Ken Shamrock recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam ahead of his Valor Bare Knuckle boxing promotion’s debut event next month. Shamrock talked about how the promotion started, saying he got to fight using a similar style early in his career, and wants to give the fans what they want and give the sport a proper spotlight again.
“Back in the day when I first started out, I got to fight in the bare knuckle, no holds barred era, and I fell in love with it. I just thought it was so pure, man against man, there was no equipment to make you better—it was just pure. So I fell in love with it, and then this guy, Tank Abbott, brings in these four-ounce gloves, and it changed the landscape of that pure, tough fighting. It just went away. Because we got sold a bill of goods. Like, we’re gonna make it safer. And the reality is, guys that were winning fights, were hurting their hands. And they weren’t able to fight right after they won a fight. And they thought, what a great idea it would be to put gloves on guys to be able to protect the fighters that are winning. That’s what we see today. Four-ounce gloves on fighters, who are out there, fighting with their hands wrapped with the four-ounce glove on, so that they can ‘protect the fighters.’”
Shamrock continued, saying he fell in love with the sport and knew he wanted to get back to basics if he ever got the chance. He says his business partner helped him analyze trends and saw there was a market for bare knuckle fighting, and they wanted to give the fans something they’d been asking for in mixed martial arts.
“I remember saying to myself, ‘We got to go on this, man.’ I want to bring this back and make it new even though it’s old. But I want to bring it back because it’s what I fell in love with. And I truly, truly believe it’s what the fans fell in love with, because I can still remember this day very clearly. When I would take someone to the ground and I would be pounding and I would start to finish them, and people would scream—even though I’m winning, right? They’re saying ‘Stand ’em up! Stand ’em up!’
They wanted you to stand up and fight! And that’s just what people want, and I think today’s generation, the Y and Z generation, that’s what they want. They want guys to stand up and fight. And I’m not getting into this thing to just put on shows. I’m getting into it because I fell in love with it, I respect it, and I think it deserves respect. So, therefore, I put together a killer team, and we’re gonna launch this thing, and we’re going to bring it where it belongs. And that’s from the dark to the light.”
Shamrock says sanctioning and regulating MMA was a step in the right direction, but he feels like putting gloves on the fighters was a mistake. He says the lack of gloves on fighters would provide more exciting fights and it would see the sport evolve, where fighters would have to be more skillful and accurate, ultimately leading to more safety in the ring.
“There were a lot of things happening early on, that I agreed with, with just sanctioning. The sanctioning body, commissions, all the things to make sure we can regulate this. We didn’t just pull anyone off the street so they can fight, right? Make it professional. But where they made the mistake, I believe, was when they put the gloves on guys. I think if they would’ve done everything the same, other than the gloves, we would be seeing things differently today.
I think we’d see the sport evolve, we’d be seeing an exciting sport, we’d be seeing fights finish; we’d be seeing submissions and all the other things happening a lot sooner. Because, with those gloves on now, you’ve taken away a lot of those opportunities, because the glove gets in the way of being able to apply a rear-naked choke or some of those other things that take more of a strategic type angle and situation to finish those things.
But with that glove on, it makes it difficult. So, yeah, it did take away a lot of that. And I really believe, bringing bare-knuckle back, it puts back what I have always thought of that really good professional striking, where, you can’t just throw haymakers, and then not land your shot, but still knock somebody down, and you get your hand raised. I think it’s bringing back that point now, where people have to ease up on their punches, they can’t just go throwing haymakers, they have to be more accurate with their striking, and in that case, I believe it becomes more safer.”
Valor Bare Knuckle debuts on Saturday, September 21 at the 4 Bears Casino in New Town, North Dakota. The one night, 4 man tournament will be available for purchase on pay-per-view and streaming outlets, including FITE, DirecTV and Dish Network.
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