Frank Shamrock Announces His Retirement From MMA at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum

Former UFC champion Frank Shamrock announced his retirement at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum.

After a brief highlight video that suffered for the lack of highlight footage from his UFC career, Shamrock came out and gave a brief speech, thanking Scott Coker, the promoter of Strikeforce.

But he pointedly didn't mention his brother Ken Shamrock by name although he did begin his speech by saying, "when I was 22 years old my brother gave me two things -- an ass whipping and he introduced me to mixed martial arts."

Shamrock's career peak took place in Japan and in the UFC when the event could barely get on PPV so fans today are sadly unfamiliar with his many career highlights. This isn't helped by the UFC's policy of not acknowledging Shamrock's career in any way shape or form. Sherdog wrote about the UFC's refusal to include any of Shamrock's bouts in the fan voting for best UFC fight of all time:

The UFC's first middleweight champ and arguably its biggest star in the late 90s, Shamrock never lost a fight in the Octagon. However, the UFC excluded all of his bouts from fan voting -- even his epic scrap against Tito Ortiz in September 1999 at UFC 24.

In short, Shamrock-Ortiz was one of the UFC's earliest title bouts that felt like a top championship boxing match, given the buildup and drama that made Shamrock's fourth-round TKO his finest -- and final -- performance in the Octagon. Giving up more than 20 pounds after the weigh-in, Shamrock calmly and tactically dissected Ortiz in what stands as a masterpiece of strategy, along with a heady dose of down-and-dirty know-how.

Sadly, the bout won't be featured on the UFC's countdown that has been airing on Spike TV.

"I thought it was a pivotal fight (in MMA)," Shamrock told Sherdog.com. "Physically and mentally, it was a pivotal fight in the history of the sport itself. It's obviously pretty ridiculous and childish they left it out. That's obvious. I was the first-ever champion, and Tito was the first guy in a weight class to work his way up. In my opinion, it was the first real legitimate build-up to a championship fight. It was a real story."

Shamrock was also a King of Pancrase, winning the legendary Japanese promotion's title earl on in his career.

NOTE TO COMMENTERS: This is not the place to discuss or disparage Shamrock's commentating.