Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den Tryouts…

Chael Sonnen talks about Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den tryouts on this episode of Beyond the Fight
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All things UFC and MMA with the undefeated Bad Guy, Chael Sonnen. UFC Champions, Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, Colby Covington, Khamzat Chimaev, the MMA hour and commentary on the latest UFC news, UFC Champions in 2022, UFC knockouts and finishes.

[@davidwaller5740]

I trained at the Lions Den on and off for a few years in Lodi Ca and while the majority of people commenting have no idea about the Lions Den but guys like Ken shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Guy Metzger, Vernon Tiger White, Pete Williams, Jerry Bolander, Mikey Burnett, Colt Dickey are some of the toughest guys you could have trained with at the time. Guys like this got very little pay compared to todays fighters and truly paved the way for making MMA what it is today

[@redred8328]

Couldn't agree more. I trained under Guy. His gym is still going in Dallas. Best gym to this day I have ever trained.

[@davidwaller5740]

@@redred8328 Guy is an absolute beast.

[@goinhot9133]

Not only did they pave the way, they dedicated their life to something that FOR SURE, wasn’t going to make you rich. Yet they did it anyway.

[@redred8328]

@@davidwaller5740 Legit as Fuck. Wish I could stand Dallas I would still be there. I can say humbly that intro into mma probably saved my life.

[@davidwaller5740]

@@redred8328 Great comment!

[@RonBombJovi]

I think we all collectively would like to hear more about Chael's WCW tryouts and how that turned out. Also curious about how his dad felt about him wrastling

[@keeganrmoore]

I won't watch another video unless it was "WCW Powerplant" in the title

[@RonBombJovi]

@@keeganrmoore Okay, great

[@kevinkelly1529]

He has talked about it briefly in the past. Apparently, his father was in favor of Chael doing 'pro-rassling', but was not aware of the extent to which the outcomes are predetermined. BTW, historically, professional wrestling training was brutally intense. Not so much today; but I think most MMA fans would be surprised by what rasslers of the past decades endured! Chael was at WCW at a time when it was intense, but no longer brutally inhumane. 😉

[@Gh0st_0723]

To all the old timers and OG's, thank you. It's because of you guys and your passion for the sport that the next generation grew up with MMA/BJJ/Muay Thai gyms. 🙏

[@dt2745]

Between Ken and Frank Shamrock they have to be the two toughest brothers in the history of the MMA In fact for a very long time they were MMA too tough bastards

[@igormcjazz3902]

Missing renting UFC 1-10 on VHS tapes lol

[@Surfer-727]

Ken Shamrock was known as " The World's Most Dangerous Man " 🍀

[@brucemabey5637]

The first and only Heel faction in MMA history. Tito doesnt rise to the fame in which he did without the lions den feud. Specifically the if I remember correctly the guy metzger fight when Tito shot Ken and the rest of the den the double bird after his stoppage win. I'm showing my age smh getting old.

[@Godzilla52]

I feel like a lot of the things Lion's Den did would feel woefully obsolete in a modern MMA gym. Even in the late 90s and early 2000s The Lion's Den was looking increasingly outdated in regards to it's practices. (If I'm remembering the story correctly, that's part of the reason Frank Shamrock left). They also pushed for excessively spartanistic training regiments that probably did more to wear their athletes out rather than training/conditioning them properly. Even going forward a deacde to other camps in the late 2000s for instance, Chael talked about how Forrest Griffin and Wanderlei Silvia would regularly do heavy full contact sparring with one another believing that they were conditioning themselves to be tougher, only to unintentionally shorten their careers due to the sustained damage/injuries from those sparring sessions. (and generally that recurring problem is why going forward, gyms and fighters opted to readjust their training/conditioning practices to reduce injury and increase longevity etc. ) MMA has come a long way since 1993 and training/conditioning of athletes has improved drastically alongside the sport. The things that Lion's Den did right/well generally got carried over to modern gyms and were improved/streamlined over time while the wonkier/more ineffective stuff got phased out. That's generally why we don't really see much of demand for gyms like The Lion's Den anymore.

[@matattack1247]

Couldn’t agree more

[@DonaldHolben]

I did ask Ken once and he said he looked for who had heart, And not give up.

[@ChaelSonnenOfficial]

First

[@andrewosborne5785]

Second

[@tiggernits1508]

Chael Sonnen is always first!!!

[@lhowlett88]

You say that, And I'm glad you finally won one. Don't think that makes me second place. I don't run in that race. Am I the Lion in the Den Chael? Or the light at the end of the tunnel? Who am I again? And who are you?

