Not many people know how to brand their name like Frank Shamrock. Frank followed in his adoptive brother Ken’s MMA footsteps and built a legendary career for himself, winning titles in the UFC, Pancrase, WEC, and Strikeforce, and knocking off some of the greatest fighters of all-time along the way. After stepping away from the sport for a while earlier this decade, Frank has returned with impressive wins, and since 1997 has suffered only one loss by disqualification.

Shamrock’s next fight will be against Cung Le on March 29th where he will defend his Strikeforce middleweight title against the former kickboxing champion and fan favorite. And of course, his “Blood Brothers” fight with Ken is still on the horizon. CagePotato recently chatted with Frank about the bad blood between him and his brother, the UFC’s exploitative business tactics, exactly when he’ll retire, and what makes him so damn weird.

CagePotato: How long has the fight with Cung Le been in the works?
Frank Shamrock: We really got serious about it three or four months ago. But it’s kind of been on my horizon for a while now.

Le’s a fantastic striker. How do you feel you match-up with him?
I’m hoping to stand up with him. I think MMA striking is a little bit different than traditional striking. And I don’t think he’s ready for the type of strength I can put on him. He’s going to be a good test for me.

Dana White has been quoted as calling you “a weird guy,” and you’ve had more than one public feud. Are you weird or just misunderstood at times?
I’m sure I’m weird in his book because I’m a damn good fighter who believes in my brand and won’t sell my brand to [the UFC]. To him, that’s weird.

The UFC has been losing big-name fighters lately for one reason or another. Where do you see the sport going as far as organizations, marketing, and free agents in the near future?
The truth is just catching up to the UFC. They’ve been the big business that’s been taking advantage of the fighters for a long time. Now everyone’s sort of figuring it out. Unfortunately, they have a big monopoly on the industry at this point, so it’s going to be difficult for other fighters to make it and get recognition elsewhere.

Ryan Shamrock’s opponent for his second professional MMA fight has been announced; the emaciated 19-year-old progeny of the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” will face Giorgio Andrews on the undercard of Cage Rage 25, which is headlined by a match between his father Ken and Robert Berry. Andrews is 2-0 professionally, with both of his wins coming via first-round stoppage.

Here’s the video of Ryan Shamrock’s pro debut, a bantamweight match against Josh Besneatte last August which resulted in a first-round submission win. Shamrock starts things off with an unexpected body slam, and shows impressive movement on the ground before ending Besneatte’s night with a Swickitine (the action starts at the 2:15 mark):

MMA Madness has a great interview with Ken Shamrock, where the UFC Hall-of-Famer discusses the IFL, Tito Ortiz, and his upcoming fight at Cage Rage. And just like every other time Ken is given a public forum, he used part of the interview to lash out at Dana White:

Everyone understands that he wants to be the show and if anyone threatens his popularity or strength, whether he’s right or wrong, Dana will go after them. He always says, verbatim, “I’m gonna bury him.” It’s this power thing for him and it’s gonna work for a while because myself, Chuck [Liddell], Tito [Ortiz], Randy [Couture] built this thing up. We gave Dana White the strength to do what he’s doing now but he’s hurting everything that we built. He can’t stop and just admit that this isn’t about him. It’s about the guys who went the distance with the UFC and kept them strong. Dana handles the UFC hall of fame and he inducted me. Even then, he had to be the center of attention. He needs to learn that it’s not about him. He calls fighters out. He calls managers out. Is Dana White a promoter or a fighter? … If you don’t follow Dana’s rules, he’ll pack up his toys and go home and he won’t let you play with his toys anymore. Somewhere along the line, as time goes on, the guys who built this will make him answer to his actions.

We’re also quite fond of this exchange:

MMA Madness: Your son, who is 1-0 in MMA competition, is also fighting at the event. What is more exciting, your comeback or your son’s first mainstream fight?

Ken Shamrock: Definitely my comeback.

Jesus. Can you imagine if Ken Shamrock was your father?

Ken: Let’s get one thing straight, Buster Brown. I’m the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Not you. You’re just the son of the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Is that clear?
Ryan: …
Ken: I built you into what you are today! Without my sperm, and the egg of some lady, you would be nothing.
Ryan: But dad, all I wanted to do was…
Ken: No you may not borrow my body-grease! That’s Ken Shamrock’s body grease! KEN SHAMROCK’S, BODY GREASE! BLAAAAAAUUUUGH!!!!

Total nightmare.

Discussing Ken Shamrock’s recent loss history inspired us to dig up the video of his first-round loss to Kazushi Sakuraba, which went down at PRIDE 30 in October 2005. And watching the video reminded us of something we love/hate about Ken — his constant protest of early stoppages. Dude, maybe the refs wouldn’t step in so often if you could get hit without looking like you’ve lost consciousness. It’s a tough skill to learn, but an important one nonetheless.

(Yeah, but what happens when Cage Rage dumps your ass?)

