Former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator fighter Tito Ortiz is once again trying to stir up trouble for his former employer on social media.
Monday night, the self-proclaimed “People’s Champion” sent out a tweet to fellow MMA pi…
Former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator fighter Tito Ortiz is once again trying to stir up trouble for his former employer on social media.
Monday night, the self-proclaimed “People’s Champion” sent out a tweet to fellow MMA pioneers Frank Shamrock and Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture and upcoming Bellator 106 opponent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson inviting them to attend the UFC’s 20th Anniversary Show, UFC 167.
He was even kind enough to offer to purchase the tickets:
Ken Shamrock, a participant at UFC 1 who lost to Ortiz three times during the course of his career, was enthusiastic about the idea, imploring his younger brother to tag along.
Couture, one of only two fighters in UFC history to win titles in two different weight classes (the other being BJ Penn), was a coach on season 1 of Bellator‘s reality show Fight Master.
That bad blood between him and UFC President Dana White is well-documented, with the hard feelings so severe that “The Natural” isn’t even allowed to corner his son Ryan inside the Octagon (via Bloody Elbow).
The 50-year-old said to count him in as well, making a joke about the possible reunion among the old-timers:
Unfortunately, Frank Shamrock and Rampage did not respond to the stream of tweets as of Tuesday evening.
Ortiz and Jackson have gone on tirades against their former employer leading up to their November 2 showdown, with White firing back that neither competitor is relevant anymore (via MMA Fighting).
UFC 167 takes place on November 16 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the pay-per-view event headlined by a welterweight title fight between Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
JohnHeinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
Getting on Dana White’s bad side has proven to be an unenviable place to be over the years, and it appears Ken Shamrock has worked his way back onto the UFC President’s radar.
There has been no love lost between White and the former UFC champion and MM…
Getting on Dana White‘s bad side has proven to be an unenviable place to be over the years, and it appears Ken Shamrock has worked his way back onto the UFC President’s radar.
There has been no love lost between White and the former UFC champion and MMA pioneer over the years, but the grudge between the two parties had fallen by the wayside for the most part. Shamrock attempted to sue Zuffa in 2009 for allegedly releasing him from his contract early, but he failed, and there hasn’t been much cannon fodder traded between the two parties since.
Those conditions changed last week when “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” blasted White on Twitter for his treatment of fighters who helped the promotion establish itself as the premier organization in mixed martial arts with particular emphasis on Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and his half-brother Frank.
The veteran also launched into the issue of fighter pay during his online rant, accusing White of failing to pay the fighters who have paved the way accordingly.
It appears Shamrock’s efforts to get White’s attention have worked, and the UFC front man addressed the matter at the media scrum held Tuesday for the “Silva vs. Weidman 2″ fight.
“I don’t even want to mention this guy’s f****** name,” White said. “Ken Shamrock bursts back onto the scene like, ‘Hey, I’m trying to save everybody.’ No, trying to become relevant again is what you’re trying to do. Let’s not forget that Ken Shamrock tried to sue us about his contract.
“Ken Shamrock owes me $175,000, and I’m coming for it Ken. I’m coming for it you f****** piece of sh**. You should have stayed where you were, hidden under the f****** porch somewhere. The guy owes me $175,000 because him and his scumbag lawyer put together some phony lawsuit that he lost, and he owes me $175,000 in attorney fees. He’s out there talking about what he doesn’t have and what guys aren’t getting, but he’s trying to make himself relevant again. If anybody can’t see that, you’re just f****** stupid.”
White has never been trigger-shy when dealing with the criticism from former UFC fighters over the years. His current beef with Shamrock comes at a time when he’s also in the midst of trading public barbs with former UFC champions Ortiz and Jackson, who he believes are stirring up commotion for the sake of bringing publicity to their upcoming bout under the Bellator banner.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
(Tito Ortiz makes another stop on his global goodwill tour | Photo via @TitoOrtiz)
Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson and Frank Shamrock are all former UFC champions that are currently personas non grata to the organization and its President Dana White. (Not coincidentally, four of those five guys currently have some role in the Bellator organization.) For that reason, Ortiz seems to think it would be pretty funny if they all went to the UFC’s 20th anniversary show November 16th in Las Vegas.
