Royce wants 3rd fight with Shamrock in Bellator

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MoomBah

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Feb 16, 2015
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Although Ken Shamrock came up short in Friday’s Bellator 138 headliner against Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, the 51-year-old MMA vet still seems to have some willing opponents.

In fact, one is a familiar foe: fellow UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie.

Gracie (14-2-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), who recently joined Bellator as a brand ambassador, hasn’t entered the cage since 2007. However, the 48-year-old early UFC star, who defeated Shamrock (28-16-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) at UFC 1 and fought him to a draw at UFC 5, is apparently willing to come out of semi-retirement.

Prior to Friday’s event in St. Louis, 51-year-old Shamrock spoke to Bellator President Scott Coker and mentioned he’d like to fight Shamrock again. When Gracie was told about the conversation, he was hardly dismissive of the idea.

“That’s good,” Gracie said with a laugh. “When you’re at the top, everyone wants to fight you.”

Admittedly, the possibility took a hit when Shamrock suffered a first-round TKO loss to Slice in the Spike TV headliner. But as Bellator has shown, MMA fans are clearly willing to watch familiar names – no matter their age or lack of recent activity.

Although Gracie talked about the hypothetical Shamrock fight on the condition he’d win on Friday, the loss might not be a deal-breaker. Gracie, after all, seems ready for a challenge.

“Body feels good, not injured, (I’m) healthy and same weight from 20 years ago,” he said.

Check out the above video as Gracie discusses Shamrock, Bellator, the organization’s upcoming single-night tournament, his own tourney history and more.

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LINK: Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock III? Gracie willing to do it in Bellator cage | MMAjunkie
 
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Tiiimmmaaayyy

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Jan 19, 2015
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I don't think it will happen, but if it does I'll watch it too. Might be the only way Ken can get a win in Bellator.
 

jason73

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Ill watch it but please dont make it a main event

Sent from my SGH-S730M using Tapatalk
 

Zeph

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Jan 22, 2015
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My freakshow quota involving Ken is all used up for now. Maybe next year?
 

Narcosynthesis

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May 25, 2015
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The only way I would care is if TRT was allowed. Otherwise I'm not interested in seeing two washed up fighters looking for a pay day or trying to relive past glories before they keel over from old age.
 

ChaosOverkill

Conor is ushering in the Chomochiq fashion era.
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My freakshow quota involving Ken is all used up for now. Maybe next year?
Yup this. They make for bad main events on cards with highly skilled fights. Make a freashow event if you want to do it.
 

FadeToBlack

Rear Naked Poke
Mar 15, 2015
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Just make it happen. We need stuff like this as fans, these nostalgia fights or legends fights. There's a market for it. Don't get too wrapped up in whether Bellator is going the freak show route or not, Bellator needs to keep doing stuff like this for no other reason than nobody else is. Hell, I'm even ready for Tito/Shammy 4...just kidding.
 

teamquestnorth

Lindland never cheated
Jan 27, 2015
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I would love to see it too but this isn't 1994. There are weight classes now.

No one needs to see a fat ridiculous looking Royce at 205 or a emaciated Shamrock at WW
 

dacofty

Yea..Ok..Whatever
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I will not watch anything with Shamrock in it unless its a retirement party.
 

jason73

Yuri Bezmenov was right
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i want to see ken vs oleg taktarov and id shit my pants if they could drag out matt hume,erik paulson or sakuraba for this kind of legends fight
 

Wild

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Dec 31, 2014
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If the old guys still want to perform, and can get licensed to do so, I'm all for it. They basically built the sport, so I think they deserve to be able to fight for as long as they want and their bodies will allow...and in the process, remind the fans that just started watching during TUF & when Brock crossed over, of who they are and what they did for the sport. If Coker is willing to give them that platform, then God bless him. Will they take some criticism from fans that just started following the sport in the last 6-8 years, but think they're the foremost authority on MMA? Sure. Should they give a flying fuck? Absolutely not.
 

ChaosOverkill

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If the old guys still want to perform, and can get licensed to do so, I'm all for it. They basically built the sport, so I think they deserve to be able to fight for as long as they want and their bodies will allow...and in the process, remind the fans that just started watching during TUF & when Brock crossed over, of who they are and what they did for the sport. If Coker is willing to give them that platform, then God bless him. Will they take some criticism from fans that just started following the sport in the last 6-8 years, but think they're the foremost authority on MMA? Sure. Should they give a flying fuck? Absolutely not.

I'm not against it happening what I am against is what it overshadowed. People should be talking about two outstanding comebacks on that card, not Ken's ethical commitments to legit MMA.