[@MoeShlomo]

Chael Sonnen is always first, even when he loses, which he never does.

[@jiujudo1307]

Uncle Chael, what type of toupee do you wear? It's legit.

[@anglersedge11]

Rememwner HDNET FIGHTS early 2000s

[@charliesinnott9840]

Don't forget Bodog, ring on the beach...epic

[@billmurray1431]

One of the first real MMA teams. There were some bad bad men on that team back in the day

[@cappy2282]

Ya when I was younger I thought Frank Shamrock was badest dude around

[@korvstopparen]

I read that book aswell

[@chiquita683]

Ngannou on Ariel crying to Dana to let him back in, wow this guy really F'd up. Probably called Fury and the number was changed

[@JohnSmith-yd5wq]

Ha

[@evan_513]

Love inside baseball type stories

[@dt2745]

Oh dude I'm sure like I would a lot of us would love to hear about some of your WCW summer tryout and who you may have wrestled with etc I don't know if you've talked about that on here but I think it would be a great great great video

[@tldogmeat]

I have that book, a very well worn copy.

[@michaeljordan3084]

A buddy and I went to the Lions den back in the day, didn’t really know there were tryouts or anything. It was here In San Diego, so was super close. We could barely get Ken to let us watch a training session, basically did everything he could just to get us to leave. In 90 minutes, zero instruction, zero “team” feeling, and basically the new people were just punching bags for the older guys. It was just sad, if you didn’t have any skills, you weren’t gonna learn any.

[@cappy2282]

Lol ya that sounds about right

[@crazypato3752]

By any coincidence did you meet War Machine ??

[@alexrogers9051]

That’s alot of gyms if you go in completely green. Your going against guys who wrestled in high school or were some sort of athlete (generally). If you want to train I highly recommend working out and running first.

[@zartic4life]

That's what happens when your martial art isn't controlled by a centralized committee. Olympic martial arts don't have that issue. For example a Judo black belt level is the same regardless which country your from or which gym gave it to you.

[@chadwik4000]

Can we expect a video regarding Phil Baroni and recent events?

[@jiujudo1307]

@Chad Wik - Or, Father Dana?

[@w8ngr]

You know you’d make so much money from another channel that literally just tells old stories, this is gold, I don’t watch anything else on this channel apart from stories even non fight related never mind non mma content, STORY TIME WITH UNCLE CHAEL

[@executiverobbery]

My Sambo teacher once trained at the Lion's Den and told me so vividly about the training methods used, one of which was called "Head Conditioning", where the entire class would take turns punching a guy in the head, who would then rotate until everyone's head was sufficiently conditioned.

[@popscola2574]

Is that like karates tiger claw crotch shots?

[@executiverobbery]

@@popscola2574 Even more damaging in the long run

[@markwrenn5965]

Is Josh Fabia your Sambo teacher?

[@davidwaller5740]

Not completely accurate

[@redred8328]

Ha nope

[@benmcreynolds8581]

It's no where comparable to MMA but when I played football here in Oregon. We had a coach that later got the team to win the state championship 2 times when I was in HS here in Corvallis. He would run this drill called {"Bull 🐂 in the Ring"} 🏈~ parents actually would show up later to talk to authority figures about their concerns and it eventually got banned. (It really was a "see who Is the toughest kind of thing" and a lot of the kids who weren't as big got pretty hurt, but that was just a part of the football culture at that time in the early 2000's.)

[@thet-rex4521]

Same feeling on those UFC videos at blockbuster.

[@fredfred4086]

Fond memories of searching for MMA videos at Blockbuster. UFC wasn't really shown on TV in the 90's in Australia. I remember videotaping 'The Smashing Machine', it's awesome, I probably still have it somewhere. 👍🙂

[@azraelknightquest5754]

