MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock recently appeared on MMA Fighting’s “The MMA Hour” where he detailed his struggles with alcoholism, saying that the sale of Strikeforce to Zuffa in 2011, combined with his genetics, left him “golfing and drinking all day.”

Shamrock was promoting his new autobiography, “Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter.”

“I can’t pin my drinking issues on the sale of Strikeforce,” Shamrock said. “It’s a genetic disease I’ve been fighting my whole life. But that was certainly the pinnacle of coming to the realization I shouldn’t be out drinking. I think it’s because I fought so hard, and we had fought so hard against the unbeatable adversary, the UFC.

“I had so much personally invested in the vision or the dream or the chance of Strikeforce. It was my whole life. I didn’t have another life. That’s all that I did. This whole experience and journey saved my life. It was a dark day. It was honestly a dark day when it was sold.”

In spite of the role Shamrock said the Strikeforce sale played in compounding his alcoholism, he says he’s fought the disease for a long while.

“I always thought that the barrier of me not being an alcoholic or having problems was not wrecking a car, killing somebody or drunk driving. I thought if you weren’t doing that, you were just fine. It turns out, I had a problem for years.”

Shamrock said he’s had a hard time dealing with the Strikeforce sale… Continue reading on page 2.

…”The intention was right. The sport came together to create Strikeforce. Scott [Coker] provided the opportunity, and I had a few years left to throw in the cage. But it will never happen again. That moment is gone. I think that’s the toughest thing for me to accept, that the moment is gone.”

Shamrock is the brother of fellow MMA legend Ken Shamrock. He was the first ever UFC Light Heavyweight Champion (the title was then known as the UFC Middleweight Championship). At Strikeforce, Shamrock was a fighter and on-air personality, who also played a large role behind the scenes in successfully developing the company.

Shamrock has long had a rocky relationship with the UFC and UFC President Dana White. He last fought in the UFC in 1999 at UFC 22, where he submitted Tito Ortiz. Shamrock said the Strikeforce of today is not what the promotion used to be.

“Strikeforce is alive. It has a great soul but they’ve been picking the soul out of it and taking the talent out if it, and now it’s a shell,” he said. “It could definitely be rebuilt. Strikeforce was amazing. The idea of it still has value but the way it’s being treated, they’re plucking all the value out of it.”

Shamrock said he is working on his sobriety and still “absolutely loves” MMA. Struggles aside, he says his life is still a success story and dream come true.

“I used to live on the streets. I ended up in a prison. I’ve had the worst life you could ever imagine, and now I’m living the best life you could ever imagine. I mean, I rarely leave my house unless a limo pulls up. The world I live in is vastly different than what other people are living in. It’s a dream.”

Read more: UFC (News), Strikeforce (News), Frank Shamrock (News)

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