While Bellator 145 was being broadcast, Scott Coker came on stage to say that its’ following tentpole event, earmarked for Houston on February 19, will feature a rubber match between MMA superstars Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie.
Gracie and Shamrock were the posterboys of MMA during the nineties, when they became two of the sport’s first mainstream stars. Gracie emerged victorious three times, during the first four years of UFC contests, and had the record for the longest unbeaten run for a while. Similarly, Shamrock made his mark in early UFC tournaments, and also established himself as a top fighter in Japanese Pancrase events.
To date, they have fought two UFC bouts against each other. Their first bout was in UFC 1, when Gracie claimed a submission victory in under a minute, with a rear chokehold. Then, they faced each other again a year and a half later, in the Superfight UFC Championship. That f
