Shamrock, Gracie, Shaw Conference Call Quotes
Celebrated former five-time world champion and MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock and world renowned, revenge-minded Brazilian Jiujitsu expert Renzo Gracie will usher in the next generation of Mixed Martial Arts with EliteXC when their match-up highlights an explosive MMA fight card airing live for the first time on premium television.
The battle between the two legendary fighters will transpire in the main event on SHOWTIME, Saturday, Feb 10, at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast) from the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss.
Shaw: Welcome to “Destiny’’ – Shamrock vs. Gracie. Two world famous names from the two first families of MMA. Took 14 years to make this fight (but it is happening) and we are so excited to be working with SHOWTIME (for this historic event) in Southaven, Miss., on Feb. 10. We are going to stream the entire undercard for the first time live in real time starting at 7 p.m. eastern time. You will get to see every undercard fight, get in the dressing rooms and do the things that have never been done in this sport before. You are going to see a great card and obviously, the main event, I believe, is history making. For me (to go from) boxing to mixed martial arts, it is unbelievable that I am involved with Shamrock and Gracie on my very, very first promotion for EliteXC. So on behalf of ProElite, our public corporation and everybody that has worked hard to put this together, we are very excited and I thank you so much for being with us.
Shamrock: Thank you for (participating on this call) and supporting our event. This is a monumental time in mixed martial arts, not only with Shamrock and Gracie, but also with the inclusion of SHOWTIME, the first major network to experience mixed martial arts. It is going to open it to a whole new group of people. It is going to bring a whole new crowd and appreciation of the sport of mixed martial arts. This is the world’s oldest sport and one of the most beautiful things you can experience, especially when you see it live and/or live on SHOWTIME. Fighting Renzo Gracie has always been a dream of mine and I will bring 100 percent of my game. I am pleased to show you guys my soul when I fight that man in the cage.
Press Questions.
Question: Describe briefly the family history between the Gracie’s and Shamrock’s.
Gracie: I think we are the two biggest fighting names in America. We have been fighting since 1993. I hope one day I will see my grandson fighting Frank’s grandson. Even though it looks like it is a feud between families, it is actually just a feud between athletes and a chance to measure ourselves against each other and test our skills.
Shaw: (Joking) Gracie, do not claim to now suddenly be an American. Shamrock’s the American. You are the Brazilian. You may live and eat here.
Gracie: Just to let you know I was accepted as a citizen a month ago.
Shaw: Welcome as a citizen, but you will be walking into the cage holding a Brazilian flag.
Gracie: No problem. Give me that thing; I will hold it up in the highest standards as possible.
Question: Frank, there was some questions when the fight was announced. Apparently, the contract with Strike Force was to fight in April. There were some questions to whether that fight could impact this fight on Feb. 10. Has it been straightened out?
Shamrock: It has been straightened out. Strike Force and I have a really good business relationship and we have been able to see past the points. We are all in a very healthy relationship together. So I am very much looking forward to not only fighting on Feb. 10 and opening up SHOWTIME, but also fulfilling my obligation to Strike Force.
Question: Explain the crossover from boxing and what is the appeal for you to be in MMA?
Shaw: Thrilling. I have been watching this space since the late 1990’s when I was a regulator in New Jersey. I had an interest in buying it when I was Chief Operating Officer of another company. The last two years, my son kept saying to me, ‘you’ve got to get into this space.’ I kept telling him I was a boxing promoter and to leave me alone. Then one day he said to me, ‘You know, you have got an A personality and you can go to the train station and you are not going to be the engineer. You are going to be standing there watching the caboose pull out.’ That really resonated with me. Then I put on probably the best fight in the last decade – Corrales and Castillo. When we only sold about 3,000 seats and I had to do a lot of papering and I am looking at all these local and regional mixed martial arts shows doing 2,000 to 5,000, I said, ‘There is either something wrong with boxing or something very right with the MMA.” I just kept watching it and I saw it grow and I saw the pay-per-view numbers. When I put all this together, I knew I needed to get into that space.
It did not mean that I was abdicating my responsibilities tending to my boxers or to what I do in the boxing arena, but I felt that this was a spectacular opportunity for me personally with EliteXC and all the great people here to be involved in a public company and to try to bring this to the next level and to bring a real U.S. competitor onto the field that was dominated strictly by the UFC.
I am not looking to put them out of business. I am just looking to be a good competitor as the space in boxing is for (Bob) Arum, (Don) King and myself. There is enough space and enough fan appeal. This is a sport with the demographics that everybody says is 18-36. I challenge that. I believe it includes those way past 36. I will bet that if you spoke to Renzo and Frank and other guys that have schools you will find out what the real demographics are and they have a lot of people in there past the age of 36.
