I wish I was kidding:
“I was supposed to fight Ken Shamrock December 20, but it’s been postponed to February now,” said Sylvia. “He’s a free agent. I was supposed to fight him in a small show called XP3 Promotions. I believe in Texas, but it’s postponed to February now.”
Cox echoed Sylvia’s position that a bout with the 44-year-old Shamrock was in the works.
However, Melissa Ingram, director of media relations for Ken Shamrock Entertainment Inc., was hesitant to describe the fight as being in “preliminary negotiations.”
Shamrock’s manager Ron Donohoo told Sherdog.com on Monday that the bout was not under consideration.
“Our organization was approached some time ago about the prospect of Ken fighting Sylvia, but it was rejected,” Donohoo wrote in an email.
Donohoo did not disclose the reason the fight was declined. XP3 Promotions, which has a Feb. 7 event scheduled at the Reliant Arena in Houston according to its Web site, was not immediately available for comment.
Despite the opposing sides, Sylvia expects to see much action in the coming months, including a fight with Shamrock.
“I love to fight and a fight’s a fight,” said Sylvia. “He’s a Hall of Famer. He’s a legend. To progress your career you always have to fight somebody like that.
“I don’t know if he’s a stepping stone or anything, but he’s been on some of the same cards I’ve been on and he’s been highlighted over me, so I want to let people that I am better than this guy and there’s no reason he should have been highlighted over me.”
Let me be unequivocally clear: any athletic commission that approves this fight should be hung by their heels with piano wire in the nearest town square and spat upon by citizens strolling by. Then fired. Then banned from ever holding a position on any athletic commission ever again in their life. Then spat on again.
I know there's a defense to be made for cashing in on star power after a fighter is long past their peak and I do not equate this to Couture vs. Liddell IV (that fight and this one are surely universes apart), but there is an obvious tipping point where age and star power can get fighters seriously, seriously hurt. Unbelievable.