“@ShamrockKen @frankshamrock @Randy_Couture @Rampage4real maybe we should crash the show. I will buy the tickets.” Ortiz recently tweeted.
Apparently, some of the other guys liked the idea. Tito’s former mortal enemy, Ken Shamrock, tweeted back, “I like TITO’s idea,” and then, “I will stand beside you Tito. – frank lets go!!!!!,” encouraging his brother to join them.
So we guess to Ken, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or something. Ken told Tito to send him a direct message through twitter so they could totally discuss deets, and then sent out a “hi randy” shout out to Couture.
Couture, who is probably smarting more than anyone else about not being allowed at UFC events ever since Dana banned the two-division UFC champion from cornering his son Ryan, then weighed in. “feel sorry for the security guys dana sends to have us removed 🙂 hope they have guns !,” he tweeted, apparently still in character as Toll Road from The Expendables.
(Tito Ortiz makes another stop on his global goodwill tour | Photo via @TitoOrtiz)
Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson and Frank Shamrock are all former UFC champions that are currently personas non grata to the organization and its President Dana White. (Not coincidentally, four of those five guys currently have some role in the Bellator organization.) For that reason, Ortiz seems to think it would be pretty funny if they all went to the UFC’s 20th anniversary show November 16th in Las Vegas.
“@ShamrockKen @frankshamrock @Randy_Couture @Rampage4real maybe we should crash the show. I will buy the tickets.” Ortiz recently tweeted.
Apparently, some of the other guys liked the idea. Tito’s former mortal enemy, Ken Shamrock, tweeted back, “I like TITO’s idea,” and then, “I will stand beside you Tito. – frank lets go!!!!!,” encouraging his brother to join them.
So we guess to Ken, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or something. Ken told Tito to send him a direct message through twitter so they could totally discuss deets, and then sent out a “hi randy” shout out to Couture.
Couture, who is probably smarting more than anyone else about not being allowed at UFC events ever since Dana banned the two-division UFC champion from cornering his son Ryan, then weighed in. “feel sorry for the security guys dana sends to have us removed hope they have guns !,” he tweeted, apparently still in character as Toll Road from The Expendables.
“can you imagine those guys would be sh[i]tting their knickers,” he went on gleefully. Bout time Couture took the, “what are you going to do about it, Dana?” approach to attending UFC events.
If these guys got together it might be fun for a few moments but it wouldn’t take long to become awkward, probably. They are a bunch of alpha-personalities who either have a long history of feuding with one another or are set to fight one another in the near future (Tito and Rampage), so chillaxing together seems unlikely. Still, it might be a confusing treat for the OG fans in attendance at the show if they somehow managed to get on the telecast.
What do you think, Nation? Is this is a clever prank or sad call for attention from Ortiz? And, if they are going to do this, which old fighters did Tito leave out that he should invite?
Ken Shamrock voiced his displeasure about fighter treatment and pay Monday evening on Twitter, calling out UFC President Dana White in the process.
After receiving the above YouTube video in a tweet (h/t MMAjunkie.com) from a concerned fan, Shamr…
Ken Shamrock voiced his displeasure about fighter treatment and pay Monday evening on Twitter, calling out UFC President Dana White in the process.
After receiving the above YouTube video in a tweet (h/t MMAjunkie.com) from a concerned fan, Shamrock and UFC Hall of Fame inductee Randy Couture chimed in on the topic, echoing the video’s sentiments about fighter pay.
While Couture sounded off first, Shamrock promptly took the mic and commanded it for the remainder of the set, as he touched upon fighter pay and the overall lack of respect fighters receive from White.
So what [you’re] saying is that the fighters did not make the ufc what it is today, that disrespectful promoter did all of that. Wow, what a smart guy you are. Why didn’t I think of that? Who needs fighters when you can just disrespect the guys who made your promotion and talk trash and make loads of money and not give what is partially the fighters money.
