With just less than 36 hours left until his Strikeforce middleweight title defense against Cung Le on Saturday in San Jose, defending champion Frank Shamrock was gracious enough to take time out and speak exclusively with ProElite.com (SamCaplan.ProElite.com). The transcription of that conversation is now available for your reading pleasure.

Sam Caplan: In a recent interview you made the accusation in an interview with MMAMadness.com that Ken Shamrock has been using steroids his whole life. MMAjunkie.com published a statement earlier this week in which Ken made a full denial of your claims. Do you stand by your statement?

Frank Shamrock: Oh yeah. Yeah. I apologize; I thought it was common knowledge. I don't know why Ken would lie about it. I was the guy who picked him up after he had his bitch tits removed. In our family it was common knowledge.

Sam Caplan: From my perspective, it just seems kind of crazy that you would throw your own brother under the bus like that. After making the accusation was there any second guessing on your part? Is there any remorse on your part or do you feel the comments were justified?

Frank Shamrock: (Laughs) Someone asked me a question and I answered what the truth was. If Ken has taken offense to it then he should own up to it. If he didn't do steroids he should say so. He shouldn't lie to the public and pretend like he didn't. We all knew that he did. My father knows that he did. It was common knowledge to anybody and everybody in our family and in our camp. But it's the past. I don't really care about it. I didn't say to try and hurt Ken. I said it because someone asked me about the steroid problem in the sport and if I knew anybody that had done it and I told him the truth. And I told him the reason why I would never do it and it was because I saw what had happened to Ken.

Sam Caplan: Have you spoken to Ken or anyone from his camp after you made the accusation?

Frank Shamrock: Uh, after I told the truth I have not spoken to anybody. It's not an accusation. It's the absolute truth and whether Ken wants to admit it or not, it's the truth.

Sam Caplan: There have been some people who feel the "Blood Brothers" aspect has been over-hyped. They claim that you weren't even introduced to Ken until later in life and because you were adoptive brothers and that the two of you were never really close. How do you respond to something like that?

Frank Shamrock: Well, that's the truth as well (laughs). Personally, Ken and I were never really close. I don't know; he's a difficult guy to build a close relationship with and we were just never tight. He was my mentor and my trainer but it just never went past that, unfortunately. I wanted us to be closer but it was what it was.
 
Sam Caplan: I wanted to ask if you have ever experimented with performance enhancers at any point in your career?

Frank Shamrock: I never have. One hundred percent never have and Ken is the reason why. I saw what it did to him psychologically and physically and I never wanted to experience that. You know, I've experimented with non-performance enhancing drugs quite a bit (laughs). But those were recreational drugs (but) never steroids. Never believed in them.

Sam Caplan: The March 24 print edition of the Wrestling Observer reported that there was a recent disagreement between you and Gary Shaw about the "Blood Brothers PPV." It claimed that with proper notice, you have the right to promote shows of your own but that since Shaw also has Ken under contract that he feels he has the right to promote the show. Is there any truth to the report?

Frank Shamrock: Well I don't think that they've made any claims to it. I know that Gary has mentioned it as a project he wants to do but they have never officially claimed it or tried to claim the property. It's definitely a property that I own, it was my idea. I've been working on it for about two years. But I fully intend to promote it. I also think we'll never a lot of promoters and promotions to do an event of this caliber.

Sam Caplan: There's been talk of you promoting "Blood Brothers" on your own and also a possible rematch vs. Tito Ortiz. The idea of fighters promoting their own fights is very intriguing. Can big matches do well on PPV though if a major promotional brand isn't there to promote and distribute it?

Frank Shamrock: Well I definitely think so, especially as the sport moves into the mainstream. Really the sport is about the talent. And it's just the current marketing of the sport is all UFC branded. But I know that there talents that are big enough and marketed enough now to promote pay-per-view events and have them be successful.

Sam Caplan: You're extremely accomplished as a fighter but you're also an accomplished businessman. What's your reaction when a fighter says it's not his job to promote a fighter and that the responsibility should be left up solely to the promoter?

Frank Shamrock: I see them as being uneducated fighters. Real talent has the ability to market, promote, fight and dictate and control their brand. I think the future of this sport is dependent these fighters and talent realizing that they are the show; they are the brand; and that they've got to walk it, talk it, sling it and carry all roles.

Sam Caplan: I believe you stated in the MMAMadness.com interview that nobody does a better job at marketing than pro wrestling. And you mentioned you were a pro wrestling fan. Growing up up as a wrestling fan, who were some of the wrestlers that you felt did the best job of getting their persona or personalities across to the general public?

Frank Shamrock: I think "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was a wonderful character. "The Ultimate Warrior," who was actually a terrible wrestler did really, really well with his persona. Hulk Hogan of course did exceptionally well. And then as we moved into the late-90's, we had Duane Johnson, "The Rock," who was phenomenal. We had Steven Austin, who was phenomenal. All these guys had tried other roles in the past but it was one certain type of role and one certain type of actions associated with that role that made it stick and made it hugely successful.

