The Camps : The Lions Den

The Lions Den was the first true modern MMA camp, they were also the most succesful camp in the early days. The Lions Den was made by Ken Shamrock as a way to find good sparring partners and making himself a better martial artist. Guy Mezger and Vernon White were 2 of the first to join.

The Lions Den was known for having crazy work outs that you had to go through in order to join the camp. Here is a copy of the Lions Den workout. 500 squats, 200 push ups ,200 sit ups, Sprints while carrying a man of near equal weight on their back, 2-mile (3.2 km) run with a man of equal weight on your back ,Repeated runs up and down bleacher steps,
Bear-crawls up steep hills, Lugging heavy barrels of water and sand bags up steep hills ,The candidates who were still left at this point would then go on to do as many pull-ups as they can without stopping. Candidates then went to the actual Lion's Den facility for several hours of sparring. If you made it through this Shamrock would get you a place to live if you needed one and take care of your meals.

The Lions Den would go on to produce 10 MMA Champions, among them being Ken Shamrock (UFC SuperFight/Heavyweight Champ), Frakn Shamrock (UFC Middleweight/Light Heavyweight Champ), Guy Mezger (King of Pancrase and UFC 13 Winner), Jerry Bohlander (UFC 12 Champ), and Oleg Taktarov (UFC 6 Champ).Vernon White (KOTC Middleweight Champ and IFL Heavyweight CHamp.)

Frank Shamrock joined the Lions Den at the urging of Bob Shamrock who wanted Frank to get into MMA like his older brother Ken. Fighters such as Oleg Taktarov and Maurice Smith trained with the Lions Den prior to the biggest victories of their careers. Jerry Bohlander, Pete Williams, Tra Telligman, and Mikey Burnett were the last of the original Lions Den to go through the original training. Fighters like Joe Hurley joined later when the try outs were criticized and changed.

Lions Den Fighters combined won 3 UFC tournaments, 5 UFC Titles or Medals, and 2 Lions Den fighters won TUF competitions (Roy Nelson and Travis Lutter).

I will know rank the 5 top Lions Den Fighters of all tie, Oleg Taktarov and Maurice Smith are being excluded since they left the Den after achieving huge wins.

5. Mikey Burnett - one of the pound for pound top fighters under 200 pounds in his heyday, took Pat Miletich to the limit and got a total bullshit decision loss in the biggest fight of his career for the UFC Lightweight (know welter) title. Had very good stand up, mixed with good wrestling base, strong in the clinch, and well versed on the ground.

4. Jerry Bohlander - Won the UFC 12 Lightweight tournament in under 3 minutes. He completely dominated the tournament and solidified himself as one of the best under 200 fighters in the world. Huge wins over Kevin Jackson, Scott Ferrozzo, and Fabio Gurgel. Also had a close loss to Murilo Bustamante. A great wrestler with good submissions, retired and became a sherriff after 9-11. Biggest win was over Gurgel but choking out 330 pounder Scott Ferrozzo was impressive as hell.

3. Guy Mezger - One of the best Light Heavyweights ever, won UFC 13 tournament with a big win over Tito Ortiz. As well as wins over Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt, and Masakatsu Funaki. Went to war with Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, and had a draw with Kazushi Sakuraba. One of the best of his era, a graet kick boxer, who was versed on the ground in submissions.

2. Frank Shamrock - The first UFC Middleweight Champ (know Light Heavy) and defended his title 5 times. Some say he is the first true mixed martial artist. His biggest victory was his pimp smacking of Tito Ortiz. Destroyed Kevin Jackson and Igor Zinoviev two extremely legit fighters.

1. Ken Shamrock - First UFC SuperFight CHamp, one of the best submission fighters of early MMA. King of Pancrase as well. The first man to be the Pancrase and UFC champ. Wins over Bas Rutten, Funaki, Severn, and Taktarov prove he was the man in MMA in 1996.

