
– Tiki Ghosn ($8,000) over Luke Stewart ($6,000)
– Darren Uyenoyama ($4,000) over Anthony Figueroa ($2,000)
– Jesse Jones ($2,150) over Jesse Gillespie ($1,200)

Bonuses for wins went like this:

– Drew Fickett ($5,000)
– Wayne Cole ($5,000)
– Joey Villasenor ($18,000)
– Billy Evangelista ($5,000)
– Tiki Ghosn ($2,000)
– Darren Uyenoyama ($2,000)
– Jesse Jones ($500)

(“Pweeeeez?” Drew Fickett and Jae Suk Lim, courtesy of Sherdog.)

While you were professing your love for big girls…

— The current frontrunner for the role of Guy Kimbo Slice Will KTFO on EliteXC’s First CBS Show is [drumroll...] James Thompson? According to Sam Caplan, EliteXC was trying to book Ron “H20 Man” Waterman for their May 31st jump-off, but a deal could not be reached, and they started talking to “The Colossus.” Thompson has been knocked out three times in his last four fights, most recently at the hands of Brett Rogers at EliteXC: Street Certified. Seasoned ground specialist Waterman would have been a much more credible opponent for Slice, but EliteXC can’t really be faulted for setting up a guaranteed KO for their most marketable asset in their first network broadcast. I’ve already set the betting line for this one: Kimbo Slice (-15,500) v. James Thompson (+12,000). So if you have fifteen grand and want to pick up an easy Benjamin, go for it.

— Dana White’s craftiness is boundless. On the same day that Tim Sylvia was set to announce his release from the UFC and desire to pursue a fight with Fedor Emelianenko, the UFC prez announced that he’d be renewing his efforts to sign Emelianenko to the UFC. As White said: “We want to make the fights the people want to see…We’ll see what we can do as far as (signing Emelianenko) goes.” We tend to think that previous insults will prevent Emelianenko and his managers from ever dealing with the UFC again, but signing Fedor would both provide current heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with an opponent (are there any contenders left in that division?) while blocking another UFC refugee (Tim Sylvia this time) from getting a fight with Emelianenko. It’s gotta be worth a shot.

— This guy caused a minor shitstorm on Sherdog by passing on a rumor that Saturday’s Shamrock/Le fight was a planned work, intended to set up a three-part rubber match. B.S.? Obviously. But the thing that gives the “work” theory a scrap of believability is that dramatic leg sweep in the third round. Watch it again: We understand why Le let Shamrock get up afterwards — why risk going to the ground if you’re dominating on the feet? — but would Frank actually turn his back on Le for that long while getting up unless he knew he wasn’t going to get pounced on? And how about Frank’s kick that set up the sweep? Have you ever seen such a half-assed front kick thrown in a pro MMA match? It’s like it was meant to be caught…

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3 (demoralizing leg sweep at the 2:25 mark; arm-breaking leg-kick at 4:57, Cung’s meddlesome girlfriend at 7:30):

UPDATE: The round 3 vid has been taken down. You can watch the whole fight here.

Final thought: Remember that stuff about Frank not being dumb enough to stand and trade with a superior striker? We will never doubt the stupidity of any member of the Shamrock clan ever again; that’s a promise. And so goes the last remaining shred of marketability for Blood Brothers…

(Photo courtesy of Tom Casino @ ProElite)

The dust has barely settled from the EliteXC/Strikeforce event — and what an event it was. For those on the Kimbo watch, he did make a showing during the broadcast and for some reason thought he was in San Francisco. FYI, the fight was in San Jose, and Kimbo also didn’t reveal who he would be fighting on May 31st. Anywho, we all know the headlining event was a war between Frank Shamrock and the undefeated Cung Le. So in the spirit of theatrics, we’ll save the main event results until last.

Let’s get to the quick results:

– Joey Villasenor and Ryan Jensen battled in a slow stand-up fight that garnered boos from the audience due to boredom. Villasenor dropped Jensen once, but the fighter came back and rocked Joey with some shots of his own. Just before the end of round one, Villasenor ends it on a KO. Wake me up for the next fight.

– Mike Kyle fought Wayne Cole for about 42 seconds. The crazy bastard tapped out due to an armbar at that mark in the first round. Cole picked up a well-deserved submission win.

– Gilbert Melendez took on Gabe Lemley in a title fight. Gilbey rocked it in the first, which was mostly on the ground. Herb Dean stopped the fight in the second when Melendez took it to the ground and pounded the piss out of Lemley.

