Sloan: OK, that’s fair enough. It’s totally fair. You mentioned that you have a couple of goals before you retire. What are those goals?
Sloan: Well Sakuraba is PRIDE’s baby. It’s in my opinion I think he’ll probably never leave PRIDE until he retires. You said that you don’t like PRIDE’s contracts, they’re ridiculous. What would it take for you to fight Sakuraba, if that’s the ultimate goal or one of your ultimate goals and he wouldn’t leave PRIDE?
Shamrock: Well, first of all it would help getting his name on a contract. And I negotiated with them for over two years and they would never put his name on the contract. The closest I got was, “Sakuraba or like opponent.” (Laughter) But that doesn’t mean with Sakuraba. I don’t know what that means.
Sloan: Sakuraba or “like opponent”?
Shamrock: Or like opponent. … I understand the other business side of that and I understand making money and all those things. But I’m there for a purpose and you know, put his name on a contract, give me the money I want. The money wasn’t the issue. They wouldn’t put his name on a contract, which means they don’t want me to fight him or there’s some other issue or whatever. They told me I wasn’t popular anymore. They told me whatever, who knows. But if that’s my goal and if they want to do it, then put his name on a contract. I’d be glad to fight him.
Sloan: Have you ever spoken with Sakuraba directly?
Shamrock: No, he doesn’t speak very good English.
Sloan: True, but have you met him with an interpreter at all? Do you think any part of this has to do with Sakuraba having reservations about fighting you?
Shamrock: I don’t think so. From what I know of Japanese business structure, Sakuraba doesn’t make the decisions. As far as I know, Sakuraba is contracted through this company and what I know about Japanese business structure is that this is your job and you just do what you’re told. I don’t think he cares. I’m sure he’d love to fight me, but he gets a paycheck each month and he goes where his boss tells him to go.
Sloan: Then keeping with Sakuraba, probably the last question about Sakuraba, he just beat up Ken (Shamrock). Some say it was a controversial stoppage. It was really quick. Did you see the fight and if you did, what are your thoughts on Ken versus Sakuraba?
Shamrock: I saw the fight and I tried to watch it from an outside point of view, which is, he’s not my brother and I don’t want to fight the guy. I tried to watch it that way and that it’s a whole other fight, and I got this really cool TiVo thing where I can slow it all down and freeze the frame and if you’re sleeping with your head through the second rope, you’re in a bad way. He got clocked. He went down. According to the rules he was no longer defending himself and that’s the end of the fight. Was it early? Sure it was early. But was he getting his ass kicked? Yeah. It just depends on how you want to look at it. I tried to look at it abstractly and I saw a guy sleeping with his head through the second rope. That’s not good, because if I’m there, please somebody stop this.
Sloan: That’s the same way I thought of it, too. I didn’t understand that outcry that it was a bad stoppage. The fight ended quickly, of course, but, in my opinion, Ken was out.
Shamrock: He was sleeping. He woke back up, great. But for that moment he was sleeping. You can look at it from two sides, should they let him keep kicking him in the head and mashing him and beating on him? Maybe. But in the art of fighting he wasn’t defending himself, at least not intelligently. He’s my bro and I wanted more than anything in the world for him to win. But it’s like, shit, there it is. There.