Because it didn't happen in the UFC and the promotion has
blackballed its greatest early champion
Frank
Shamrock, this fight hasn't received the attention it deserves,
but it is a milestone battle in MMA history. As I detailed in
my longest op-ed ever, in two
years from 1997 to 1999, Shamrock went from a failure, told to
manage adopted older brother Ken's gyms, to the greatest fighter
ever. In the process, Shamrock achieved a new level of MMA
excellence, years ahead of his time, and was the easy No. 1 on
Sherdog's list of greatest fighters of the 90s. In fact, at the
beginning of 2008 Frank had not truly lost since the defeat to
John
Lober in January 1997, with 12 victories, a draw, and a
disqualification against
Renzo Gracie
that involved some play-acting on the Brazilian's part in a fight
Shamrock was clearly winning. As noted under an earlier entry, it
is unfortunate that Le started MMA as late as he did. A junior
college wrestling standout who was one of the best, most unique
strikers in the world as a former san shou world champion, Le may
have been one of the greatest fighters ever had he begun in the mid
to late 90s. Instead, he debuted in early 2006 when he was about to
turn 34. In fact, Le was seven months older than Shamrock, though
he had far less mileage on his body. Le was 5-0 in MMA but had
never faced anyone close to the level of his legendary foe when
they met in early 2008. After the bell rung and a failed early
takedown attempt by Shamrock, both men settled into a kick-heavy
striking battle. Watching this again now, it was a shockingly
high-level stand-up duel for its time and holds up well today.
There was a lot of good footwork and movement as well as solid
defense, including checking or avoiding heavy leg kicks and
skillful blocking. The kicks, especially Le's, were fast, powerful,
and accurate, accentuated by it being a southpaw versus orthodox
battle, and both men attempting to time counters. Le even landed
wince-inducing side kicks to the obliques, a tactic
Jon Jones
would make use of in the years to come.
The first round was nearly constant action, with Le not only
getting the better of it with his kicks, but proving his punches
were nothing to sneeze at, firing off solid combinations and
catching Shamrock behind the ear with a stinging right hook.
Shamrock had his moments, briefly getting Le down off a spinning
back roundhouse before splitting his lip open with a knee and
landing a few partial right crosses as the round expired. Shamrock
appeared to be gaining confidence as Round 2 began, landing a hard
body kick and then two flush straight rights to the chin. However,
Le started moving his head well, dodging Shamrock's offense, while
scoring with a variety of kicks and the occasional punch.
Incidentally, Shamrock spent the whole fight making mocking faces
and gestures towards Le, a strategy that had actually worked, once
upon a time, against his early nemesis
Bas Rutten. The
taunting reached its apex in the second stanza, drawing boos from
the crowd but never seeming to affect Le in the slightest. Near the
end of the frame, Le delivered the best sequence of the fight so
far, slamming a hard left cross into Shamrock's breadbasket before
smashing him over the head with a right hook that left him on shaky
legs, but still didn't end his clowning. In the third, Le really
started to take over. He landed at will with kicks on Shamrock,
including a gorgeous right head kick to left head kick combo that
I've never seen in MMA outside this fight, and very rarely in
kickboxing. Shamrock sought to land a big right cross, but it was
predictable, and Le evaded well, while punishing him with nifty
combos, most of them ending with a right hook. However, the legend
was not done, blasting Le with a huge right cross after being hit
with a body kick. Le was clearly hurt and Shamrock stalked him,
landing several more right hands. They reach a clinch against the
cage and Shamrock shellacked Le with a couple of huge right elbows
to the reaction of “OH” from the crowd each time. Could Shamrock
come back and win? Suddenly, Le started fighting back effectively
despite clearly being tired, including a tremendous body kick into
a spinning backfist to the face. Le then uncorked a thunderbolt of
a left head kick and while Shamrock blocked, he was still badly
stunned, backing up—and shockingly, no longer clowning. As
Shamrock, with blood pouring down his face, reeled and rocked
against the cage trying to dodge Le's punches, he was saved by the
bell as the crowd roared with delight. Between rounds, Frank was
forced to retire due to a right arm injury, the result of the
countless monster kicks he sustained, causing Le and his team to
celebrate in rapturous delight. This was a tremendous stand-up
duel, among the best that 2008 had to offer, with numerous changes
in momentum. It also had one of the greatest rounds of fighting
I've ever seen in MMA. And it was an important milestone for the
sport as a whole. The greatest fighter of the 1990s, who had run
years ahead of the rest of the MMA world, was finally vanquished in
2008.
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