Add Ken Shamrock to the list of those who would like to see Royce Gracie fight at UFC 134 in Rio.
The rub is that Shamrock feels he would be the ideal opponent to face off against the Brazilian MMA legend.
“That fight, Royce Gracie (versus) Ken Shamrock, should happen,” Shamrock recently told Fight Network. “The fans want it, I want it, Royce wants it, Brazil wants it.”
Shamrock then went on, ripping the promotion that could make the fight happen, saying “the only problem with that is you have a bunch of people who have big egos who believe that the UFC created this whole thing when they absolutely did not. People like myself and Royce Gracie and (Mark) Coleman and many, many other people created this UFC phenomenon, so that they can sit there and control it which is what they’re doing today, trying to control it for themselves. So they’re not gonna let that fight happen.”
If the two UFC Hall of Famers were to meet, Shamrock thinks their presence on the UFC 134 fight card would result in big pay-per-view numbers for the promotion.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, and anyone else will tell you, that if this fight was to happen, this would be the biggest pay-per-view to date, but they will not let that happen,” Shamrock said. “(The UFC) would have to swallow their egos for that to happen, and these guys have too big of egos to let that happen.”
Shamrock’s vitriol most likely stems from the loss of a lawsuit he filed against the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, LLC. In the suit, Shamrock alleged that the promotion had violated the terms of his contract when they released him with one fight remaining on that contract. The judge in the case found in favor of Zuffa, however, and Shamrock was subsequently ordered to pay Zuffa’s attorney fees and other costs, totaling $175,000.
Shamrock and Gracie have battled twice before, with Gracie winning their first fight at UFC 1 via rear-naked choke submission. The second time they met, in a “superfight” at UFC 5, the fight was declared a draw after 36 minutes of action.
UFC 134 will take place August 27 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fight card will be headlined by a middleweight title bout between champion Anderson Silva and the last man to gain a victory over him, Yushin Okami.
