Bellator 149 “Shamrock vs. Gracie 3” happened last month (Feb. 19, 2016) inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The Spike TV event was headlined by Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris.
Shamrock, who was stopped by technical knockout (TKO), was none too pleased with the results of his third Gracie fight. Two days after the conclusion of the match, he filed a formal complaint with Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), protesting the finish.
“The World’s Most Dangerous Man,” however, isn’t sitting idly by waiting for the TDLR to come back with a ruling on the official outcome, recently releasing an open letter to his Brazilian nemesis detailing his issues with their fight.
“As you know, our last (Trilogy) fight ended in a wrong manner that is unsettling to both me and our fans from around the world–and hopefully to you too. Due to the obvious missed illegal foul, I have challenged the outcome of our bout and I’m confident that the commission will render a ‘No Decision’ nullifying the result of our last fight.”
Shamrock believes Gracie will agree, based on the fact he did the honorable thing back when they fought in 1993.
“We had a similar situation where you caught me with a choke which caused me to tap. You let go, but the ref did not see the tap and told us to ‘fight.’ You yelled at me ‘you tapped!’ I remember how badly I wanted to say ‘no’ but I could not bring myself to lie. In my heart, I thought of my children and other children I had been mentoring at the time. I could only tell the ref ‘yes, I tapped.’ I remembered how badly I wanted the fight to continue on, but in the end — telling the truth was the right thing to do and that’s what I did.”
In short, Shamrock’s view is that the uncalled foul in their fight led to a finish that wasn’t honorable or truthful.
“At our recent fight, you chose to not extend common courtesy for your low-blow and give me my time to recoup. You fought on with no regard that I had stopped fighting you back. In delivering you this message, my greatest hope is to help you see that a failure to step up and do the right thing will not play out well, going into the future, for your image or the legacy of your father’s training.”
Read his full letter here.
Will Shamrock’s appeal to honor and pride sway Gracie to “do the right thing” and petition the TDLR on his behalf?
Time will tell.
To check out the latest Bellator MMA-related news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive news archive right here.