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Exclusive Frank Shamrock Interview - Click here to purchase this issue

Here is the exclusive interview with Frank Shamrock in Issue 7 of MMA Sports Magazine.

MMA Sports: Congratulations, very impressive victory over Phil Baroni, What have you been up to since the fight?
Frank: Healing, icing, resting.

MMA Sports: What are your thoughts on the fight?
Frank: It was a pretty damn good fight, pretty hardcore, Phil had an amazing chin. He's one of the hardest punches in MMA.

MMA Sports: You had a leg injury going into the fight, tell us about that, how did that affect you in the fight and leading up to the fight?
Frank: It was bad. It changed my strategy, my energy level, my confidence, everything. It was pretty tough.

MMA Sports: Were you concerned about your knee going into the fight?
Frank: Yeah. I was concerned, I was going to get tired and he's going to freaking knock me out or something. I figured I could still beat him, I believed I could.

MMA Sports: A lot of people would have pulled out of the fight with that kind of injury, did you consider not taking the fight?
Frank: You know probably for about 5 minutes I considered it and then I realized I needed to fight regardless. If I didn't fight then people were going to say I was pretty much done and if I made any excuses, people were going to just figure that I was making excuses, so I figured I could beat him with the art of fighting.

MMA Sports: How did you hurt your knee?
Frank: I was wrestling with Theirry Sokoudjou, judo guy at Dan Henderson's. This guy did a leg trip to take me down, judo trip and just drenched my knee out.

MMA Sports: What was your game plan going into the fight?
Frank: First game plan was I was going to punch, kick and wrestle with him. And then after I hurt my knee the game plan was to punch and wrestle with him. That was it. Basic boxing and counter wrestling.

MMA Sports: Baroni is known for his power shots, did you ever feel his power during the fight?
Frank: Oh yeah. Phil's a big puncher. He's got tremendous punching power and every punch he throws is heavy. He probably got me about 6-7 good shots.

MMA Sports: You pointed at him early in the fight and told him you were going to put him to sleep, tell us what was going through your mind?
Frank: I just knew I had to keep him guessing, I had to keep him intimidated and I had to keep convincing him that I was going to knock him out and that just popped into my head and before I knew what I was doing, I was doing it.

MMA Sports: Straight after that you landed several big shots that dropped Baroni, it almost looked like it was over, were you surprised he continued?
Frank: Yeah. I was surprised he got up. I've never hit anybody in MMA that hard with a shot like that; he probably took about 7 or 8 of them.

MMA Sports: You lost a point during the first round, did that concern you?
Frank: No I wasn't thinking about points or worrying about decisions or anything. I didn't think he could make that pace, especially getting the damage he was getting. I just didn't think he would be able to survive and that was part of my strategy, to run the race real fast and hope that he fell out before I did.

MMA Sports: Baroni was trying to take you down during the fight, were you surprised about that?
Frank: No. I knew it would come. I knew once I clocked him a few times he would go back to wrestling. His main techniques are wrestling, he just likes to strike and that's part of his intimidation. His real strength is wrestling and I knew that if I pushed him and hit him hard, he'd go back to his wrestling strength. I knew he'd be shooting.

MMA Sports: Your stand up looked amazing; did you train differently for this fight?
Frank: Not so much. I trained most of the time on the ground. More of just kind of avoiding and timing, trying to make him work. On the stand up, I always train with Maurice Smith and my boxing has just got better and better and better and Phil was the perfect guy to box because he thought he can box, but he didn't know how. He was vulnerable to all the basics.

MMA Sports: In round 2, you got him in the choke and literally put him to sleep, is that how you saw the fight ending?
Frank: I knew I had to choke him, I didn't think I'd be able to knock him out. In the first round I thought I could knock him out, but by the end of the first round, I was like, there's no way I was knocking this guy out. His chin was just too good, he has an amazing chin. I hit Tito with one of those shots and he turned around and ran away. I have never hit
anybody in any MMA fight ever with that much power directly on the chin and did not go down. He has an absolutely amazing chin.

MMA Sports: You hung on the choke a little longer, gave him a little shove and kick, was that frustration that was built up?
Frank: (laughs) Well I just wanted to make sure he wasn't getting up. I was too tired to do anything else, so I had to make sure he wasn't going to stand up after that.

MMA Sports: All in all, it was a great fight, excellent performance; would you have done anything different?
Frank: No. It went just like I thought it would. I knew it was going to be real hard. I warned my wife it was going to be a war and it was going to be a slugfest. It was a hard fight for both of us and everybody got a good fight.