This is not uncharted land for Shamrock.
In an April 2013 video filmed for The FightNetwork, Shamrock used firsthand experience and observations to make these claims:
I don’t like to see people get taken advantage of, and I speak my mind when I see something wrong and other people are being hurt…I’ve seen things that are wrong. I see the lies that are being told. I know the money that is being made, and I know that people are being lied to…There’s more money being made there, and they’re lying to people about the money being made.
A 2012 ESPN article detailed fighters’ reluctance to discuss fighter pay, saying that the topic activates their “flight instincts.”
On the other hand, legends like Chuck Liddell have spoken candidly on the subject, concluding that the pay scale is more than fair for fighters, while White himself consistently tosses positive metrics back in the faces of critics.
The fact that fighter pay is a recurring theme—one that we’ve seen discussed for years—tells me that the situation is not perfect.
While Shamrock and Couture are not exactly UFC advocates at this point in their respective careers, ex-UFC fighters like Jon Fitch,Jacob Volkmann and John Cholish have also expressed their discontent with the organization’s pay scale.
There is no doubt that the top fighters enjoy significantly steeper pay grades than undercard inhabitants, but, as Liddell points out, those who continue to win impressively will reap the rewards.
Shamrock, still displeased by the video and the ensuing conversation it spawned, capped off his tirade by reminding White where to direct the credit for his successes:
You see, Shamrock was expected to face Ian Freeman at an Ultimate Cage Fighting Championship event on July 27th. A few days ago, however, Shamrock pulled out of the fight and claimed that the promotion was trying to shortchange him, resulting in the fight being cancelled altogether. We know, sounds familiar, right? Only now, a pissed off Freeman is accusing Shamrock of cheating the promotion out of $5,000 and skipping town (original story here) — what’s known on Broadway as “pulling a Harold Hill.” Freeman vented on his Facebook page:
Well, everyone including myself, knew this fight was too good to be true as we know what a coward Shamrock is.
Not only is Shamrock a coward but he’s also a thief. He accepted the fight, demanded $5,000 upfront as a deposit of trust, of which was sent, and now refuses to return the money.
Not only has he demanded that money up front but also ask for his purse and ticket deal to be paid “before” he fights and this money to be sent to an American bank.
UCFC bent over backwards to stick to your Diva demands but you bitched about everything. Even to the fact that they were advertising your name to sell tickets. That’s what every show in the world does [you] dumb fuck. The fight was confirmed, and you signed and made a video signing the contract. Idiot.
While this seemed like a simple case of “he said, she said” at first, it wasn’t until we revisited an old interview with Chael Sonnen, of all people, that this case was blown wide open.
You see, Shamrock was expected to face Ian Freeman at an Ultimate Cage Fighting Championship event on July 27th. A few days ago, however, Shamrock pulled out of the fight and claimed that the promotion was trying to shortchange him, resulting in the fight being cancelled altogether. We know, sounds familiar, right? Only now, a pissed off Freeman is accusing Shamrock of cheating the promotion out of $5,000 and skipping town (original story here) — what’s known on Broadway as “pulling a Harold Hill.” Freeman vented on his Facebook page:
Well, everyone including myself, knew this fight was too good to be true as we know what a coward Shamrock is.
Not only is Shamrock a coward but he’s also a thief. He accepted the fight, demanded $5,000 upfront as a deposit of trust, of which was sent, and now refuses to return the money.
Not only has he demanded that money up front but also ask for his purse and ticket deal to be paid “before” he fights and this money to be sent to an American bank.
UCFC bent over backwards to stick to your Diva demands but you bitched about everything. Even to the fact that they were advertising your name to sell tickets. That’s what every show in the world does [you] dumb fuck. The fight was confirmed, and you signed and made a video signing the contract. Idiot.