The old school Lion's Den program was ideal for Pancrase shootfighting matches and UFC tournaments and Brazilian Vale Tudo fights and tournaments in their time. Ken Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki and some others that formed Pancrase were TRAINED in SOME catch-wrestling under Yoshiaki Fujiwara (A legit catch wrestler in terms of instruction) but never really competed. Funaki had a Karate background and Jujutsu background. Ken, a freestyle wrestling background. They learned SOME catch-can from Fujiwara but also to make realistic pro-wrestling fights in the UWF and some other companies, they got some BASICS in Muay Thai kickboxing. They also had SOME submissions they learned from Judoka's. That style of pro wrestling usually welcomed freestyle and greco roman wrestlers, kickboxers, martial artists and grapplers. But when they went to real deal fighting in Pancrase and the UFC, the need for conditioning and improved technique was clear to them. With many "no-limit" matches in the UFC and in Brazilian Vale Tudo, as well as Pancrase matches being for 30 minutes (and even later UFC made 30 minute or 15 minute rounds) and a lack of weight classes (and for a time, very LIMITED weight classes afterwards), stamina was badly needed. Hence the large amounts of push ups, sit ups, squats, chin ups, running and sparring. And remember, in some cases, there were TOURNAMENTS where each round was no-limits and no weight classes. Sometimes in exhaustingly hot arenas with no airconditioning. When it came to improving techniques, Ken Shamrock and Funaki prior had only been able to find any random Judoka, wrestler or kickboxer to spar with. It was slim pickings as most didn't want involved in this "U.F.C. Cage Fighting". But eventually, Shamrock invited Gokor Chivichyan to the Lion's Den to hold seminars and teach Russian Sambo techniques (Hence why he became so fond of submissions). This rapidly expanded Pancrase style Shootfighting in submissions alone. Then Ken and Funaki went to Brazil and wanted to train with the Machado's in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Machado's were not for teaching BJJ as the Gracies were their cousins but they did allow them to spar. After defeating Maurice Smith, a champion kickboxing with backgrounds in Muay Thai, Karate and Taewkondo, Ken invited Smith over to the Lion's Den and for a time, Smith was the primary striking coach (vastly improving their striking game). Tsuyoshi Kosaka, a shoot wrestler (The old-school Shooto fighting style) and 4th Degree Judoka with a history at a Kosen Judo university, was also with the Lion's Den (Before Smith and Kosaka and Frank Shamrock would form their own camp away from the Lion's Den), who was able to help a lot with guard techniques and some ways to use the Greco-Roman clinch to throw someone down (At one point, in a Pancrase fight before Ken's knee got too bad, you actually see Ken Shamrock do a Judo SACRIFICE THROW, no joke, from the clinch). This national and world level grappling was CRITICAL for the growth of their shootfighting style. ANd their conditioning was badly needed. Now, some of you might be saying "A striking coach, grappling coach, wrestling/Clinch coach and good conditioning? Well, DUHHHH! Puh-LEASE, that's just common sense in MMA!". And in 2023, you'd be correct. But back in the early 90s? Not so much! The Lion's Den was, for a time, arguably the most successful MMA camp. At one point, Ken was the UFC Superfight Champion, Frank Shamrock was the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Jerry Bohland was the UFC Lightweight Champion, Guy Mezger was the Pancrase Champion, Masakatsu Funaki was the #1 Contender in Pancrase and Vernon White was the KOTC Champion. The Lion's Den had also sent fighters in Brazil and Japan Vale Tudo fights and had a few tough, competitive losses but also a lot of wins, including against BJJ black belts and members of the Gracie Barra team. Maurice Smith also became UFC Heavyweight Champion once and Guy Mezger UFC Lightweight Champion, amongst other lesser-MMA company championships. That's an impressive accomplishment for any team. Nowadays, the sport has involved. Ken's stubborn refusal to retire when he should have and to try and fight with a busted knee and age wearing him down has gotten him a reputation as a loser in modern MMA, Frank and Maurice Smith have mended a bit with Ken but also went their own ways for awhile, Funaki has returned to pro-wrestling, Guy and Jerry and Vernon have settled down and mostly become MMA coaches. But when we look at the BASIC formula of MMA (strong conditioning, wrestling coach and kickboxing coach and BJJ coach for submissions as a MINIMUM), I still can see how the Lion's Den left their mark on MMA. For a time, they dominated US and Japanese MMA while making their presence known with successes in Brazilian Vale Tudo. Don't forget the pioneers, guys. We all reach a point where our preferred way of doing things becomes obsolete and we become older and slower too. Be grateful the Lion's Den helped get the ball rolling for proper MMA training.

[@_bobw]

I trained under Jerry Bohlander in the 90’s. I can attest to this.

[@Hello.Newman]

This guy reminds me of Ray Leota.

[@markwrenn5965]

Hold up... Chael went through the Power Plant?! This is a massive revelation.

[@Kancerru]

Made it to the end too. But then they asked him to pay up for actual wrestling training lol

[@AngieTaber]

The Monday Night Wars would have ended differently had Chael shown up on Nitro.

[@kevinkelly1529]

He talked about it several times in videos in the past.

