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Put Up or Shut Up - Shamrock vs. Gracie
by Simon Rogg, Team IronLife.com Writer
Shamrock vs. Gracie talk is almost as old as the sport of Mixed-Martial Arts itself, but this time the fans have had enough. I’m not talking about Ken and Royce returning to the Octagon, this fight is between Frank and Cesar. The reason for all this Shamrock vs. Gracie hype stems back to a challenge Frank made to the Gracie’s on his website. Renzo was talked about as a possible opponent; Frank was even scheduled to take on Renzo’s student Ricardo Almeida until a broken leg forced him to pull out. It was then that the relatively unknown Cesar Gracie stepped up to defend the Gracie name.
Cesar Gracie, Royce’s cousin, runs an academy in California and has a stable of fighters who are currently making some serious waves in the world in of MMA: David Terrell is coming off a stunning KO in his UFC debut against the #1 ranked fighter in the middleweight division, Matt Lindland. Nick Diaz is 2-1-0 in the UFC and will definitely be back despite losing a close decision to Karo Parysian, and Jake Shields recently captured the vacant Shooto middleweight title when he avenged an earlier loss to Ray ‘Bradda’ Cooper. However, Cesar has no fights in any form of MMA competition. Many fans, myself included, dismissed the challenge: What chance would someone with no professional fighting record have against a former UFC champion with a record of 20-7-1 in MMA and Pancrase? But Frank readily accepted.
Can Cesar really hope to defeat a 5-time UFC champion?
Frank officially returned to the ring on the 27th March last year to fight unknown Bryan Pardoe for the World Extreme Cagefighting light-heavyweight title in what was really nothing more than the WEC cashing in on Frank’s fame and promoting ability, in exchange for a chance to shed some ring rust on a game but outclassed opponent. Frank finished Pardoe with an armbar less than 2 minutes into the fight. Cesar was to be his first title defense. Then the venue was changed to the second event of Frank’s own Shootbox event in Las Vegas, but due to legal problems the show could not go ahead. With no promotion it was then that the war or words really started, and with Frank now having to pull out of 3 of his last potential fights fans were naturally very disappointed.
Things were not looking good and Cesar was taking out his frustration via the internet, when in stepped Rumble on the Rock promoter JD Penn. At the last ROTR show on 7th May Cesar and Frank met in the ring for some smack talk and verbally agreed to fight for the promotion. Finally, we had a venue. But that’s when things really got confusing. The fight effectively ended there as no contract could be produced which bore Cesar and Frank’s signature, both parties blamed each other and the guys at ROTR were unavailable for comment. Frank’s critics claimed he was just hyping himself up with no intention of ever fighting again; his fans attacked Cesar for having very similar motives.
Things really began to heat up when Frank responded to Cesar’s claims that he hadn’t signed the contract in an interview with Ryan Bennett for MMAWeekly, “Cesar’s a punk. Cesar’s a bitch. He’s never signed one contract”. It didn’t take Cesar long to respond with an open letter posted on graciefighter.com which contained a scathing attack on Frank over the whole fiasco. He laid down a challenge of his own: “I will fight you in a cage, in a ring, or even in your backyard”. It appeared as though this was it, Frank had no intention of fighting and Cesar was left hanging. Or so we thought. On August 14th Frank responded to Cesar’s challenge.
In what has to be a first in MMA history Frank not only accepted Cesar’s challenge but publicly posted online a Letter of Intent for him to sign with a number to fax it back. This is where Cesar really starts tripping himself up. First you have to get past the fact that someone with no ring experience is trash talking about an established professional fighter. With such a respected stable of fighters and the Gracie name behind him I doubt there is a promoter in the world that would say no to Cesar. Getting a couple of wins under his belt would not only add credibility to his claims, but would make damn good sense considering his opponent’s experience. As anyone who has ever stepped into the ring knows: it doesn’t matter how good you are in the gym if you can’t perform in the ring, and you will never know till you get in there. I'm sure we all remember what Frank is capable of when he is angry, it would be a shame to see Frank put a Lober-style beating on the coach of such a promising teams.
But Cesar won’t sign. He has attacked the LOI on his website by saying it is a “letter of No Intent…It didn't have a date, a venue, or even a fight promoter. Frank didn't need to sign it and there was no recourse if it fell through”, whatever happened to: “I will fight you in a cage, in a ring, or even in your backyard”? But what exactly does the LOI mean? Why is it being attacked? Well I can’t figure that out myself, unless of course people don’t understand it. What the LOI effectively means is that both parties are promising that they will fight at some point over the next 6 months, and that Cesar will receive the very lucrative offer of $15,000 to show and $15,000 if he wins. It is not a contract to fight in itself, but it is a promise that a final contract, including venue and date, will be agreed upon and that both parties will act in good faith. Although it appears this was put together without the guys at ROTR, it does not prevent the fight from taking place in their show, as I believe Cesar ‘0-0-0’ Gracie is claiming, although he keeps referring to them as “ROTC”. He also admits that Frank had already agreed with ROTR and therefore shouldn’t have posted the LOI online, well he should have thought of that before he posted his attack on graciefighter.com.
Well that’s it, the fans have had enough talk. Frank has had enough talk. It's hard to even see what he has to lose by taking this fight, as no one who questioned him taking on an unexperienced opponent would question him taking on Cesar after his tirade. I have the utmost respect for his fighters and his abilities as a trainer, but it’s time to put up or shut up. This fight belongs in the ring.
