Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Brewer
Pit Dog, if the man's arm was broken, the man's arm was broken. There's no dishonor in quitting to a broken arm. People, in fact, quit to far less every time they tap out. When you tap out because an arm bar hurts or might break your arm, you're quitting to avoid the very same kind of injury Shamrock actually received.
It's cool if you don't like Shamrock, but the posturing is pretty empty if you ask me.
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I was pulling for Frank before the fight, but I told my buddy that his stamina and heart are suspect if it goes awhile. If you watch the Baroni fight, Shamrock did the same thing right after ... he laid down, gasping for breath, with a look of pure agony on his face. Frank was a round or two away from quitting against Baroni too, even though he won.
I don't buy the arm was the deciding factor. In fact, immediately before the end of the round, Shamrock threw his right ... as hard as he could ... then the bell rung.
Take a really good look at that tape, and it is pretty clear what happened to Shamrock. Shamrock tried to step-up the pace and go for a knockout after getting completely humiliated by that sweep. And Shamrock came pretty close to getting Le. Cung Le was rocked and was going backward as they traded. Both men's hands were dropped, both men's chins were hanging out there, and both men were throwing haymakers. It was simply a matter of who got there first.
Cung Le's combination punching was the difference over Shamrock's one-punch-at-a-time attack, on top of which Le's unusually good kicks were something that Shamrock wasn't used to. Shamrock got nailed hard in the jaw with a kick, then a backfist, and then he got blasted to the ropes with a 3-punch combo ... and then he took another huge kick to the head ... and then the bell rung.
Shamrock's eyes were initially still "in fight mode" when the bell rung, and they stayed fixed on Cung Le as he walked away ... but then about 2 seconds later the effect of those last kicks caught up with Shamrock ... and he went down to one knee before he even got to his stool. Shamrock was woozy when he went to that stool and he decided that it felt pretty good, and he made a conscious decision that he didn't want to go back out there for more abuse. I don't know how you want to sugar-coat it, but that is a quit
Watch the tape and you can see the progression I just stated. Shamrock really felt the effects of those head kicks
after the bell rung, which made him sink down to one knee, then he realized how tired and hurt he was, and then he made a conscious decision to quit on his stool.
Credit to Cung Le ... they both were rocked bad and pretty tired at the end of that last round, they both had their hands down, and they both were going for broke ... but Cung Le proved he really did want to be Champion, while Frank laid down and basically said, "Here you can have the Championship belt. I don't want it bad enough anymore."
To compare Shamrock's heart to true fighting Champions like Marquez and Pacquiao would be a disgrace. He is nowhere near that game.
Jack