While this seemed like a simple case of “he said, she said” at first, it wasn’t until we revisited an old interview with Chael Sonnen, of all people, that this case was blown wide open:
“I can guarantee you that as sure as night follows day, that not only is that fight never gonna happen, it never was. Ken Shamrock is going around to all these different promoters doing his typical scumbag move getting money up front saying, “You know, I’m a Hall of Famer and I don’t even know if you guys are going to exist, so give me a ten grand signing bonus.”
He takes their money, goes and blades himself in the back, or whatever make believe thing that guy does, won’t show up – guaranteed he won’t show up – keeps their ten grand and goes on to the next unassuming promoter. He’s not gonna fight James Toney anymore than you are. He never was. That fight won’t happen, mark my words.”
We don’t know how to say this, but Chael Sonnen is starting to sound less like a schizophrenic WWE heel and more like a goddamn prophet these days. That interview is over two years old, yet has Shamrock’s current shtick pegged to a tee. The even more damning evidence? Shamrock’s response to the controversy and John Joe O’Regan’s subsequent takedown of “The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
Shamrock: England, they don’t have a sanctioning body so that’s the reason why we’ve done this escrow, where they put the money into escrow. We know that when we get to England these contracts aren’t valid because there’s no sanctioning body.Â
So these contracts are not legal. So that’s why we did it that way, and now they’re – which we didn’t think they would do because it’s stupid business – but they’re trying to pull that now.
Writer’s Note: Shamrock is not correct here. Contracts/bout agreements are not illegal in the absence of a sanctioning body. They are still legally enforceable agreements between the parties, but would be enforced via the civil justice system in the UK via the small claims court. (Source: Writer is a law graduate)
So there you have it; Ken Shamrock has somehow managed to out-sleazeball Bob Sapp, who at least shows up to his contacted fights and takes some semblance of a beating before receiving his overly-inflated paycheck. And as with Sapp, the only way we are going to rid ourselves of the cancer Shamrock has become (Kencer?) is to stop enabling him. So we beg of you, small-time MMA promoters: DO NOT HIRE THIS FRAUD.
If our past few articles about Shamrock are any indication, this is the point where a couple of you jump up our asses about “disrespecting a legend” and start building strawmen in regards to what us writers have done with our lives that is so great. I can’t speak for everyone here, but I’m certain that I’ve never resorted to extortion as a way of earning income. Prostitution may be a dirty business, but at least it’s honest.
Tournaments seem like a great way to determine the best competitor from a group of athletes. You have 8 (or 16 or 32 or whatever the number) fighters, put them in a bracket, and then let them fight it out. The last dude standing clearly must be the best because he survived the tournament, right?
Tournaments — like the ones the UFC used to run — are heavily dependent on how the bracket is organized. Some fighters get an easy run, others get a gauntlet.
This got us at Cage Potato thinking: What if some of the early UFC tournament brackets were re-organized or even shuffled just a little bit? Who would end up becoming the “Ultimate Fighters” of the 1990s? Let’s find out!
UFC 2
UFC 2 was the first and only 16-man tournament run by the UFC. The first round of the tournament — save for Royce Gracie’s fight (of course)—didn’t air on the PPV and aren’t on the DVD either. These “lost fights” from UFC 2 have quite a few interesting characters such as the enigmatic Pencak Silat master Alberto Cerro Leon and the chubby, sweatpants-clad Robert Lucarelli.
Look at the complete bracket and see how many names you recognize. Most of these guys from the UFC 2 dark matches had no chance in the tournament, save for a man named Freek (or Frank) Hamaker. We’re going to stick with Freek because it rhymes with Reek. A fighter like Hamaker was a rarity in the early days. He wasn’t a hapless striker fated to be embarrassed. He was a sambo practitioner who trained under legendary European grappler Chris Dolman.
Hamaker’s first (and only) fight was at UFC 2 against the mysterious San Soo Kung Fu man Thaddeus Luster. The fight went like the typical early UFC fight. The guy with grappling immediately took down the guy without grappling and won shortly afterwards. Hamaker withdrew from the tournament after defeating Luster and disappeared to the pornography theater from whence he came.
(And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why history must be re-written.)
Tournaments seem like a great way to determine the best competitor from a group of athletes. You have 8 (or 16 or 32 or whatever the number) fighters, put them in a bracket, and then let them fight it out. The last dude standing clearly must be the best because he survived the tournament, right?
Tournaments — like the ones the UFC used to run — are heavily dependent on how the bracket is organized. Some fighters get an easy run, others get a gauntlet.
This got us at Cage Potato thinking: What if some of the early UFC tournament brackets were re-organized or even shuffled just a little bit? Who would end up becoming the “Ultimate Fighters” of the 1990s? Let’s find out!
UFC 2
UFC 2 was the first and only 16-man tournament run by the UFC. The first round of the tournament — save for Royce Gracie’s fight (of course)—didn’t air on the PPV and aren’t on the DVD either.  These “lost fights” from UFC 2 have quite a few interesting characters such as the enigmatic Pencak Silat master Alberto Cerro Leon and the chubby, sweatpants-clad Robert Lucarelli.
Look at the complete bracket and see how many names you recognize. Most of these guys from the UFC 2 dark matches had no chance in the tournament, save for a man named Freek (or Frank) Hamaker.  We’re going to stick with Freek because it rhymes with Reek. A fighter like Hamaker was a rarity in the early days. He wasn’t a hapless striker fated to be embarrassed.  He was a sambo practitioner who trained under legendary European grappler Chris Dolman.
Hamaker’s first (and only) fight was at UFC 2 against the mysterious San Soo Kung Fu man Thaddeus Luster. The fight went like the typical early UFC fight. The guy with grappling immediately took down the guy without grappling and won shortly afterwards. Hamaker withdrew from the tournament after defeating Luster and disappeared to the pornography theater from whence he came.
Hamaker had tremendous potential given his background in an effective martial art and given that having any kind of grappling ability in the early UFCs was tantamount to bringing a taser into the cage with you.
We don’t need to re-imagine the UFC 2 bracket much to have a more interesting outcome.
Let’s just pretend that Hamaker never got injured and consequently never withdrew.
After defeating Luster, he’d take on kickboxer Johnny Rhodes. Judging by the fact that Patrick Smith submitted Rhodes in a little over a minute, a more qualified grappler in Hamaker probably wouldn’t need much more time to do the same.
That would bring Hamaker into the semifinals against Pat Smith, who was previously submitted by Ken Shamrock at UFC 1 in short order, and was destroyed in the UFC 2 finals by Royce Gracie. Smith may have had enough grappling to beat the Ray Wizards and Rudyard Moncayos of the world but he likely wouldn’t have enough submission acumen to beat Hamaker. So in CagePotato’s alternate reality version of events, The “Freak” — that wasn’t his nickname, but it should’ve been. Freek “The Freak” Hamaker? You don’t like it? Fine. — therefore gets his hand raised for third time that night.
Could Hamaker really have taken out Royce Gracie in the finals?
Probably not, but keep in mind that Gracie initially struggled against Keith Hackney at UFC 5, a karate guy who had added just a smattering of BJJ into his arsenal. So, Gracie still would probably have won UFC 2 but he would’ve looked mortal doing it — and that’s the important thing.
At UFC 1, Royce Gracie looked like an unstoppable killer; maybe not a Che Mills-level killer, but a killer nonetheless. He took martial arts “experts” down and submitted them without breaking a sweat. Gracie did much of the same at UFC 2.
It’s unlikely that Hamaker would’ve beaten Gracie (pre-drug-testing Ken Shamrock lost to Gracie the first time and the skilled Judoka Remco Pardoel also lost to Gracie as well), but he had a good chance of at least making Gracie look like a regular, fallible fighter.
A Hamaker-Gracie finale would’ve shown the world that BJJ (or, more specifically “Gracie” Jiu-Jitsu) wasn’t a martial arts panacea and that Royce Gracie wasn’t some kind of god. It took Jesus-freak, motivational speaker, and meth enthusiast Kimo Leopoldo to do that.
hope they have guns !,” 
