Dan Severn Talks Ken Shamrock Fight Cancellation, Tank Abbott Replacing Him, Being New And Improved
Former UFC and NWA Champion Dan Severn recently spoke to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast. You can see the full interview at this link, and the highlights courtesy of John and Chad below.
The recent Ken "Sham"rock fight cancellation fiasco still bothering him:
"Let's just say that I'm not going to let this new improved Dan Severn go to waste. I will be doing something and I told myself hopefully in the next 30-45 days I'll have a basic game plan of what I want to do and if it fits within in the time table I will be letting Ken know that I am still available to him. He's going to have to convince me that he's worth waiting for and at this point I gave up five months of my life and I trained and I dedicated myself just to have him just belly-up, roll-over and bow out? Not acceptable whatsoever."
The "new and improved" Dan Severn:
"I would say that a lot of people don't really realize that although I've had a long career of Mixed Martial Arts and in doing that same career I've only had three training camps, period. You find another MMA fighter who can make that bold of a statement and then have the success ratio that I've had on top of that? That's unheard of. When I say "new and improved" it is the sheer fact that I knew about an opponent for almost five months. I was contacted by this UR Network company back in November of 2015 and as soon as I was made aware I already started to implement a training program, it was slowly because I am not as young as I once was but I was implementing my training. I increased it more and more as I was feeling capable of taking on more and more. "New and improved" to me just means that I added a few other things to my arsenal that I think will be surprising to most. Which I don't wish to divulge at this point just in case this fight does come to fruition."
Tank Abbott being named as a replacement for "Sham" and that not being what he wanted:
"Well he was not on my list. I've been involved in two different industries. My first profession was the wacky world of professional rasslin' and in 1994 I jumped into the world of cage fighting so when I retired from Mixed Martial Arts I retired with a clause and I simply said that I would seriously consider coming back out of retirement for one of three people and in order: Mark Coleman, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie. I had no other axe to grind with anybody else just those three people and Mark Coleman is now off the hook.:
"I did Tank already. I did not want another Tank match but I was willing to accept that match because he fit the format of this three-ring circus that was taking place, this freak show of a show. I don't mean that in a bad way, I never did a show like this. It was the sheer fact that there were four main events taking place a submission match, a boxing match, a professional wrestling match and this Mixed Martial Arts match. No other card has ever been attempted like that so I felt that Tank Abbot kind of fit the freak show mold."