MMA Sports: What words would you like to say to Phil Baroni now?
Frank: Great job, I called him after and told him personally, absolutely fantastic job. That's what fighting is supposed to be about, that's what promotion, marketing. It's all good and he did a great job. More MMA fighters should try to be like Phil Baroni.

MMA Sports: What was the difference for you in this fight and the last fight you had with Renzo Gracie?
Frank: This fight was a fight that I wanted to do and was exciting about. Renzo I wasn't really into that fight as much. Frankly I wasn't 100 percent prepared and made me take a safe approach to it. I'm back full time and training full time. Renzo is next on the list.

MMA Sports: So you want a rematch with Renzo?
Frank: Oh yeah, for certain, he's next.

MMA Sports: What do you think would be the outcome of that match would be?
Frank: Well I'll knock Renzo out. I'll knock him out in about 4 minutes. Give him those 4 minutes to give him so he gets some ring time.

MMA Sports: Do you think he will take the fight?
Frank: Well if not, I will get on the internet and make fun of him until he does. That process seems to be working.

MMA Sports: Now that the fight is over, how long is it going to take for your knee to recover?
Frank: I don't know, so we are waiting to kind of figure out. The docs don't know, it's still all swollen, in that kind of waiting to find that stage. So we are going to wait a week and then check the progress of it. The only bad part is there's definitely major tears going on. We just don't know when they were done.

MMA Sports: You looked so confident and comfortable in the fight, do you owe that to experience, training or what?
Frank: There's a lot of experience and I also knew that Phil wasn't that comfortable. That was a big help, yes most is experience, god its been so long. Almost 13 years of fighting. I just keep my mind right and I go out and do it. Sometimes it's spectacular and sometimes it's less than.

MMA Sports: Now that you're the strikeforce middleweight champion, a lot of people will want that belt including Cung Le, what are your thoughts on a fight with him?
Frank: Well I love Cung, absolutely freakin stud. I think that's a fight that we can definitely build up here, especially in San Jose. San Jose loves fighting. I want to fight Cung and Renzo and I'd like to fight Royce, if he's still out there. Sakuraba if he's got anything left and maybe finish up by fighting my brother Ken.

MMA Sports: You want to fight your brother Ken?
Frank: Why not, we've all beaten the heck out of each other you might as well do it with people you care about.

MMA Sports: Any chance we will see you in the UFC?
Frank: Nope. I'm not working for them, they can work for me.

MMA Sports: How are things as a coach with the IFL?
Frank: I love it, absolutely love it. Fantastic concept, organsation idea and its really gratifying first of all to be a coach, but second of all to have a good company that treats everybody well. Its absolutely wonderful.

MMA Sports: You want to fight your brother Ken?
Frank: Why not, we've all beaten the heck out of each other you might as well do it with people you care about.

MMA Sports: Any chance we will see you in the UFC?
Frank: Nope. I'm not working for them, they can work for me.

MMA Sports: If you did have an option for an opponent in the UFC, who would it be?
Frank: Well I'd fight whoever the champ is and I think Silva is holding on to the title there. The best fighters in the world are not in the UFC, so that doesn't
bother me.

MMA Sports: You've been around a long time in this sport, rules have changed dramatically, is there any rule you'd bring back if you had the chance?
Frank: Yeah I think you should be able to hit them back in the head. What's up with it, you can't just turn the back of your head and not expect to get hit. That is totally not realistically fighting. Its like "Oh I'm going to just going to turn my head here, but you can't hit me". So I think we should be able to go back to punching in the back of the head.

MMA Sports: What do you think has contributed to the meteoric rise of MMA as a sport?
Frank: I mean the sport is amazing, it always has been. I think the biggest thing is society, the public, the media, now say it is acceptable. A lot of that is the war and a lot of that is all the other emotional stuff going on. You know society says hey its fine to beat people up in cages again, so go for it.

MMA Sports: So what’s next for you from here?
Frank: I just got to wait for me knee and figure that out and then I got to fight Renzo, that's just ridiculous. I'm ready to fight full time, I'm available, training, I think the knee is going to take anywhere from 2-4 months to figure out and then I'm back and I'm taking on who they got next. Big ticket seller is or next guy who's talking a little smack or whatever.

MMA Sports: So will you be fighting on the Strikeforce or EliteXC organisation?
Frank: I'd definitely be fighting for one of those guys. It will be one of those guys for certain though. It won't be the UFC.

MMA Sports: Any final comments?
Frank: Just want to thank all the fans for supporting me.