Shamrock out at UFC 43

[Curly Howard]

From http://www.maxfighting.com/

MaxFighting has learned that a torn ACL will keep UFC legend Ken Shamrock from his June bout with Ian Freeman at UFC 43 in Las Vegas. More details as we receive them.

[Curly Howard]

From http://www.mmafighting.com/

Ken Shamrock out of UFC 43
Posted on May 21, 2003

Ken Shamrock suffered a torn ACL injury and will not be fighting at UFC 43. No word yet on who Ian Freeman's new opponent is

[Curly Howard]

From http://www.ufighting.com

Ken Shamrock out of UFC 43
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May 21, 2003 | 03:27 PM - by jhedges
Ken Shamrock is officially out of UFC 43 in two weeks due to a torn ACL. It is not known at this time who will replace Shamrock against Ian Freeman. The new opponent should be announced soon.

[Tom]

that sucks man. hope he can recover.

[seldomTap]

Hopefully Freeman can adjust to the new fighter OK. That would suck for him having to readjust.

Not as much as it sucks for Shamrock though...hope he recovers ok

[zioxoiz]

Tito, that is funny.....

[submission_guy]

do you think ken will even fight again, acl is a pretty long recovery time...

[Curly Howard]

He is a true legend in the sport and it appears the legends career is in doubt by some. Ken Shamrock, at the age of 38 years old tore his ACL and will not only not compete at UFC 43, but his future is very much in question.

Shamrock has suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and has been forced to pull out of his scheduled UFC 43 fight with Ian Freeman.

Shamrock is likely to be out of commission for 8-12 months. The best-case scenario for the recovery time of anyone with a torn ACL is about six months (which doesn't happen too much), and the worst-case scenario is that it's career-ending. The vast majority of athletes are able to return to action somewhere in the range of 8-12 months. Specific information regarding the severity of Shamrock's ACL tear is not yet known.

What is known is that Shamrock fought Tito Ortiz last November with a torn meniscus in his knee, information that was confirmed in the fight itself by Shamrock's complete lack of lateral movement in his knees. A torn meniscus does not always require surgery, and the recovery time is generally 3-6 months when surgery is performed. Shamrock chose not to have his torn meniscus repaired prior to the fight with Ortiz, but with his ACL now being torn, the condition of his knee is bad enough that he has no choice but to go in for surgery.


MMAWeekly.com was able to talk with Lion's Den teammate Tra Telligman and he told MMAWeekly that Shamrock was "complaining of his knee not feeling right".

Shamrock went to the doctor and the doctor checked out the knee a few weeks back and the doctor said it was o.k. The knee never felt o.k. according to Ken and it was very sore while training. Then while training he said "it didn't feel right" and then it's believed he tore the ACL.

When MMAWeekly asked Telligman if he thought Ken would return, Tra said "It's hard to say. We all have injuries when we train and no one is ever 100% when they step into the ring. If promoters offer you a few hundred thousand to fight, then it makes it easier for you ti come back to fight. I think if he came back feeling good from the knee surgery and if the money is right he may be back."

For now though Shamrock has a long road to recovery and it will be interesting to see if the living legend will ever fight in mixed martial arts competition ever again

[Curly Howard]

So the question remains, what will happen with Ian Freeman. Will he actually fight on the card? This is what we can tell you as of today.

There has been no official confirmation on who might replace Shamrock to fight Ian Freeman, but the two strongest possibilities at this point are leading candidate, Vernon "Tiger" White and Renato "Babalu" Sobral. Whenever a big-name fighter gets injured and has to pull out of a show, his fellow teammates are usually the first people to be considered as replacements, and this appears to be the case in this scenario.

Tiger White is a light-heavyweight who is generally regarded as an exciting fighter. Strengthening the case for Tiger being a potential replacement on this card is the fact that Tiger had been tentatively scheduled to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 42, before Vitor pulled out with an injury. This demonstrates that the UFC was interested in Tiger as of a few months ago. Tiger's recent decision loss to Jeremy Horn probably won't have much affect on Zuffa's interest level in him, due to the fact that the loss came under controversial circumstances, and because Tiger was trying to be aggressive in the fight.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral is also believed to be a possibility to fight Ian Freeman at UFC 43. Babalu is respected by Zuffa, if for no other reason because he stepped up to the plate and took a tough fight when he was matched up with Chuck Liddell at UFC 40.

Pete Spratt's willingness to step up and fight Carlos Newton at UFC 40 was one of many reasons that Spratt was given a semi-main event slot at UFC 42 against Robbie Lawler. The same logic could lead to Babalu being offered another fight in the UFC, despite the fact that his previous UFC contract was not renewed. If Zuffa's talks with Vernon "Tiger" White don't go anywhere, it's expected that Babalu's camp would accept any decent offer from Zuffa in order to get the opportunity to shine on the big stage of the UFC.

Vladimir Matyushenko is a third potential opponent to fight Ian Freeman, although in Matyushenko's case, we are not aware of any specific talks that have taken place between Zuffa and Matyushenko's camp. Vladdy makes a lot of sense as a replacement for several reasons. For starters, UFC fighters who are on winning streaks usually fight on every other show, so Vladdy was essentially due for a fight at UFC 43 (he beat Pedro Rizzo at UFC 41).

Matyushenko's last two UFC fights were dominant wins, and his last fight before that was a unanimous decision victory over Rogerio Nogueira in Japan (which remains Rogerio's only loss in MMA). Vladdy has shown a willingness to take fights on very short notice in the past, such as when he agreed to fight Tito Ortiz at UFC 33 with only a couple weeks notice. The final reason that Matyushenko can't be entirely discounted as a possibility is because of the fact that he can fight at both heavyweight and light-heavyweight, which also describes Ian Freeman.

If none of the aforementioned fighters are signed to fight Ian Freeman at UFC 43, the UFC could always sign an up-and-coming young heavyweight who would jump at a chance to fight in the UFC. This has happened in the past, most recently in the weeks and months leading up to UFC 40, when there were negotiations for Vladimir Matyushenko to fight Frank Mir or Vitor Belfort at UFC 40. When both of those fighters pulled out of negotiations, Vladdy's opponent ended up being a promising young heavyweight named Travis Wiuff who was making his UFC debut.

It's unlikely, but not out of the question that Ian Freeman will be pulled from the UFC 43 card entirely, as that has happened in the past from time to time when a big-name star goes down with an injury after a fight has been scheduled. If Freeman does fight on the UFC 43 card, it will certainly not be in the semi-main event, which is what his fight with Shamrock was scheduled to be. In fact, there is a possibility that Freeman's fight could be moved down to the three-fight undercard of UFC 43, with one of the currently scheduled undercard fights moving up to the main card (perhaps Matt Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale). This has precedent as recently as UFC 40. Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Vitor Belfort or Frank Mir would have been a big fight on the main card, but when Vladdy's opponent ended up being Travis Wiuff, it was relegated to an undercard fight that never aired during the broadcast.

[Tom]

My sister tore her ACL her senior year in high school, i believe after little over a year she finally got full clearance from the doctor to play in college. I think he should retire and commentate for the UFC full time, i liked the last time he commentated but i am sure he will prolly come back and fight.