PART 2
With the mention of Renzo, we can branch off into two of his opponents.
Frank Shamrock. Easily the more accomplished yet less famous of the two Shamrock brothers. Frank fought everyone everywhere. He beat up a lot of the Japanese people in the Pancrase circuit in what is easily considered the toughest bitch-slaps to ever land in a fighting competition. He came over to the UFC and was nothing but extraordinary. His ability to stand and trade was wonderful against Phil Baroni. It was beautiful to watch him as he imitated Babe Ruth’s pointing out where the next home run was heading, Frank mimed putting Baroni to sleep and seconds later he did just that. He submitted Olympic Wrestler Kevin Jackson, almost killed Igor Zinoviev with a slam, a slam that I believe retired Zinoviev and he showed all the heart a human being can show when he elbow dropped and punched Tito Ortiz out. But Frank did get ruined by John Lober in their first fight. A fight he avenged with reckless abandon, so we can scratch that loss.
However there is no excuse when he got taught a stand up lesson by Cung Le, and he did get completely outclassed on the mat by Renzo Gracie. Throw Nick Diaz in there, and you can decide that he either fought longer than he should have, or sold his fights better than he should have. I can’t put him down as the best ever as he was so well rounded he should have figured out some kind of offense against against Nick Diaz as he was never able to mobilize any. He should have grounded Cung Le, and he should have been able to do something other than cheat his way out of the Renzo fight. Is Frank Shamrock great. Indeed he is. But when he hit an immovable wall, he moved instead of breaking it down. I think a prime Frank would do well against most fighters, but he was merely good at everything not really the best at anything.
So the quest to find the greatest continues. And with it comes someone often forgotten yet easily one of the best fighters of all time.
I think it’s a crime that Pat Miletich isn’t mentioned more often. He has never been outclassed in any fight when he was healthy. It wasn’t until his body was worn out from years and years of hard fighting that people started to really catch him. He was tough to the point where he ended careers. He would just suck the life out of people, make them reevaluate if this is what they should be doing with their lives. His fight against Carlos Newton was amazing to the point of jaw dropping with a surprise ending that could not have been scripted. Pat in his heyday could out strike anyone and out wrestle them.If you did get him down, you had a very small window of opportunity in submitting him.
Your best chance at beating him was catching him in a submission during a scramble of trying to get away from him (Netwon). Outside of that you were dead. I can’t think of one time he was outclassed anywhere, on the ground, on the feet, anywhere. Using ring generalship to corner people, drag them into battles they didn’t want to be in and simply break people. His cardio was never a problem, his mental toughness was never a problem, only the limits of the human body were his problem. In terms of tough, Pat Miletich is the stuff that tough kids are made of. And if there is anyone I would like to have a drink with, just to hear the stories from, it’d be a tie between Pat Miletich and Bas Rutten.
I would like to say Bas Rutten since he is probably funnier but I know him through the grapevine already so I’m opting for Pat. Strangely the largest downfall of Pat Miletich, other than being plagued by neck injuries is the simple fact that he was such a darn good trainer and coach. Had he not been so good at training other fighters we would have seen much more of Pat than we got to.When the UFC started getting popular and garnered more fans it just so happened to be around the same time Pat lost to Carlos Newton. Then Matt Hughes got tangled up in the story of “pupil avenges his master” and he slammed Newton through the floor in a desperation move to win the title back for Team Miletich. That slam right there one could argue almost sealed Pat’s fate as a fighter and shuffled him into being a trainer/coach more than anything. After that all the attention went towards Hughes and his rematch with Carlos Netwon, not Pat and his fights. Had Hughes lost, Pat would have been able to jump back in the mix, but with his student being the champ there really wasn’t fights he could take as all roads would end with those two fighting.
Then Horn started to fight 37 times a year, Robbie Lawler came around and everyone wanted to see him, Tim Sylvia knocked Ricco Rodriugez into a career that has yet to recover and Drew McFrederies and Tony Frykland although not as good, entertained. Sure, not all of these guys are of the longest greatest fighters, but the rigors of training and sparring with these guys daily, cornering them, mentoring them, owning an operating a business take up a lot of time. I’d have to say that his being so good at all the things I just mentioned ended his fighting career more than any actual fight. When his neck started to go, Pat was itching to box, even professional boxers such as Tarvers knew not to trade hands with him As there was nothing in it for them, they win who cares and they could possibly lose and shoot their own career away When boxer’s refuse to box with you, that’s shows how tough you are! I’d like to think that a prime Pat Miletich could hang with anyone from the past or present in the Welterweight division, and even the middleweight division.
