En av årets mer oväntade händelser var att UFC-veteranen Ken Shamrock meddelade att han startat en “bare knuckle” organisation vid namn Valor BK. Nu förklarar dock Shamrock hur det kommer sig att han valde att starta organisationen.
Det hela grundar sig i att Shamrock var en av de ursprungliga deltagarna i UFC. Shamrock berättar att det var här han förstod att en av faktorerna han älskar var renheten i avsaknaden av handskar. Enligt Shamrock tar det bort faktorn med tur som kan uppstå hos amatörer.
When I first started out in mixed martial arts and no holds barred, the thing that I understood was that I loved the purity of bare knuckle. Just the idea of being able to stand up and throw punches and know that you have to land on a sweet spot, it takes away the amateurs getting lucky. So for me, right from the beginning I fell in love with it. It’s just two guys in there, mano to mano, and it was just God given talent. We didn’t need gloves to make it better or take away the opportunities because you had to wear a glove. For me, I just loved it. I fell in love with it.
Shamrock förklarar även att han föredrar den typ av skador som uppstår när man inte bär handskar före den typen av hjärnskador som uppstår när man tillåter fighters att skydda sina händer med handskar och därmed klara av att slå fler slag.
When you go in and see some blood or you see a broken nose or a broken jaw, I am telling you from a fighter’s standpoint, I would rather have that than being punched 100 times each round and then 10 years down the road, I forget my children and grandchildren’s names. When you’re watching it in the instant, it looks bloody, it looks exciting, it’s fun, it’s combat but at the same time when you put a glove on somebody and they punch that many times per round and not hurt their hand, then you have brain trauma and that’s going to bite you 10 or 15 years down the road.
Detta var inte Shamrocks enda möjlighet att ta en roll som annat än fighter utan han har haft ett flertal möjligheter över åren men detta var det första som verkligen intresserade honom då han nu kliver in som ägare.
I’ve had a lot of opportunities to jump into different businesses in MMA, announcing and all these other things but I felt like if I was going to get back into this other than being a fighter, I wanted to go back and do it as an owner. I built so many companies with my character and the way that I would build my fights up so that fans would want to watch, I knew how to do that. So I felt like in order to do that, I needed to be in some type of control so I could have the opportunity to build my own organization and do it from the standpoint using the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years.
Valor BKs första gala kommer att äga rum den 21:a september och är tillgänglig som PPV. Galans huvudmatch kommer att vara finalen av den tungviktsturnering som kommer att äga rum under galan.
