Biography and Profile of Frank Shamrock

The biography of Frank Shamrock started on December 8, 1972 in Santa Monica, California. He was born Frank Alisio Juarez.

Frank Shamrock fights for the Strikeforce Organization and trains with The Alliance. His nickname is "The Legend".

Shamrock’s father left when he was three years old. When he was seven, his mother remarried. Shamrock told BodyBuilding.com that his new stepfather was, “real ornery. He was ex-military, very strict, and into psychological trauma. . . I went from no dad, wondering who my dad was, to a militant stepfather and it traumatized me.”

Shamrock (then Juarez) was out of the home by age 11, moving between foster homes, group homes, crisis centers, and juvenile hall. All of this led to him living with Bob Shamrock in Susanville, California when he was 13 years old.

Juarez developed a strong relationship with Bob Shamrock, possibly because, according to Shamrock, “Bob was the first guy that wouldn’t take my crap.” At the age of 21, Frank was officially adopted by Shamrock. Later, he changed his name in honor of their relationship.

Frank started training in submission fighting with his adoptive brother, Ken Shamrock, in 1994. This eventually led to his mixed martial arts debut against the now legendary Bas Rutten. On December 16, 1994, Shamrock defeated Rutten by split decision. Though he only started his MMA career with a rather unimpressive 4-3-1 record, he then went on to win his next six fights. Along the way, he became the provisional King of Pancrase (Rutten was injured and unable to defend his title).

Shamrock had a falling out with the Pancrase organization and was fired as a result of this. From there, he went 3-1 in other venues before the big time came calling—the UFC.

Shamrock was immediately given a title shot against Kevin Jackson with the organization. He responded with an armbar victory in only 16 seconds. In his next fight, Shamrock took on Extreme Fighting Champion Igor Zinoviev at UFC 16. He knocked him out with a vicious slam only 22 seconds into the fight.

Just like that, a star was born.

After defeating tough MMA fighters like Jeremy Horn and John Lober, Shamrock eventually met up with a young Tito Ortiz at UFC 22 on September 24, 1999. Ortiz gave Shamrock difficulties with his stellar wrestling, power, and sheer size. But Ortiz began to tire later in the fight, and that’s when Shamrock came through with a submission victory (due to strikes).

This was perhaps his signature MMA win.

Frank Shamrock walked away from MMA after the Ortiz fight only to come out of retirement soon after to defeat Elivis Sinosic in 2000. In 2001, he won a kickboxing match over former student Shannon Ritch. Then he came back to MMA again in 2003 to defeat Bryan Pardoe by submission.

It all happened again when he defeated Cesar Gracie in 16 seconds by KO at Strikeforce: Cesar vs. Gracie in 2006. From there, Shamrock began fighting regularly, starting with a disqualification loss to Renzo Gracie. Months later, he scored an upset submission win over Phil Baroni before falling later to Cung Le via TKO (broken arm).

Frank lives with his wife Amy in San Jose. They have a daughter named Nicolette who was born on April 24, 2008. Shamrock also has an adult son from a previous relationship.

Beyond that, Shamrock runs a franchise of martial arts schools and a series of other businesses tied to the martial arts.

• The Feud With Ken Shamrock: Ken Shamrock, Frank's adoptive brother, was his first trainer at the world famous Lion's Den Gym. However, Frank had a falling out with both he and Bob Shamrock in 1997. They didn't speak again until Bob was terminally ill. According to Frank in an interview with Sam Caplan of sportsline.com, the fallout was initiated when his adoptive brother told him he didn't have what it took to be a world champion, amongst other things. This happened after Frank verbalized some concerns regarding Ken's training methods. Both brothers have indicated a desire to fight one another.
• Fighting Style and Background: Frank Shamrock has a strong background in catch wrestling, a style of submission fighting.
• The Innovator: Frank Shamrock was one of the first MMA fighters to truly cross train. By training with former world champion kickboxer Maurice Smith, Shamrock learned how to use thestriking martial arts to complement his already stellar ground game.