One of the UFC’s first-ever GOATs scored one of the biggest wins of his career against Dana White’s least favorite fighter ever, Tito Ortiz.
Frank Shamrock is widely regarded as one of the UFC‘s first-ever GOATs, having made his promotional debut back in 1997 at UFC Japan.
‘The Legend’ went on to win the inaugural UFC middleweight championship after submitting Kevin Jackson within the first 16 seconds of their clash.
However, it was a total domination over Tito Ortiz which led to Shamrock being labeled as the UFC’s greatest ever champion by several UFC co-owners.
Frank Shamrock brutalized Tito Ortiz during historic UFC run
After several successful title defenses, ‘The Legend’ was then matched up with Ortiz, who at the time was widely regarded as one of the promotion’s biggest stars.
Earlier that year, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ had clashed with Shamrock’s brother Ken Shamrock at UFC 19 which turned Frank’s fight against him into a huge grudge match.
Despite having run through all of his opponents up until this point, Shamrock was considered an underdog in this fight because of the fact that Ortiz was cutting a lot of weight to fight him and held a big size advantage.
However, the champion went on to brutalize Ortiz with elbows and hellacious hammer fists before the challenger tapped out due to damage in round four in what is regarded as one of the greatest fights of all time.
The fight went on to win the 1999 Fight of the Year award but not long after, Shamrock vacated the UFC middleweight title and it marked his final fight under the UFC banner.
Shamrock was subsequently erased from UFC history
Since his retirement, Shamrock doesn’t really get mentioned as one of the greatest fighters of all time, despite once being labeled as the greatest competitor in UFC history.
Last year, Shamrock took issue with the promotion after claiming he had been removed from the UFC website, claiming that they were ‘erasing history’. Despite his claim, the former champion still has an active profile on the official website, showcasing his fight stats and more.
Following his UFC exit and brief retirement from the sport, Shamrock returned to action, fighting for the likes of K-1 and Strikeforce.
His retirement fight came against Nick Diaz in 2009, and he lost the fight via a second round stoppage.