Frank Shamrock Talking Crazy

I love when certain MMA fighters get a chance to say what’s on their mind and let us all know just how insane they truly are. Readers of this blog will know that I am a huge Nick Diaz fan, partly for this reason, but the old school master of MMA Crazy Talk has to be Frank Shamrock. That’s why I was elated to find that Shamrock participated in a live chat on the Pro Elite forum yesterday.

Having interviewed Shamrock several times in the past, even I could have told Pro Elite that this was a bad idea. Frank Shamrock will say anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s demonstrably untrue or if it contradicts something that he just said thirty seconds ago, if a string of words pops into his mind he will utter them, seemingly unaware that they have meaning.

For example, Shamrock repeated several times in this chat that he’d like to fight Renzo Gracie in 2008, but he believed Renzo was “ducking” him.  He referred to Renzo as “the actor” and claimed that Gracie was “enrolled in acting classes” right now, and that’s why he wouldn’t agree to the fight. Then, later in the same chat, Shamrock talked about how much he enjoys acting and how he had a supporting role in an upcoming movie. What? It’s enough to make you wonder if he even listens to himself.

Other highlights of the chat include Shamrock once again calling Josh Thompson gay (very mature), nonchalantly remarking that he’d like to fight Robbie Lawler and Matt Lindland (bad idea), and claiming that he will fight twenty-one more fights over the next ten years.

That last one disturbs me most, for some reason. Maybe it’s the specificity of that statement. It furthers my belief that Shamrock has some weird, undiagnosed schizo-narcissistic personality disorder. Maybe it’s not even a documented illness yet. Maybe Shamrock should be studied by a team of scientists in an Austrian institute somewhere just so they can finally figure out what’s going on in his brain. Then again, maybe he should just get choked out by Renzo Gracie. I hear it has curative properties.

For the full original chat, click here.

Nick Diaz, Yet Again, Talking Crazy

I love it when an MMA fighter or promoter starts with the crazy talk, which is just one of the reasons I’m a big fan of Nick Diaz. As far as I’m concerned, Diaz is the undisputed king of saying things that are at once provocative and confusing.

His newest gem came during a recent interview with UFCmania.com. When asked how he felt about the UFC’s welterweight division, Diaz responded thusly:

Nick Diaz: Georges or Matt Hughes, who the hell is there? Fitch? My boy Jake choked him out already. I’m ready to start talking shit on these guys. What do I have to do to fight one of these guys or get the promoters to make it happen? Call these guys pussies? Fine. They’re all pussies. Fuck every single one of them.

Jesse Holland (UFCmania): You don’t think Fitch is the real deal?

Nick Diaz: No, I don’t. I think I’m gonna slap him and after I slap him I’m gonna beat him. Give me a fight with Fitch, go ahead. The UFC doesn’t want me fighting them but I’ll be there even when they start falling off because I’m a long distance fighter not like these fragile guys who always get hurt in training. How the hell do you get hurt so much in training? Stop flipping tires and jacking up all these weights.

That’s how you give an interview, people. That’s why Nick Diaz is one of my favorite fighters. Not only does he have phenomenal jiu-jitsu, but he also has an odd world view that I am fascinated with.

Notice how he seems to believe that simply calling someone a pussy should be enough to make a fight happen, as if the entire MMA world is just a really big high school party. Forget contracts, forget the fact that he is signed to a competing organization and there’s really no feasible way to make a fight happen with Georges St. Pierre or Matt Hughes or Jon Fitch. Just call them all pussies and your problem is solved.

But wait, it gets better. Here Diaz goes on a tirade against “fake fighters” who color their hair and toenails in an effort to get on magazine covers.

Jesse Holland (UFCmania): Who paints their hair and toes?

Nick Diaz: Dude everybody. C’mon man. Even Hermes Franca. One day he comes in with that goofy haircut. You got Jens Pulver, fucking Mayhem Miller. Some bitch he was talking to tried to offer me this piece of hydrogenated chocolate. What the fuck are these guys into? Give me some real chocolate. Real fighters eat real chocolate.

Note to self: make sure to only offer Nick Diaz real chocolate, or face his wrath. Seriously though, Diaz is probably one of the healthiest guys in the sport. I mean, he does triathlons for Pete’s sake. Not only does he do them, he places high in them. That’s impressive.

But the crazy talk isn’t finished. When asked about the staph infection he got during his last fight, Diaz somehow managed to indict Hawaiian cuisine:

Jesse Holland (UFCmania): You got staph as a result of that fight?

Nick Diaz: Yeah. I had a small cut over my eye and it got in there. Plus my immune system was already weakened from dropping to 160. And what the fuck is with the food in Hawaii? They got nothing to eat there man I was dying for some real food. Plus I didn’t sleep after the fight and once I got on that fucking airplane the pressure pushed all that shit together and the next thing you know I had chills and a fever. I know when something’s wrong with me too I was thinking “Damn this ain’t right”. I felt like I was dying.

I’m not sure what he means by “they got nothing to eat there.” I’ve been to Hawaii and to the best of my recollection that he have pretty much the same food choices there that they do on the mainland, it’s just a little more expensive. Then again, Nick Diaz and I clearly live in different universes. I suspect his is the more awesome of the two.

Read the full interview here.