According to The Fight Network, Ken Shamrock’s manager has confirmed that “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” will face Robert “Buzz” Berry during his Cage Rage debut at London’s Wembley Arena on March 8th. Berry fights as a heavyweight, and we’re guessing the match will be fought within that division. Here’s the rest of what we know about Berry:

— His record is 11-7. He hasn’t beaten anybody we’ve heard of, but he’s lost to Tengiz Tedoradze (twice), Dan Severn (last year), and his last two matches resulted in TKO losses against Colin Robinson (who will face Antoni Hardonk in the undercard of UFC 80) and Neil Grove (who is also on the Cage Rage 3/8 card), a loss which he later blamed on fatigue due to a severe chest infection.

According to this official-looking website, a date has been set for the fight between adoptive brothers Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock that was first announced at HDNet Fights: Reckless Abandon. Though MMA Fightline claims that “Blood Brothers” will go down Thursday (?), April 10, the countdown on BloodBrothersPPV says the match will go down in 83 days, 8 hours and 10 minutes, putting it at an even odder Monday, March 31st (promptly at 11 p.m. ET!). The event is being presented by Mixed Martial Arts Entertainment (MMAE), whose President and CEO happens to be Frank Shamrock. No word yet on a location or an undercard, but the match does have a MySpace Page, which plugs it as “a fight of Biblical proportions,” and refers to “Frank Shamrock VS Ken Shamrock” as a 51-year-old male from San Jose. A countdown bar on the page says there’s actually one year, two months, and 24 days until the fight, which by my calculations is a Tuesday. Listen guys, all those dates sound awesome, but trust me, you’re gonna wanna hold the fight on a weekend. It’s just good business!

First, the boring stuff — Jason Miller defeated Tim Kennedy in a unanimous decision and Frank Trigg submitted Edwin Dewees via kimura in the first round at Saturday’s HDNet Fights: Reckless Abandon show. Check back later for videos of both matches…

The real action came from a series of statements made through the course of the night. In order of importance:

1) Randy Couture hopes to fight Fedor Emelianenko as early as October 2008. In an interview during “Reckless Abandon,” Couture said the following: “Unless the UFC wants to do a co-promotion with M-1 and make the Fedor fight happen, I’m going to have to wait ’til my contract expires. I have no intention of breaching that contract — that expires in July, my employment contract expires with them in October, so I would assume that the soonest you’d see me fight Emelianenko would be in October.” At a post-event press conference, he said “I have a contract with the UFC that I have to honor. I can’t breach that or I’ll end up in litigation, so I don’t intend to do that.” Asked for his take on the upcoming Emelianenko/Hong Man Choi fight at Yarennoka!, Couture said, “I hope it goes successfully for him because I want to be the first one to beat him.”

2) A fight between Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock is on the horizon. In a separate interview with Ken Shamrock during the HDNet Fights broadcast, Ken addressed the rumors of a match between him and his semi-estranged adoptive brother: “We’re gonna make that happen. It’s not a dirty thing, we don’t hate each other. Fact is, I respect what he’s done with himself, so I’m looking forward to getting in there, and me and the brother doing a little sibling rivalry in the ring…I don’t know where we’re gonna do it yet…but it’s gonna happen.”

I just felt like posting a video of Rich Franklin actually winning a fight, so here y’go. Let’s not take anything away from the moment by pointing out that Ken was about eight years past his prime at this point, and couldn’t stay on his feet to save his life. That part at the 4:06 mark where he basically falls into Franklin’s fist? Genius.

(Rich Franklin vs. Ken Shamrock, TUF1 finale, 4/9/05)

The UFC Hall-of-Famers whose blood and sweat carried the organization in its early days will act as coaches for a series of team MMA events to be held in Asia. According to MMA Weekly, Las Vegas-based Platinum Fighting Productions is organizing a tournament named “Ring of Fire,” which pits teams of five fighters (including one woman) against each other, with four preliminary events leading up to a final matchup between the two best teams. Along with Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, the other coaches will be UFC/PRIDE veteran Josh Barnett and Armenian-American submission grappling guru Gokor Chivichyan. The lineups will be:

Team Gracie: Cleber Luciano, Jorge Patino, Daniel Serafian, John Marsh, Katrine Alendal
Team Lion’s Den (Shamrock): Evan Dunham, Kyacey Uscola, Mike Whitehead, Ricco Rodriguez, Tonya Evinger
Team Barnett: Koji Oishi, Yuki Kondo, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jeff Monson, Ginele Marquez
Team Gokar: Karen Darabedyan, August Wallen, Rodney Faverus, Hakim Gouram, Amanda Buckner

The first event will take place on December 9th at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines, and will feature Barnett’s team taking on Chivichyan’s. Future events will take place in Macau, Japan, and China; the final is slated for December 2008. Why this is being held on the other side of the world is anybody’s guess — it doesn’t seem to be the best move for a fledgling organization, marketing-wise, if a television broadcast is out of the question. Stay tuned for more details on this compelling, possibly bullshit event.