Joe Rogan honors former UFC light heavyweight champion as first fighter with full MMA skillset: "He could do everything"

Joe Rogan pointedly shouted out a pioneer in the sport and history-making UFC champion as a person who had the first complete MMA skillset. This was mentioned on a recent podcast episode that Rogan did when speaking to a present-day titleholder within the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

On the JRE MMA Show episode 162, the titular figure was speaking with the current UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad. Initially talking about former UFC heavyweight champion Maurice Smith avidly swimming as part of his training, Rogan said:

"Maurice Smith was training with Frank Shamrock when Frank Shamrock was just a cardio machine. I think Frank Shamrock was the first guy in the UFC that had like a full complete arsenal of MMA weapons."

Rogan added:

"He could stand, he could take guys down, he could strangle you, he could armbar you, he could do everything. He could submit you off his back and Frank was just a cardio machine. When Maurice went from kickboxing and got into MMA, he was doing a lot of training with Frank."

Check out Joe Rogan discussing Frank Shamrock's fighting pedigree (starting from 17:23):

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Joe Rogan getting to see Frank Shamrock's UFC run

Joe Rogan was fairly early on in his UFC broadcasting endeavours when Frank Shamrock had has relatively short but undeniably influential UFC tenure. 'The Legend' had the notable distinction of having all of his bouts inside the octagon take place as championship fights.

The 51-year-old already had over 20 pro-MMA fights before debuting in the UFC and had held the interim Pancrase openweight championship. Shamrock also bested eventual UFC heavyweight champion Bas Rutten and contended for the lineal Pancrase openweight title as well.

Shamrock's UFC debut came at UFC 15.5 when he cemented himself as the inaugural UFC light heavyweight champion. He did this by submitting Kevin Jackson via armbar in sixteen seconds to capture gold in Japan. Shamrock would then defend his gold with three successive first-round finishes thereafter.

The California native defeated Igor Zinoviev, Jeremy Horn, and John Lober by way of slam, kneebar, and punches, respectively. Shamrock had a brief foray outside of the octagon fighting to a draw against Kiyoshi Tamura in Rings before returning for his final UFC fight.

He would have his octagon farewell by finishing Tito Ortiz in the fourth round of their UFC 22 bout to defend his light heavyweight belt for the fourth and final time. Shamrock would compete in MMA thereafter for promotions like K-1, WEC, Strikeforce, and Elite XC but never stepped into the UFC cage again.