Exclusive: Ken Shamrock on the success of Valor Bare Knuckle, his work ethic, IMPACT Wrestling & more

Known for decades as "The World's Most Dangerous Man," Ken Shamrock is in rare company as a multi-sport champion and Hall Of Famer. Ken Shamrock has also found success over the years as an actor, author, and entrepreneur.

These days, Ken Shamrock not only stays active as a performer for IMPACT Wrestling but also as the owner and operator of Valor Bare Knuckle, Inc. A well-organized bare-knuckle promotion company, Valor BK is comparable to UFC, WWE or any major promotion that hosts combat sports live events. Yet Valor BK’s fights are different, edgier, and packed full of exhilarating bare-knuckle fights.

Always known to give back to those in need, Ken Shamrock is also the founder of Lion’s Den Ministries. It is a non-profit organization that has served as a mouthpiece to troubled youth and young adults. Ken Shamrock is widely viewed as a mentor, coach, and even a father-figure to many MMA competitors.

On June 5, 2020, I had the pleasure of speaking to Ken Shamrock by phone. Audio from the interview is embedded below, while part of the chat has been exclusively transcribed for Sportskeeda. More on Ken Shamrock can be found online at www.kenshamrock.com and www.impactwrestling.com.

On being a Hall Of Famer yet someone whose greatest days aren't necessary behind him:

Ken Shamrock: I never really thought about that, but obviously when I was going into the UFC or professional wrestling, your first thought when doing something is that you want to be the best. You want people to always remember you by the things that you do. That was kind of my motivation in everything I did...

I didn't want to fail at anything... I think me physically as a person, as a character, I don't want to be less. I want to make sure that I do everything as best as I can and be better all the time no matter what it's in.

On the current status of Valor Bare Knuckle:

Ken Shamrock: When we did our first show, it was a huge success. But when I talk about commitment and wanting to be the best, it goes into the same thing. When we went to put on our second show, we didn't have the best. There were things that were coming up that were stopping us from doing what we needed to do. We could've went ahead and just put the show on, and just gone with the way that things are set up.

But because of the commitment that I have and that the Valor team has, we didn't want to put something out that we felt wasn't going to be Valor Bare Knuckle, so we ended up having to cancel that show. That [planned show] wasn't what we thought would be better than before.

So now we're building a platform, we're building systems, we're putting all the things in place to be able to grow as a company. I think so many people try to push things out because they're afraid of what people might say, what might happen, so they put out something just to put something out just to say they did it. That's not us, that's not me.

We are going to put out what we believe is going to be the best product, the best thing that we can do. So if that doesn't happen, we are going to make changes to make sure it happens, and that's where we're at right now. We're building our company. We're putting all the pieces in place so we don't run into any issues further down the road...

So when we relaunch, expect to see a lot of changes, expect to see a lot of different angles and opportunities that you'll have with Valor because we see the future. We see what's going to happen.

On how he likes to be regarded, given all his different jobs and titles:

Ken Shamrock: I think that it's hard as an individual to kind of characterize who you are. We see ourselves differently as most people see us. It's kind of difficult, right? But for me, if I'm looking at somebody, and the things that you wanted to be remembered as is that when people actually look at me in the UFC or in professional wrestling, was that they look at a guy that gave everything. That went out there and performed at his highest level...

We're still human, we're still the same kind of people that they are. We bleed red, we breathe the same air, we eat the same foods, we make the same mistakes. As long as we can all look at that and have some expectations of who we want to be and how we want to be remembered, that's what it would be. I tried to give it all and tried to be a good person. But at the very same time, I wanted to be the best.