I am all for a bellator event with a main card of legends. I am not interested in the cap off fight that awesome collection of MMA fights being that sorry. I get that it's not the popular opinion, but I hated it. Tito can still grind out, he can make his argument to belong and they are giving him a title fight, I have no problem with him being a main event on a card with the Straus fights and the pitbull fight and the Chandlers.

I don't want Ken vs Kimbo that on those cards. I want a senior tour for that stuff.
 

ThatOneDude

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I'm not against it happening what I am against is what it overshadowed. People should be talking about two outstanding comebacks on that card, not Ken's ethical commitments to legit MMA.

I am all for a bellator event with a main card of legends. I am not interested in the cap off fight that awesome collection of MMA fights being that sorry. I get that it's not the popular opinion, but I hated it.
I agree that it's a shame it headlined the card, but if it drew more people to watch the other fights then so be it.
 

ChaosOverkill

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I agree that it's a shame it headlined the card, but if it drew more people to watch the other fights then so be it.
But that's just it, do you know it did? Did they start from the Strauss fight? The Chandler fight? Or did they just flip around till they saw Kimbo? You'd need a real complex breakdown to know if it even mattered.

Tito can do both, be legit and bring eyes. Kimbo and ken is Senior tour to me.

The older and more removed you get from MMA the more likely you will have some occurance that will cause more controversy than appreciation for the sport.

You have to balance that. Tito will give you a matchup you can still say "Ok that was legit MMA and a legend, good stuff" and even the Schlemenko fight crossed that line because of the weight difference

Friday to me was not, it was pure weirdo controversy that sapped the reality of the rest of the card.
 

IschKabibble

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After seeing Shamrock fight this weekend and considering how Gracie looked against Matt Hughes, no way in hell do I want to see this fight. I made the mistake of buying into the Shamrock vs Kimbo hype.

Fool me once, shame on you...
 

ChaosOverkill

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I don't like the feeling and conversation of fights like that. It is all negative and questions and I don't need it for the enjoyment of the sport. I''d like to see legends that can do something still impressive, not just names settling a score. It's not interesting to me and just generates strange reactions.

Tyson vs Toney will be the same thing and I hope they put it on a freakshow event and not a headline on a THurman or GGG card or something stupid to draw eyes to him.

Yes, great Tyson back in gloves and hitting, someone, 3 rounds in = This is garbage.
 

Wild

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Agree that those fights shouldn't be headlining a card, but I see why Coker did it. He hoped the people that only tuned in for Kimbo & Ken tuned in early and ended up seeing Pitbull, Straus, etc. The risk of putting a fight like Kimbo & Ken as say the first or second fight on a card, is the casuals watch it, and then tune to something else after it's over. It's a delicate situation for sure. I hope in the future, they figure out a way to put it somewhere on the card that makes more sense, but still gets casuals to tune in for the whole thing. They'll need to stack a card to do it. The Dynamite card would be perfect for another pioneer fight.
 

ChaosOverkill

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Agree that those fights shouldn't be headlining a card, but I see why Coker did it. He hoped the people that only tuned in for Kimbo & Ken tuned in early and ended up seeing Pitbull, Straus, etc. The risk of putting a fight like Kimbo & Ken as say the first or second fight on a card, is the casuals watch it, and then tune to something else after it's over. It's a delicate situation for sure. I hope in the future, they figure out a way to put it somewhere on the card that makes more sense, but still gets casuals to tune in for the whole thing. They'll need to stack a card to do it. The Dynamite card would be perfect for another pioneer fight.
There's a place for it, I can't claim that there isn't, but Friday was all wrong to me, they need better ideas.
 

Narcosynthesis

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May 25, 2015
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Screw weight classes. Have it open weight.
Agree that those fights shouldn't be headlining a card, but I see why Coker did it. He hoped the people that only tuned in for Kimbo & Ken tuned in early and ended up seeing Pitbull, Straus, etc. The risk of putting a fight like Kimbo & Ken as say the first or second fight on a card, is the casuals watch it, and then tune to something else after it's over. It's a delicate situation for sure. I hope in the future, they figure out a way to put it somewhere on the card that makes more sense, but still gets casuals to tune in for the whole thing. They'll need to stack a card to do it. The Dynamite card would be perfect for another pioneer fight.
Bellator reminds me of WCW when they went head to head with WWE and went out and signed a bunch of old, washed up wrestlers because they knew people would tune in on name recognition alone. They ended up losing the head to head and getting bought out by WWE but it did work for a brief time.