For complete article please click here.
by Simon Rogg, Team IronLife.com Writer
Shamrock vs. Gracie talk is almost as old as the sport of Mixed-Martial Arts itself, but this time the fans have had enough. I’m not talking about Ken and Royce returning to the Octagon, this fight is between Frank and Cesar. The reason for all this Shamrock vs. Gracie hype stems back to a challenge Frank made to the Gracie’s on his website. Renzo was talked about as a possible opponent; Frank was even scheduled to take on Renzo’s student Ricardo Almeida until a broken leg forced him to pull out. It was then that the relatively unknown Cesar Gracie stepped up to defend the Gracie name.
Cesar Gracie, Royce’s cousin, runs an academy in California and has a stable of fighters who are currently making some serious waves in the world in of MMA: David Terrell is coming off a stunning KO in his UFC debut against the #1 ranked fighter in the middleweight division, Matt Lindland. Nick Diaz is 2-1-0 in the UFC and will definitely be back despite losing a close decision to Karo Parysian, and Jake Shields recently captured the vacant Shooto middleweight title when he avenged an earlier loss to Ray ‘Bradda’ Cooper. However, Cesar has no fights in any form of MMA competition. Many fans, myself included, dismissed the challenge: What chance would someone with no professional fighting record have against a former UFC champion with a record of 20-7-1 in MMA and Pancrase? But Frank readily accepted.
Can Cesar really hope to defeat a 5-time UFC champion?
Frank officially returned to the ring on the 27th March last year to fight unknown Bryan Pardoe for the World Extreme Cagefighting light-heavyweight title in what was really nothing more than the WEC cashing in on Frank’s fame and promoting ability, in exchange for a chance to shed some ring rust on a game but outclassed opponent. Frank finished Pardoe with an armbar less than 2 minutes into the fight. Cesar was to be his first title defense. Then the venue was changed to the second event of Frank’s own Shootbox event in Las Vegas, but due to legal problems the show could not go ahead. With no promotion it was then that the war or words really started, and with Frank now having to pull out of 3 of his last potential fights fans were naturally very disappointed.
Things were not looking good and Cesar was taking out his frustration via the internet, when in stepped Rumble on the Rock promoter JD Penn. At the last ROTR show on 7th May Cesar and Frank met in the ring for some smack talk and verbally agreed to fight for the promotion. Finally, we had a venue. But that’s when things really got confusing. The fight effectively ended there as no contract could be produced which bore Cesar and Frank’s signature, both parties blamed each other and the guys at ROTR were unavailable for comment. Frank’s critics claimed he was just hyping himself up with no intention of ever fighting again; his fans attacked Cesar for having very similar motives.
Things really began to heat up when Frank responded to Cesar’s claims that he hadn’t signed the contract in an interview with Ryan Bennett for MMAWeekly, “Cesar’s a punk. Cesar’s a bitch. He’s never signed one contract”. It didn’t take Cesar long to respond with an open letter posted on graciefighter.com which contained a scathing attack on Frank over the whole fiasco. He laid down a challenge of his own: “I will fight you in a cage, in a ring, or even in your backyard”. It appeared as though this was it, Frank had no intention of fighting and Cesar was left hanging. Or so we thought. On August 14th Frank responded to Cesar’s challenge.
In what has to be a first in MMA history Frank not only accepted Cesar’s challenge but publicly posted online a Letter of Intent for him to sign with a number to fax it back. This is where Cesar really starts tripping himself up. First you have to get past the fact that someone with no ring experience is trash talking about an established professional fighter. With such a respected stable of fighters and the Gracie name behind him I doubt there is a promoter in the world that would say no to Cesar. Getting a couple of wins under his belt would not only add credibility to his claims, but would make damn good sense considering his opponent’s experience. As anyone who has ever stepped into the ring knows: it doesn’t matter how good you are in the gym if you can’t perform in the ring, and you will never know till you get in there. I'm sure we all remember what Frank is capable of when he is angry, it would be a shame to see Frank put a Lober-style beating on the coach of such a promising teams.
But Cesar won’t sign. He has attacked the LOI on his website by saying it is a “letter of No Intent…It didn't have a date, a venue, or even a fight promoter. Frank didn't need to sign it and there was no recourse if it fell through”, whatever happened to: “I will fight you in a cage, in a ring, or even in your backyard”? But what exactly does the LOI mean? Why is it being attacked? Well I can’t figure that out myself, unless of course people don’t understand it. What the LOI effectively means is that both parties are promising that they will fight at some point over the next 6 months, and that Cesar will receive the very lucrative offer of $15,000 to show and $15,000 if he wins. It is not a contract to fight in itself, but it is a promise that a final contract, including venue and date, will be agreed upon and that both parties will act in good faith. Although it appears this was put together without the guys at ROTR, it does not prevent the fight from taking place in their show, as I believe Cesar ‘0-0-0’ Gracie is claiming, although he keeps referring to them as “ROTC”. He also admits that Frank had already agreed with ROTR and therefore shouldn’t have posted the LOI online, well he should have thought of that before he posted his attack on graciefighter.com.
Well that’s it, the fans have had enough talk. Frank has had enough talk. It's hard to even see what he has to lose by taking this fight, as no one who questioned him taking on an unexperienced opponent would question him taking on Cesar after his tirade. I have the utmost respect for his fighters and his abilities as a trainer, but it’s time to put up or shut up. This fight belongs in the ring.
For complete article please click here.
