10 fighters who feuded with the UFC

#5 Frank Shamrock

Frank Shamrock has become persona non grata with the UFC

Often considered one of the greatest MMA fighters – and UFC champions – of all time, Frank Shamrock has been persona non grata with the UFC for well over a decade now, and where the accomplishments of pioneers like Mark Coleman, Royce Gracie, Don Frye and Frank’s adopted brother Ken are widely recognised by the promotion, any word of Frank tends to be a footnote at best.

Nobody’s really 100% sure what kick-started the feud, but most sources agree that a meeting back in 2001 between Shamrock and the UFC’s new owners – Zuffa, headed by the Fertitta brothers and Dana White – didn’t go to plan and resulted in the fighter being blacklisted by the company.

Things got so bad that Javier Mendez and Bob Cook – Shamrock’s longtime friends and coaches – had to change the name of their fight team from Shamrock Submission Academy to the American Kickboxing Academy in order for them to get UFC fights.

Over the years that have followed, Shamrock has headlined for two of the UFC’s biggest rival promotions – Elite XC and StrikeForce – and in 2011 he even claimed a fight with Dana White would be the only one that could bring him out of retirement.

Surprisingly, White has been relatively quiet when it comes to the UFC’s feud with Shamrock – but in 2012 after Frank claimed a “vendetta” was the only thing keeping him out of the UFC’s Hall of Fame, the UFC President finally hit back – labelling Frank “irrelevant” and stating that he’d done nothing for the “new” UFC.