Top 60 Frank Shamrock Quotes

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

What mixed martial arts is being marketed as is not the truth. We’re not a bunch of idiots in a cage drinking beer all the time. It’s a lifestyle, but it’s a positive lifestyle.

I’ve won titles all over the world.

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.

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

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.

I grew up in a terrible home of abuse and I didn’t realize I was in a home of abuse.

To win in my hometown is just a whole ‘nother level.

You’re trying to control somebody? Take wrestling, because that’s how you get it done.

The truth is, I have nothing to gain from ever fighting anybody.

I had a rough upbringing. Group homes. Foster homes.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I wish the sport was much more evolved when I got into it.

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

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

The problem is that the top five guys in UFC make all the money, and the rest make scraps.

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.

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.

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.

I have a platform to tell the truth.

I mean, I work in television, so every day is like the end of your career and then each day is a new one.

I stopped being a fighter in 1999 and I became a fight executive the moment I retired and took control of my brand.

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

I mean as a human being I’m happy to be working, but, I look back on my career and I mean, you know, a lot of people worry about what didn’t happen, but I’m just happy for what I’ve got.

When I first came along there was also only two weight classes, so you can imagine things were pretty crazy back then.

The face of our sport is Dana White and out here in conservative New York, the way people think, bald-headed, tattoo‘d, swearing people are just not a good representative of our brand and unfortunately people think that Dana White speaks for MMA, and they’re confused.

I became a free agent in 1999. I retired, that’s how I got out of my contract. From that moment on, I’ve always been in control of my own destiny.

I’m the first guy to jump on somebody and pick a fight with them, at least verbally, I try to do it with some class and respect.

I’ve always had trouble with long guys because as a shorter guy I have smaller explosive movements and a lot of long guys I can get trapped inside of them.

I just want to be known as the guy who made a difference because he really believed.

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

I used to live on the streets.

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

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.

From day one I knew Pro Elite didn’t know what they were doing.

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

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.

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

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

I don’t think the Hall of Fame has any credibility unless I’m in it.

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.

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

I let my talking happen in the ring.

Now that the sport has gone mainstream, there’s a lot of money in fighting. It’s always what I’ve loved to do.

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

I’d love to fight Dan Henderson.

I’m the black sheep of the family.

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 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.

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 want to fight until the body says ‘no.’

Only guys who fight for a living know what it’s like to be hungry and beaten and tired, mentally, all the time. The average person has no understanding of what that is and what that could be.

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