– Drew Fickett versus Jae Suk Lim — which was supposed to be Drew Fickett versus Jake Shields until the latter pulled something in his back — ended early in the first via a guillotine choke. The win gave Fickett another notch in his impressive 33-5 belt.

(The Good, the Bad, and the Leathery.)

Cyborg, Shields, and Mean Mr. Munchies may be M.I.A., but tomorrow night’s EliteXC/Strikeforce show still has some very compelling match-ups going for it, including a main event that will pit the fan-hyped Cung Le against the self-hyped Frank Shamrock in a middleweight championship bout. You can catch the action on Showtime starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Here’s what the televised lineup looks like…

Shamrock vs. Le (for Strikeforce middleweight title)
Frank (24-8-1) has talked his usual trash about how he’s going to spank the relatively inexperienced Le (5-0), but trust us, it’s only for promotional purposes; Shamrock isn’t dumb enough to actually believe he’ll be cruising through an easy one tomorrow, and unlike his brother Ken, he’s not dumb enough to stand and trade with a superior striker. Le has the most devastating kicks in MMA right now, and he ended his last fight — against Sam Morgan last November — via the ultra-rare body-kick KO. But like other fighters who come from a kickboxing background, Le’s long-range kicks often leave him open for single-leg takedowns, and Shamrock could capitalize. He’ll certainly be looking to take the fight to the ground when the moment is right and finish Le by submission, and we think Shammy will succeed in the second or third round. If they really wanted to make this one interesting, the loser would have to accept eternal banishment from San Jose.

Drew Fickett vs. Jae Suk Lim (welterweights)
A.k.a., “The Battle of the Guys Who Were Supposed to Be Fighting Other Guys.” Rage in the Cage/UFC vet Drew Fickett (32-5) has choked out fighters like Josh Koscheck, Kurt Pellegrino, and Carlo Prater, and has generally faced much tougher competition than “The Korean Icepick” (9-3), who spent most of his career in Spirit MC. We’re loving Lim’s nickname, but it’s not going to help him much against the far-more-experienced Arizona native. Both men hadn’t been preparing to face each other, so it’s a bit of a wash, but judging from how Fickett’s done against guys with Lim’s skill level, we’d say a first-round submission victory is nearly inevitable.

(Hint: None of the quotes were from this guy.)

From today’s notable quotes, who said…

A) To look out for the “purple nurple” in his next fight?

B) That he wants to fight Dana White?

C) “It’s like if you have a Ferrari and a police officer gives you a speeding ticket before you turn the key.”

D) “I’m definitely one of the players in the weight class. It might depend on the outcome of this fight and a couple of other fights in the UFC. The 155-pound class is definitely one of the most stacked in the UFC.”

E) “I heard Kimbo Slice is calling me out. Hold on, Dawg, you aren’t even in my weight class! You don’t even fight in my organization!”

F) “My balls itch.”

— Our BFFs at Complex just posted an interview with Frankie Edgar, in which “The Answer” discusses entrance music, crotch rockets, being denied by The Ultimate Fighter, and unsanctioned no-holds-barred matches in the Bronx.

— Damon D (of BetUS fame) has a new sports blog called The House of Smack, and it’s kind of amazing. Learn about the relationship between UFC event names and shitty action movies, and then check out this list of balls-out hockey goalie fights.

— Frank Shamrock will be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tomorrow (12:05am ET/PT, 11:05pm CT), hyping up his fight against Cung Le, which will take place the following night. Apparently, Frank will be giving MMA instruction to “Guillermo the Parking Lot Security Guard,” whoever that is. He’s also been droning on at Fightline.com for the last couple days. Where does he find the time to train?

— CombatLifestyle‘s Tracy Lee has an amazing set of photos from the WEC 33 afterparty. Doug Marshall doesn’t seem to be taking his loss too hard…

— Tomorrow, Tim Sylvia will announce that he’s leaving the UFC and has just booked a fight against Fedor Emelianenko. Well, maybe. If his “big announcement” just has to do with turkey hunting, we’re going to be very disappointed.

Sam Caplan: You made the accusation in an interview with MMAMadness.com that Ken Shamrock has been using steroids his whole life. MMAjunkie.com published a statement earlier this week in which Ken made a full denial of your claims. Do you stand by your statement?

Frank Shamrock: Oh yeah. Yeah. I apologize; I thought it was common knowledge. I don’t know why Ken would lie about it. I was the guy who picked him up after he had his bitch tits removed.

