Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock 1 ended with a tapout. Their second fight ended with without a KO or Tapout so it was called a draw after 36 straight minutes, under the rules in place at the time. The rules have evolved enormously, but the third fight was a mess never the less, because the ref missed a Royce Gracie knee to the nuts.
The sophistication of the modern Unified Rules relies enormously on the competence of the referee. How you can be a main event ref and miss a blatant knee to the groin is an open question at this point.
Royce’s next knee was to the face. Shamrock crumpled to the mat holding his groin and the ref called a TKO. The ref decision will stand. It would only be overturned if the ref was in on a fix or some fantastically unlikely ending. If it was simply a error of missing a knee to the nuts, then the TKO stands.
Immediately after the fight an irate Shamrock was yelling at Gracie. However, he quickly gathered himself, and in the post fight, in cage interview, said plainly that he was fouled, and the loss did not seem fair.
At the post fight press conference, Shamrock made the case even more plainly.
“I got kneed in the nuts,” he said, as transcribed by MMA Fighting. “I don’t know what else to say.”
“I apologized to Royce and his corner because it wasn’t his fault. He was doing what he had to do. But I wanted this fight. It bothered me a lot, because I figured that in a main event fight with something like this, you have all those fans there, they’re waiting to see us end this our way, and all he had to do was stop and give me a chance to recover, tuck my nuts back in and go again.
“That’s all that had to happen. Instead they call the fight? I mean, it was pretty clear to me.”
“In my opinion, it’s not over. I wouldn’t want to win that way. If it was me, personally, if I had hit somebody in the nuts and they went down – I knew that I hit them in the nuts – I would probably put my hands up and go, ‘Sorry’ out of reaction, out of a reaction, out of courtesy. Out of a reaction, I would’ve went, ‘Whoa. Sorry, dude.’ and given him time to get his five minutes to recover. That’s what I would’ve done.”
Gracie says a 4th fight is up to Bellator MMA President Scott Coker.
“My father did not make fighters,” said Gracie. “He taught us how to teach, not how to fight. We fight to prove that our style is the best. It’s up to Scott Coker. I thought I was out, and he pulled me back in.
Shamrock is now on a three fight losing streak. He has won just four fights in 16 years, against 12 losses. He however remains a compelling figure in the sport, so if the numbers are right, expect Shamrock vs. Gracie I4.
