Shamrock: No I haven’t talked to him for a while. I just don’t believe in what they’re doing unfortunately. You know, I’ve been there since the beginning and they’ve taken up a wonderful sport and made it bigger and they worked hard to start it, you know. But they erased anyone who wouldn’t support them or sign a contact with them. Basically you’re either with them or you’re against them. They took a big business approach to what I though was an art form and I don’t know…it just didn’t jive well with me.

MMAFightline: Will we ever see Frank Shamrock fight in the UFC again?

Shamrock: I can never say never because the moment I do something always happens, so I don’t know. But I don’t see it in the near future. It’s certainly not on my plans of things to do.

MMAFightline: The UFC has seen its share of PR issues in the past year. What are your thoughts about some of the problems they've been facing?

Shamrock: What comes around goes around and unfortunately when you monopolize anything eventually the cracks start to appear and the walls break down. And their running into all of those problems that all big businesses run into and all large companies that try to take control of everything. But, they’ll get through it. They’ve got a very popular brand in a very popular genre of combative arts and they have the largest market share. They’re not going anywhere. They’ll weather it, it’s like any other business.

MMAFightline: The UFC has obviously had issues with two of the best heavyweights in the world in Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianeko. Couture left because he wanted to face Fedor. Do you think this fight will happen?

Shamrock: I don’t think that’s ever going to happen…I don’t think so. I could be wrong, but I think Randy’s getting toward the end of his career and I think that the people that are representing Fedor are realizing that the talent is the most important thing. The brand and the talent are the most important things. The show’s not the most important thing. The UFC promotes their business model that the show is all important and only the UFC is important and nothing else. And that’s just not the case, people don’t follow companies they follow stars and they follow stories.

MMAFightline: How have you been able to achieve the level of success you’ve achieved to where you are still such a draw outside of the UFC? What do you attribute your success to?