(Source: ProElite.com)

Frank Shamrock‘s battle with Cung Le is on Saturday, so expect to see a lot of Frank around the web this week promoting the hell out of the thing. Already, there’s several Frank-related stories/vids out there today. Here’s a few to check out:

15 Rounds has an interview posted where Shamrock talks yet again about fighters controlling their own brand and promoting their own events. He goes into a lot of detail about the different models and how the MMA model could improve — depending on how you look at it. He also dishes about a possible upcoming duel with Tito Ortiz. It looks like something is in the works and the two fighters’ companies would co-promote it and hire out for someone to actually run the show. We’ll see if a rematch shapes up soon.

Oh yeah. And the little subject of Kimbo Slice comes up. Frank’s not a fan.

Q: What do you think of the fact that Kimbo Slice is being pushed as the biggest star fighting on the show?

FS: Kimbo has a weird aura about him. Personally, I think it’s a step back to where we were ten years ago which is the big, tough scary guy fighting, but he’s very, very popular with the young generation. His story is very interesting and appealing to people, but I also think they will quickly grow tired of it because it is kind of that gimmick story. The problem with Kimbo is the more he learns – the worse he’s going to get. He’s going to lose that raw, crazy, angry power that he is using to beat people.

Q: Do you think that Kimbo is a bad role model for kids considering how he made himself popular – through backyard fights? Could there potentially be a problem with the younger generation trying to copy Kimbo in order to get noticed?

FS: 100%. I think he is the absolute worst role model we could have for our events. This is coming from someone who has been here since the beginning. Having Kimbo as a representative as a face for the first big event on CBS is a step back.

Q: If you saw your own kids watching Kimbo Slice fights on the Internet, would you let them watch it?

FS: I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I’d probably let them watch it, but then I’d make them go to the martial arts class that night. It’s like I wouldn’t stop my son from watching car racing, but I wouldn’t let my son go race. But I would let him go to a racing school and learn about it.

But role models don’t sell tickets, now do they? Naturally, a discussion of Ken Shamrock’s recent crap showing happened and Frank expressed his disappointment because his brother’s diminished skills could stick a fork in their bad blood match next year. However, Frank is banking on the EliteXC/CBS deal to still be able to sell the fight — and to a wider audience. He’ll be selling a shitty fight, but he’s probably right because the general populace will buy anything. Frank then goes on to discuss how he’d love to fight Anderson Silva. On that note, FightNetwork has some interesting comparison numbers on Frank and Anderson Silva. Check them out after the jump.

Coolest video we’ve come across today — the classic 1996 Pancrase battle between Bas Rutten and Frank Shamrock, with narration by Bas himself. Video’s 25 minutes long, so grab a couple beers and settle in.

Bonus: Here’s a new interview where Frank calls out his brother Ken for his lifelong steroid abuse. Money quote: “Why do you think that his mind is so fried? Why do you think he crumbles before the big fights? He’s got no psyche. He let steroids give him a false sense of security and the moment that stuff is gone he’s no longer superman.”

The network TV deal beast was recently conquered by EliteXC when they signed up with CBS for a four-event deal and now their frequent co-promoter, Strikeforce, is following in their footsteps. The California-based company is reportedly ready to sign with one-time UFC possibility, NBC. MMAJunkie says a formal announcement could be made in the next week, though it should be noted that the head cheeses over at Strikeforce have yet to comment. For now, we’ll take “no news” as “good news.”

It’s also possible that Strikeforce may air an event on NBC even before EliteXC goes up – possibly airing a highlight show in April. The highlight shows are popular these days, from Spike TV’s treatment of some UFC events, PRIDE on FOX Sports, to the IFL’s Best Of’s. Time slot would be key for Strikeforce, especially if they start airing live events.

The program will likely air on late Saturday nights (early Sunday mornings) either immediately after or soon after the hit NBC series, “Saturday Night Live.”

Although unconfirmed, there’s speculation that the deal could possibly lead to live or, at the very least, tape-delayed Strikeforce events airing on NBC. However, other than the weekly highlights show, few other details of the deal are known at the time.

What goes hand-in-hand more than “SNL” and “MMA”? Exactly. Seems like they’d pick a better lead-in – say something other than a ratings-challenged show that jumped the shark back in the 90′s. But enough bitchin’ about that.

You know that guy who still says Whaaaaaazzzzzuuuuuuppppp! all the time? Kind of like the guy who is keeping the “Priceless” line alive. It’s about time both of these pop culture polluters died.

