Top 50 Frank Shamrock Quotes

I like Cung. He’s a good guy and a good martial artist. He doesn’t sell a fight very well, but he looks great and he fights hard. He definitely fills two very important requirements for building a fight.

Guys taking damage need to be compensated for the shortness of their career.

I let my talking happen in the ring.

This sport started with the question, Who would win, a karate guy or a boxer? A judo guy or a wrestler? That was the original draw behind the sport. That’s what caught everybody’s attention.

I think I’ll be the face of the sport.

I started in this sport when I was 21 and I helped bring it to network television and the one thing I missed was wrestling or fighting Sakuraba.

I want retire at 45 and have a 24-year-career. I feel I can do it.

Fighting is 90-percent mental. It’s a lot of emotion.

Fighting Cung Le in San Jose is an absolute dream not only for myself but for the city.

The world I live in is vastly different than what other people are living in. It’s a dream.

I am a professional martial artist, and I am a professional fighter.

My goal is to become the best fighter in the world, and I did that and at a time when there was no money or interest in the sport.

I had spent three years in jails and prisons, and then all of a sudden I’m in Japan in this dojo. It was just so surreal. I was this young kid and nobody even knew what I was doing there.

Am I cocky or conceited? I’m definitely cocky. But at the root is confidence and humility.

My natural body weight is about 183 pounds. I’ve just always tried to keep 10 pounds of muscle on me because the bigger you were before, the more money you made. I always tried to cut at least five pounds to get to 185.

I hate to say it but I’d much rather have Viacom behind me than the UFC.

In boxing there are only two ways out: you get knocked out or you quit.

Fighting is a lot of ego, and that’s OK.

Mixed martial arts or whatever you want to call it, it is still martial arts.

I don’t want to get punched in the head anymore. I spent a couple of thousand dollars on the nose and teeth and everything’s been readjusted, so I don’t want anybody hitting me.

It’s part of being successful, just planning your life, catalogue successes, keep track of things that are important to you and make them a reality.

You saw what network support did for Strikeforce when Showtime came aboard. You saw what Spike TV did for the UFC when they came aboard, because the UFC was dying before Spike came along.

As a martial artist, I discovered that there’s always so much more to learn.

I know what the bottom is like. I know what it’s like to have zero. You can always build up. But it starts by changing your mind and taking action.

I think this sport can change a lot of things. It changed my life.

Frank Shamrock knows what he’s doing.

I’d said no to every person, and everybody, for every amount, but I’d wrestle Sakuraba for free.

I’ve got a few tricks when it comes to psychology and stuff.

It’s so much fun to be competitive amongst champions and champion trainers.

I was raised by the state of California, and then various families and mentors.

Scott Coker’s a martial artist. He’s an honest guy. If you ask him to do something he’ll do it, or else he’ll tell you why he can’t do it. That’s what fighters need.

Brothers beating each other up. Everyone wants to see that.

My first coach was my brother Ken. He taught me submission wrestling, the catch-as-catch-can style that he was famous for. Then I trained in Japan with Funaki and Suzuki. Then I learned jiu-jitsu and sambo with Oleg Taktarov and Gokor Chivichyan.

Most of the martial arts techniques go in waves of popularity and usefulness, but they all work.

I had this relationship with Strikeforce that included getting all these investments and really building the brand up, moving it in the right direction. I was constantly looking for financing and opportunities.

I wasn’t fighting because I was a sportsman. I was fighting because I had no other way. I didn’t have a career. I was a multi-felony convicted guy.

Coach is still my favorite, it is still the thing that I’m best at.

I look back at my life fighting and I can’t believe I did all that. This sport is totally nuts.

I’m the black sheep of the family.

My first ten fights or so it was like that. I was just so scared. You can see if you go back and watch them that there are moments where I just stop and look around, like, what’s going on here? I was so scared for all those fights.

Everyone loves MMA once they see it. But you’ve got to watch it.

I know what it’s like to be older and banged up.

I had so much personally invested in the vision or the dream or the chance of Strikeforce. It was my whole life. I didn’t have another life. That’s all that I did.

Nick Diaz brings it every single time and I bring it every single time.

Fighting is fighting. You close your fist and it’s all pretty much the same.

I looked at my own fights: everyone’s excited and I was all disappointed that my techniques didn’t work.

You have to remember, I had come from a pretty hard life. There was all this abuse and everything else, so the idea of fighting for sport was pretty heavy. Fighting to me was about fighting for your life, you know.

All those fights I’ve done since 1999, I was either the promoter or co-promoter.

The sport really hasn’t changed, but the world did. That’s why it’s more acceptable.

I speak the truth on what happened to me because it’s happening to a lot of people that grow up in displaced and disadvantaged communities.