Sam Caplan: How do you think Vince McMahon would do as an MMA promoter?

Frank Shamrock: Well I think he would do well. I think he would do very well. What's amazing about the sport is that we're in the business of combative sports entertainment but at the end of the day people go there to see the entertainment value of it. The storyline and the promotion of the fight is really first and then the fight is secondary. The fight kind of closes the story out. So I think Vince would be a wizard at it.

Sam Caplan: I've interviewed you in the past and you said that the only way you'll fight for the UFC is if you owned it. However, if the UFC offered you an obscene amount of money to fight Anderson Silva, would you do it?

Frank Shamrock: Probably not. If it were something that involved other companies or involved the industry in a way then I could probably something with it. But I spent a lot of time building the UFC brand and I invested a lot of energy into the UFC brand and just as soon as I wasn't valuable to them they threw me away and tried to erase me. If that were my boss, I wouldn't go back and work for them. I just have no intention of continuing to build their brand. I would like to fight Silva but when they're done with him maybe they will throw him away and maybe then I'll have a crack at him.

Sam Caplan: Do you feel the UFC is maybe trying to throw away Tito Ortiz?

Frank Shamrock: Oh yeah. They will throw him away and make him disappear and erase him and do everything they can to ruin his image just like they did the last time when he had a disagreement with them.

Sam Caplan: I wanted to go back to Anderson Silva. After Silva's win over Dan Henderson at UFC 82, Dana White made the statement that he considers Silva to be the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Do you agree with that assessment?

Frank Shamrock: I would say he's the best marketed fighter in the world right now (laughs). I don't know if he's the best pound-for-pound guy. He's certainly very good. But you know, I've been here a long time and every year or so or every year and a half there's a new best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. So unlike boxing where you had a Sugar Ray Robinson and you had exceptional fighters who really were the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world... I just don't see that happening with the way the sport is promoted through the UFC. Because the truth is that as soon as he loses there's going to be another best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Sam Caplan: When you watch Anderson Silva fight do you notice any flaws in his game?

Frank Shamrock: I do. His flow between the striking and the ground game, I think is a little bit soft. I think his transitions on the ground are a little passive; he's vulnerable to some holds. But all-in-all he's a very well-rounded fighter. He's a very good fighter.

Sam Caplan: There have been reports in the past that the UFC has current litigation against you in regards to your use of footage from when you were in the UFC. The word is that they are suing you over the footage even though Bob Meyrowitz signed over permission to you. Can you comment on this at all?

Frank Shamrock: I can't. I can say that the suits have been settled and they've been settled to the satisfaction of both parties. So unfortunately I can't comment on that anymore.

Sam Caplan: Is the settlement recent?

Frank Shamrock: It's very recent. Yes.

Sam Caplan: What kind of reaction do you expect Saturday? Both you and Cung Le are hometown heroes. Do you think the both of you will be cheered or you do think there's a chance the crowd might turn on one of you?

Frank Shamrock: I don't think they are going to turn on either of us. The town is split on who they want to win. The fanbase is split. And a lot of people don't even know what's going on. They love the sport and they are either in it or connected to it. I just think you're going to see huge support for both of us. Even when a winner surfaces I still think you're going to just see two guys that are hugely supported by their city.

Sam Caplan: You and Le have both stated on the record that he had the advantage against you when the two of your sparred several years back. You mentioned you still weren't an accomplished striker and that it was San Shou striking. However, Cung Le uses a lot of traditional martial arts in his MMA fights. If he used it effectively while sparring, is there a chance he could give you problems on Saturday?

Frank Shamrock: I don't think so. I've dissected his style. It's good and functional. It's not perfect. Some of the kicks are a little too round. He's weak on the hands. All-in-all he's got a good style but I just don't think he matches up well with a clean, power-based style that I have. He's got a shot. Any time you play the striking game there is danger and there's a chance someone could get caught. But if Cung Le thinks I'm the fighter he sparred nine years ago then he's going to get knocked out in the first round.

Sam Caplan: Are you worried at all that he might try to control the striking from the outside?

Frank Shamrock: Well, I call it running. Yeah, I mean, he's going to run because he's not going to exchange with me. But you know there's only so long you can run before I cut you off before you get caught up and have to make exchanges. It's hard to maintain the pace of retreat and do any type of damage. So while I expect him to run I don't expect him to run for long.

Sam Caplan: Do you think his wrestling base will be a factor at all in the fight?

Frank Shamrock: I do, personally. I think that once we get into a few exchanges and realizes that he made some mis-calculations, I think he will go back to his roots, which are really wrestling. And I think that he'll wrestle and try to do the takedown and either damage me on the way down or breakaway for strikes in the middle phases.

Sam Caplan: Have you focused at all on takedown defense in your training for this fight?

Frank Shamrock: Nah, not really. Where I have advantage is that I understand the middle game and I accept it. And in accepting it there's a lot of holes in the transition between the standing to the ground. And when Cung Le decides that he needs to take me down, I'm going to threaten him with some very nice transitional holes that I don't think he's aware of.

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com