If you’re into “priceless” moments, Frank was on Sherdog today. He fights Cung Le on March 29th.

We reported last week that Cristiano Marcello was claiming to be Gilbert Melendez‘s opponent when the Strikeforce lightweight champ fights on March 29th, but now it appears that isn’t the case afterall. Strikeforce VP Mike Afromowitz has told MMAJunkie that nothing was signed for a Melendez/Marcello fight, but an opponent for Gilby might be revealed today. This is the third switch in plans for Melendez in the past week and a half – he was originally slated to be part of Dream 1‘s Lightweight Grand Prix, but then revealed he would instead defend his belt at the EliteXC/Strikeforce event “Shamrock vs Cung Le”.

Change has been the norm for Melendez of late. Before all this, he had been scheduled to fight other opponents — Josh Thompson and Jorge Masvidal — but they withdrew due to various injuries. The changes and rumors have been crazy for this guy, so stay tuned for updates in a few hours when Melendez will probably next be slated to headline a WWE event versus Hong-Man Choi — cornered by Rickson Gracie.

Speaking of Gracie, Cesar Gracie’s Graciefighter site is reporting that Nick Diaz will make his return on March 29th against Jae Suk Lim (aka, “The Korean Ice Pick”), the SpiritMC middleweight title holder. This is despite Lim saying after his last fight that he would next fight under ICON Sport. You’ll recall that Nick recently had plastic surgery to fix some of the scar tissue that was built up around his eyes. His volcanic eyeballs were the cause of his last loss — a doctor stoppage against KJ Noons. Well, scar tissue and getting punched in the face a lot were the cause.

“The Korean Ice Pick” is 9-3 and although not a huge name to MMA fans, he’s got the tools to bring it to Diaz. You might remember him from EliteXC: Renegade when he beat Daniel Pinedo via rear naked choke. Lim marks a change in plans for Diaz as well — Nick was originally to fight Muhsin Corbbrey on April 26th, but that fell through and Diaz was signed for the EliteXC/Strikeforce March event.

The show now includes Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le, Jake Shields vs. Drew Fickett, Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. This is a fightcard we’re liking.

Things that are not necessary:

“American Idol”, Twinkies, Crocs, your appendix, blonde jokes, actor person Ryan Reynolds, and Frank Shamrock‘s below video.

(Head-butts to BloodyElbow for the spot.)

(I know this picture has nothing to do with MMA. Still, it amuses me.)

— Our latest caption contest produced over a hundred new variations of “Kevin Federline sucks.” Well done.

— Bob Meyrowitz dodged our questions, much like the fighters of YAMMA will have to dodge the laser-firing sharks in his Mystery Pit.

— A female member of the Gracie clan was discovered. Bonus: She’s hot!

— We scored our first celebrity endorsement, who provided us with the greatest slogan in history.

— The UFC has more cases than Howie Mandel.

— Frank Shamrock stopped by, and revealed that he’ll be retiring in 2018. We’ll start planning the party.

— Tickets to UFC 83 were going, going, gone. Hey, we didn’t want to be there anyway. :’ (

— Some fighters are even dumber than they look.

— The Potato Nation proved their allegiance, rising up when a misguided, microphallic BloodyElbow fan named “MrTypo” wandered in and threatened to unbookmark us from his web browser. Somehow, MrTypo found his way back to this site even without the bookmark. For that sir, you deserve our undying admiration. Now get the fuck out of here and never come back.

As for the rest of you: Have a bomb-ass weekend, and make sure to swing by on Sunday for our exclusive interview with MMA Super-Agent Ken Pavia, and next week for more guaranteed insanity.

(Bob Sapp, doing what he does best.)

HDNet announced yesterday that it would be broadcasting four Strikeforce events in 2008, beginning with “Strikeforce at The Dome” on February 23rd. The Tacoma, Washington card features fights between Bob “The Beast” Sapp and K-1 vet Jan Nortje, and former UFC heavyweight champ Maurice Smith against kickboxing star Rick “The Jet” Rufus in his professional MMA debut. The HDNet deal doesn’t apply to the events that Strikeforce has already partnered with EliteXC for, which will still be broadcast on Showtime. Check out the new promo clip for the EliteXC/Strikeforce March 29th event in San Jose, California, featuring a main event of Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le. It looks like they’re playing up the “Frank Shamrock may be insane” angle, which can’t be bad for business.