MMAOddsBreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with Bellator 149 headliner Ken Shamrock as he prepares for his upcoming main event trilogy fight this Friday (February 19, 2016) against Royce Gracie at the Toyota Center in Houston Texas.
The UFC Hall of Famer feels his experience will be the biggest advantage heading into this trilogy bout, especially considering how her performed in their first rematch back at UFC 5 in the mid 1990’s:
“The biggest thing you’ll see different in this fight is when I fought him last time, I had two and a half years experience in grappling and in-ring experience. Royce had 25 years under his belt plus 50 yeas of his family behind him so there was a tremendous amount of experience on his side and not much on mine. There was no way to set up a strategy and prepare back then. I couldn’t find guys who could do what Royce did. It was really hard, but I figured out a strategy when I fought him the first time, which was basically ground and pounding him, lock the hips, flatten him out and don’t let him move so much and I implemented that plan to a T in the second fight. This fight, the thing I really feel comfortable about is on the ground, I have a tremendous amount of experience now. There’s nothing on the ground I haven’t seen. My experience is tremendous so I’m not gonna be afraid when I’m on the ground to attempt a submission or move around in the guard. It’s not gonna be sitting in the guard and going for ground and pound. It’ll be using my size and strength to make him uncomfortable to try and finish this fight in the first round or early in the second round. This is not gonna be a slow-paced fight like it was in the second fight where I was a bit more cautious.”