Before Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, and Georges St. Pierre, the UFC was carried by two people in its early days in the 1990s: Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie. The two faced off at UFC 1 and UFC 5, and they are arguably two of the most important names in modern mixed martial arts.
Well, the two faced off one more time on Friday night for the fighting promotion Bellator, and what is likely the end to once of fighting's greatest rivalries ended in the lamest way possible. In the first round, Gracie (15-2-3) caught Shamrock (28-17-2) with a knee strike to the groin that went uncalled by the referee.
The strike clearly stunned Shamrock, who was then taken down with another knee strike, allowing Gracie to win by TKO. Shamrock was obviously irate after the finish, and one would imagine that the ground-based Gracie is not too happy that his first career TKO came by nefarious means.
What a sad end to one of the most important rivalries in fighting.
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