Mixed martial arts also has a rabid fan base. In boxing, the demographics are (different); we do not have a rabid fan base. In boxing, we are looking for the easy fight. There is something wrong with a sport where a guy fights two hard fights and then everybody says you have got to give him an easy fight. He fought two hard fights. I do not get that because everyday when people go to work, I do not think they tell the boss, ‘I worked hard the last two days so for the next two days I should not have to work hard.’ It is upside down.
The other thing great about MMA is a loss is not career ending. You look at champions and they are 14-4 or 18-6, whatever the case is, and there is nothing wrong with submitting. Everybody goes in there to win, but there is no embarrassment in a loss. These are great athletes with great discipline and it just gave me a wonderful opportunity. I am glad to be the first major boxing promoter that crossed over into this space. Obviously, what made it extra special for me was being able to do a three-year deal with SHOWTIME.
Question: Gary, can boxing co-exist with this sport?
Shaw: No, I would not go so far as to say that boxing will be over the edge. Boxing has survived a lot of black eyes – a couple that I had on my own face. But it will be here long after I am gone. It just may not be here in the same way that you see it today. I believe that the mixed martial arts space will start to cannibalize, both from SHOWTIME and from HBO. You may see a lot of mixed martial arts on HBO and a lot on SHOWTIME and sporadic boxing — maybe only the big fights or the huge, huge pay-per-views. I think that is where you are going to see it upside down. The other difference between us and everybody else besides us streaming live Internet, real time fights, is the fact that we are free. Everybody else for the big fights now are putting everything on pay-per-view. Anybody that has SHOWTIME can see us. I think that is important. If mixed martial arts is going to hurt themselves, it will be the same way that boxing has hurt itself. For free, you can watch Joe against Bob; but for a real fight, you have got to give us $49.95. That is why with SHOWTIME we said we had to do X amount of cards that were not pay-per-view.
Question: Frank, what is it like now being on a major network and what are your thoughts as you see the sport progress?
Shamrock: I have always known the sport would be what it is today and I have always known that when people see what is really going on, when society grew up and realized that there was nothing wrong with it and it is people expressing themselves, I always knew that it would be where it is. I am just glad to be a part of it. I am 34 years old. I am nearing the end of my physical prime, but my mind, spirit and soul are stronger than ever. When people see that, when people see Renzo express himself and when people see me knock him out, it is going to be a whole other level of fan base.
Question: Gary, you mentioned how this MMA experience is going to be different for fans with the streaming video on the web. Can you talk us through more details on that?
Shaw: We are really excited. The President of our Internet site is Kelly Perdew, who was the winner of the second season of “The Apprentice’’ and worked for Donald Trump for 18 months. Anybody who can do that can really work with us. The streaming is going to be live. Some have given you webcasts and some have given it to you after the main card is over. We are giving it to you real time live. You are going to see it in the quality of an actual television broadcast. That is the exciting part. We will be going there, giving you all the things, taking you backstage, talking to the fighters. Not only those on the Internet, but we are going to take you into Renzo’s dressing room, Frank’s dressing room, watching them come in, watching their camps, getting the stuff that the average fan always wanted to see. Even when I watched boxing matches, I always said, “Boy, I wish I could have been at that press conference.” We are going to film the press conference. We are going to do the weigh-in. We want to give everybody a total 100 percent complete feel as if they were part of the EliteXC team. Ultimately, what we want to do is grow this sport. The hope of everybody at EliteXC is that in 2012, and it may be a really lofty wish, that we can make this an Olympic sport. You can only do that by going to the masses, by showing everything and showing what wonderful athletes these are. In the 1990’s, this was an underground sport. (Not so anymore). In boxing, we say styles make fights. The same thing here. You have a Brazilian jujitsu expert or maybe a black belt, and maybe you have a striker – a guy that is more like a boxer or a kick boxer. So it is real strategy. To see all this, to give us the opportunity to bring to you young guys that will be on the Internet with millions of eyeballs that would never get this chance (is a thrill). Their big chance is to move from the Internet to SHOWTIME. We are going to go around the United States and run some tournaments with prize money and the big prize will be to get on our Internet show. Then if they show who they are, right from the Internet, we go right on to SHOWTIME. We are doing something I do not think has ever been done. Also, we are doing a half-hour preview barker show for the show that will run on SHOWTIME. People from SHOWTIME can tell you when it is actually going to start. But it is a spectacular preview show. We are spending our money and putting it where our mouth is by bringing to the fans everything that they have not seen. That is what the Internet is all about. We are going to build web sites for the fighters. We are doing things that haven’t been done. We want to be fighter friendly. We want every fighter to know that it’s not a promoter versus boxer, but we are a team. So we are going to build web sites for them at our own cost, do chats, all those type of things that have never been done for the fighters in this sport.
Question: How many fights will be part of the SHOWTIME telecast?
Shaw: There will be five fights on SHOWTIME and five fights live on the Internet. If we run out of time, I will go in the cage myself. That is a joke.