[@kevinkelly1529]

@@AngieTaber 🤣👍

[@GibbsVideography]

Kick that bag 1000 times Mirko Cro Cop: "only 1000? "

[@bradn.2287]

I wanted to go after i graduated highschool, but i was broke, 3k miles away, no clue how to get there, and now i’m making excuses :)

[@Leon-bt7gw]

whole basket of excuses…

[@raymondzellar5523]

Our gym stole the lions den tryout idea and called it "the heart test". There was no way to do good, you would only hope to lose with style lol

[@SENSEICARR]

SharkTank Rancho was also big time in the king of the Cage scene! Eddy Millis

[@jiujudo1307]

I trained there twice in a one-year period. What fools!

[@davidwaller5740]

Interesting, Which location did you go to? And which year?

[@Ozfreerider2504]

Why no story about Phil boroni chael ?

[@belalbelal4614]

🔥🔥🔥

[@matthightower4204]

Reno, that's where I met Ken at the DMV.

[@CJ-gi1jh]

Chael will talk about ANYTHING as long as it can help him avoid the topic of Dana beating his wife.

[@HeyGuysMovies]

My favorite lying den is my bedroom.

[@jiujudo1307]

@HEY GUYS - Mine too! When your banging me in the azz! Wait, did I just insult myself?

[@woundedfox5109]

Yep. 100

[@superduty2023]

Tito tapped

[@adamirishconundrum851]

Chael would have run through the whole lion's den and never lost a round.

[@MattPowers209]

Never knew went to WCW Power plant wonder if he met Goldberg right before they rushed him through the place

[@DuplicitousDark]

wrong chael. Listen to the Lytesout podcast. The jump ins were frickin brutal. Ken Shamrock ripped your scalp and tried to pull out your skull. lol

[@Look73689]

The founders of most sports never got paid as much as the current ones which is understandable

[@Kancerru]

Uncle Chael does know the WCW Power Plant was a scam, right?

[@Dr_C_Smith]

It wasn’t always a scam… by the time Chael got there, it was a shadow of its former glory. At one time, especially towards the end of most territories, it was near the top of places to go train.

[@Kancerru]

@@Dr_C_Smith from what I've heard, it was more of a bootcamp to run people off rather than a proper developmental program. Not to mention its only success story is Goldberg. Listen to Jim Cornette's shoots about it.

[@w8ngr]

What would happen if you were shit at the training in lions den but then you get with Ken and you do pretty well surely they would count that more than the training

[@davidwaller5740]

Ken keeps and kept his circle extremely tight and wouldn’t put up with anyone who weren’t pushing themselves to the point exhaustion. Friend or not.

[@Jd-ho3zz]

Chael and Jesse on fire need to do a live stream

[@osakaix]

Why don't you condemn Dana White's actions for slapping his wife your silence is deafening.

[@kevinkelly1529]

It has to do with the payroll.

[@davidcook680]

LoL maybe he is minding his own business. People like you should try doing that. Once in awhile.

[@pootytang2872]

sometimes necessary. see Sean Connery

[@CometdownCat]

i wild each it lol that meets their naked?! Chael still checks in on the UG? Maybe he even picked up an old colleague’s handle… FUTA1 ?

[@SillyCat01]

Please visit lolas cafe in lake oswego It's local, the owner tries. I promise thet won't get close to you. Lmao. Did you know west linn liqour store carries root beer in glass for stoudamire. I know you go there, see if i am lying.

[@BombTrady]

Rough example on the tired/toughness. What if some lanky track nerd challenges a wrestler to a 10k but the wrestler could kick his a**

[@Heezydoesit167]

Trained with those guys once at the old church in Sheridan. It definitely wasn’t just “conditioning”. Those dudes beat the fuck out of me for an hour.

[@raymonparenteau6547]

Stop judging hes not a BAD GUY nobody is perfect #badboss we are all born SINNERS #saycheeseeeee lmao

[@up2me967]

This is what happens when inferiority complexes meet anabolic steroids and pitfighting...

[@ronin_11b94]

I thought the “lions den” was Jordan Petersons daughter and Andrew Tate selling steak and cigars online

[@davidwaller5740]

Lol They are engaging in a very different and necessary model of a “lions Den”

[@davidwaller5740]

@@user-zz8gc4ut6l How so?

[@DickTrickle1]

The @LytesOutPodcast has a bunch of great lions den stories. From frank shamrock,vernon white, gallindo, pete williams, delucia, bessac . Go check em out!

[@davidwaller5740]

I definitely will. Thank you

[@davidwaller5740]

Wow! Haven’t thought about Tony or Jason in a long time. Vernon white had the physical attributes to do exactly what Frank did. Wish that he wouldn’t have been thrown into Pancrase so quickly.

[@DickTrickle1]

@@davidwaller5740 you have to look through them but try and start from the first one I think it was Scott bessac. was the first lions den guy on there