Skip to content

Shamrock: Rubber match with Royce Gracie a chance to 'set things right'

Fight Hub TV/YouTube

Ken Shamrock has been waiting more than 20 years for another shot at Royce Gracie.

The two MMA legends first fought at UFC 1 in 1993, when the slight Gracie submitted the muscular Shamrock in 57 seconds to create a highlight that has been replayed countless times. A second meeting in 1995 went much better for Shamrock, though he was still unable to beat Gracie and the result was a draw (there were no judges to score fights back then) after 36 minutes of inconclusive grappling.

Shamrock took little solace in being the first man to go the distance with Gracie. The 51-year-old meets his rival next Friday at Bellator 149 for a third chance to get that elusive win.

"Everything I've wanted to set things right is right there," Shamrock told Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com. "All I've gotta do is just pick it up and go. That's what this is. That's the Gracie fight. I can (cherish) everything that this one fight happened. Everything. From the beginning to the end. It was started and it will end - I'm in control of that."

His glory days long behind him, Shamrock has fought sporadically over the past decade and has been knocked out seven times in that span. Getting the Gracie fight has already gone a long way to helping Shamrock put that misery behind him.

"I could have jumped through the wall," Shamrock said. "It's like something you could touch and you know if you just get it, your world will be changed. Like everything would be OK if you just got the chance to turn things around. And you know with everything you are and with everything you breathe, all you've gotta do is wake up and do it and things will change. But you can't get it to come to the table. You can't get them to talk with you. You can't seem to get things going. So therefore, it's lost.

"But then to turn around once when you wake up and you have it all sitting right there at the table - it's all ready to go, it's there. All you've gotta do is just go."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox