Frank Shamrock

Frank Shamrock (born Frank Alisio Juarez III) was born on December 8th, 1972 in Santa Monica, California. A troubled childhood lead Frank to spend his early teenage years in various group and foster homes. He was taken in at the age of 15 by Bob Shamrock, a foster parent and martial arts instructor. Like Frank’s step-brother Ken, Bob officially adopted Frank at the age of 21.

Frank began formal martial arts and submission training with his brother Ken in 1994. Frank often accompanied Ken to his Ultimate Fighting Championship fights and soon after joined Ken's "Lion's Den" training school. Frank and Ken had a falling out during this time that lead each to go their separate ways. This falling out is still commented on publically by Frank who frequently mocks Ken in interviews.

Ken Shamrock's fighting debut was in Pancrase on December 16th, 1994 where he defeated Danish fighter Bas Rutten by decision. He defeated Minoru Suzuki before a sellout crowd in Japan on January 28th, 1996, making him the Provisional King of Pancrase. Despite his success with the promotional series Ken was fired after his brother Ken left the organization.

After Shamrock lost to John Lober by split decision in Hawaii's Superbrawl he made the decision to concentrate his training on martial arts exclusively to help build both skill and cardio. After training in both the arts and kickboxing and suffering through a very public falling-out with both Ken and Bob Shamrock, Frank was signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

With the UFC having just created its middleweight division, management came up with an interesting format for a fight night in Japan in order to crown a title holder: Shamrock was to first fight Enson Inoue, with the winner fighting Kevin Jackson that same night for the title. Frank knocked Inoue out cold with a knee to the face and forced Jackson to submit with an arm bar only 22 seconds into the first round of their fight, becoming the UFC’s first middleweight champion.

Shamrock defended his title against old rival John Lober in October of 1998 at UFC: Brazil. After Shamrock publically accused Lober of sending him crude emails and phone messages he went on to knock in out in only seven minutes. UFC management quickly pegged Shamrock against Tito Ortiz, arranging a fight for September 1999. Frank eventually won the fight after raining down blows from atop Ortiz and forcing him to tap out.

Surprisingly, Frank immediately relinquished his title and retired from fighting in general and the UFC in particular. In an apparent feud with UFC management Shamrock backed out of a deal to provide commentary and consulting services to the organization. Dana White denied the feud, saying only that Shamrock "is a weird guy."

The UFC retirement remained permanent but Shamrock did return to MMA fighting. He signed a deal to fight Elvis Sinosic at K-1, the largest kickboxing event in the world. Shamrock won the bout by unanimous decision and soon thereafter signed a deal with upstart fighting organization EliteXC. After some contract confusion between the fighter and the league, Shamrock was scheduled to fight Renzo Gracie on February 10th, 2007. With Herb Dean officiating, Shamrock threw two knees into Gracie's head while both were on the ground. Gracie was obsiously injured and was allowed a five minute injury time out. After Gracie was unable to continue the fight Shamrock was disqualified for striking to the back of the head, a rule made illegal by the American Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

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