Honorable mention Pete Williams, Joe Hurley, Vernon White, and Tra Telligman.

those workouts are fucking insane. i would be dead lol.

actually i would be crying for momma after that workout lol.

ya those workouts were nuts, they came under fire by all the non MMA guys of the times so they had to tweak them some but they still have nutty workouts, Ken only wanted the best, no slackers in that group

I remember when Mark Coleman came and worked with the Lions Den before UFC 19, they completely tore down his ego and he admitted it, he was humbled when he saw how hard these guy s were working, it wasnt just lifting weights, these guys were fit as it gets

ill tell you what man for as much shit as you get for loving these guys they are some tough mfers. i still remember ken in wwf lol.

hahah they really were, ya people can give Ken shit all they want but him going to WWF and then going back to MMA helped MMA ten fold

Birdofthad wrote:

hahah they really were, ya people can give Ken shit all they want but him going to WWF and then going back to MMA helped MMA ten fold

hell ya it did thats what brought me to get a UFC VHS when i was a kid cause i wanted to see what he was like when it was REAL. i dont remember who he fought but i do remember him being on top the whole time so that turned me off from mma when i was a kid cause i had no clue what was going on then. i do remember a small black guy fighting some big sumo guy in the video and he did some karate kick to the big guys nose and it split wide open and they called the fight after that.

hahahah ya your thinking of Shamrock vs Gracie, hard on the eyes yes but watching it live as a kid knowing waht Ken was up against it was exciting.

Ken layed in the Gracie guard (which no one until Ken survived) for 36 minutes, busting Royce up and making him leave UFC for over 10 years

UFC would have folded if Ken vs Tito had not have happened thats a fact

put up a link to the fight if you can.

which on josh ?

ive seen the one where royce makes him tap by rnc i believe.

josh200612 wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

hahah they really were, ya people can give Ken shit all they want but him going to WWF and then going back to MMA helped MMA ten fold

hell ya it did thats what brought me to get a UFC VHS when i was a kid cause i wanted to see what he was like when it was REAL. i dont remember who he fought but i do remember him being on top the whole time so that turned me off from mma when i was a kid cause i had no clue what was going on then. i do remember a small black guy fighting some big sumo guy in the video and he did some karate kick to the big guys nose and it split wide open and they called the fight after that.

Lol. This exact same thing happened to me.

Royce got Kens side and choked him with the gi in the original UFC Ken gave up position going for an ankle and alter said he didnt think anyone else knew submission in the tournament, his mistake

the UFC 5 match had Ken and Royce go 30 minutes but like dumasses they had no judges, they decide the fight will go 5 more minutes, they didnt stop it when five minutes was up and about 30 seconds into the 6 minute overtime the fight was stopped.

It is the only UFC match to be the same time of a boxing tutle match 36 minutes.

Every fighter that fought on the UFC 5 card that night came out and congratulated Ken and picked him up and stuff, it was technically a draw but everyone knew Ken won.
Gracie had a fractured eye socket and his family was so pissed with the handling and how the bout played out that they were gone from the UFC till the Hughes bout.

Little unknow fact, to warm up for Royce Gracie Ken fought Bas Rutten 2 months before fighting Royce, Ken became the number 1 fighter in MMA in 1995 by beating Royce and didnt lose that claim till Severn fight and effectively till he went to WWF

http://noolmusic.com/myspace_videos/ufc_5_ken_shamrock_vs_royce_gracie.php

so is there still a lions den?
I know mikeys gym in tulsa is not a LD anymore and Roy nelson trains on his own

Their training style and intensity was dominate....kinda saw when that trainig was passed it prime in Ult fighter when ken coached, member lot of his guys didnt really accept it an showed how they got dominated.

Cu Bua wrote:

so is there still a lions den?
I know mikeys gym in tulsa is not a LD anymore and Roy nelson trains on his own

yep theyve actually expanded theres still Lions Den Dallas but it has also merged into Guy Mezgers full combat training (Mezger ran the Dallas Den which was the most succesful one, Pete WIlliams, Guy, Mikey, Jerry, Oleg, Alex Andrade, and Tra Telligman)

there is also know a Lions Den Conneticut, Lions Den Arizona (which Ben Askren from Bellator is a part of), Lions Den California, and Lions Den Las vegas

ya people try to take watching a reality show like TUF and say Ken wasnt a good coach, he told em what to do and if they didnt do it why the fuck should he care what happened to their dub asses