Question: Gary, does Gina Carano have an opponent yet?
Shaw: Yes, she does. Her opponent is Julie Kedzie. That fight is signed, sealed and delivered. Gina Carano, looks-wise, is a 12 to a 15. I went to lunch with Gina. I told her I wanted her to be the woman’s face of MMA because she is beautiful inside and outside. She let me talk like a promoter for 20 minutes and then she leaned over and I thought she was going to kiss me. Instead, she stuck her finger by my nose and said, ‘I heard you, but let me tell you something. I can fight.’ Gina will be the first woman that will ever be featured on SHOWTIME live – and that’s boxing and mixed martial arts.
Question: Frank and Renzo, what led you to this fight?
Gracie: I have been training a lot over the past eight months and I had two fights. Then I received the proposal to fight Frank on SHOWTIME. It is such a big happening, I could not say no even though I was looking forward to a little vacation in Greece with some sun and a nice margarita in my hand. It will be afterwards that I will be having my vacation.
Shamrock: For me, I was the Michael Jordan of this sport when nobody was watching. I beat everybody in the world. I beat every world champion. I fought in 10 different styles, and unfortunately, at that time, it was not the popular thing to be doing. So I sat out of the sport and I started some businesses and built some wealth for my family and I continued to train in martial arts. As the sport grew and as I watched the idea of MMA become accepted in our society, I grew more and more excited about fighting. I have fought for promotions in the past – some of them good and some of them bad. I have built and launched quite a few promotions and I have launched quite a few shows. I am very interested now in reestablishing my name as the name for mixed martial arts. I believe, and whether everyone else believes it yet or not, I believe that I am the greatest fighter in the world and I am just looking forward to showing that to everybody. I let my fists and my feet and my actions do the talking. If you know me, you know that I do not let anybody down.
Question: You both are heavily involved in the International Fight League and Frank has an event Friday. Has it been difficult to juggle those responsibilities with preparing for a fight?
Shamrock: It has been for me. It has been both a blessing and a minor curse. It takes a lot of energy to build a good time and to guide them to victory. It takes a lot of you and a lot of discipline to give of yourself each day to them while at the same time needing a lot of time to train. But it has been a blessing because I have my boys there everyday and they want nothing more than victory and they bring it to me as hard as they can. So it has stepped my game up a level and it has been worth the sacrifice.
Gracie: Yes, it is a blessing to have them around because I am actually pushing them as I push myself. So I am sweaty and suffering together with them and I see no problem at all in coaching them. It is actually a blast because that keeps me in shape and keeps me sharp because they are all fighters. To have the chance to train with them and spar with them and do everything with them not only drives them forward, but they are driving me too. So it has been a great time. The best time of my life actually.
Question: You have both been involved in this sport since the beginning and I am sure you both will always be involved in MMA. Renzo, how much longer do you see yourself taking fights as opposed to just permanently coaching or something of that sort?
Gracie: I really do not know. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life and I feel when I train with the young guys like I can still have a top game. Even though you need a lot of time to dedicate yourself towards fighting — and I have a lot of business going on right now – my school has 560 students and business is booming and I need to expand – but I enjoy so much to fight. Since my childhood, it has been my aim to become a fighter. This is a dream come true. I never expected to make my living out of my teaching and I can fight. For sure, I will be involved in this for the rest of my life.
Shamrock: I will probably fight until I am about 45 or so. My body is in great shape. I have always taken care of it. I am a professional martial artist, so this is what I do each and every day of my life and this is what I will continue to do until I am too old to stand up. Then I will sit on the ringside and yell at my grandkids and tell them what to do. But martial arts is a way of life for me and as long as they will let me fight, I will keep fighting.
Question: Gary, can you explain what your thinking is behind the 15-second ground rule and if that will be enacted and how? Then I would like Frank and Renzo’s thoughts.
Shaw: The rule basically right now in mixed martial arts is if there is no action on the ground, the referee has the right to stand them up. All I want to do is to allow the fans, both on television and in the arena, to know what is happening. I am not looking to change the rule. I am not looking to hurt someone that has a spectacular ground game. All I am looking to do is to educate and to keep the fight moving in action. Keep bringing the fans action and the fan base will keep growing. So all we want to do is mic the referee so you can hear the referee say to the fighters, ‘Come on, guys. If I do not see any movement, I am going to stand you up’ or whatever the referee says. We are not scripting the referee. At a point where he feels that there is going to be a lull in the action, he can say, ‘I am putting you on the clock.’ Both fighters at that point know that within 15 seconds, if there is not real movement or fighting or change of position or whatever, the ref is going to stand them up. Then everybody in the television world and the people in the arena will know, and at the end of 15 seconds it will go. The point is that everybody will be educated and not trying to figure out what is happening on the ground.
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Posted January 18th, 2007 l 122 Views
