Calling all the young MMA fighters out there, Frank Shamrock is looking for the next star to rise up in his open tryouts. Here’s a great article written by John Morgan of MMAJunkie.com–
With Frank Shamrock’s April 11 bout with Nick Diaz just over a month away, the MMA legend is busy preparing to bring his always-entertaining brand of MMA to the Strikeforce cage.
But ever the enterprising businessman, Shamrock will first be looking to cast a crew of deserving fighters into a new reality show project.
Shamrock recently told TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), the March 21 Team Shamrock tryouts will provide a chance for a group of young fighters to become overnight stars.
“March 21 we’ve got a massive tryout coming up,” Shamrock said. “We’ve got guys coming in from all over the world. We’re also filming it and producing a reality show in conjunction with it.”
Shamrock said the winner of the tryouts, being held at the San Jose Athletic Club in San Jose, Calif., will get a chance to train with the former UFC and Strikeforce champion and be the subject of a new reality show.
“The winner of [the tryout] gets an opportunity to become a superstar through Strikeforce and our distribution partner,” Shamrock said. “With the opportunities with Strikeforce, and with the new opportunities in the industry, it’s a big opportunity for a young star to become a superstar literally overnight.”
While the number of MMA-based reality show projects has grown immensely in the wake of the success of the UFC and Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter,” Shamrock says he hopes to create a new product that will stand out in the marketplace.
“There’s a flood in the marketplace of MMA,” Shamrock said. “The problem with it is that it’s all about fighting. I think people are missing the point. It’s not about fighting. It’s about the people and the extraordinary lifestyle and the things that happen around that.”
Shamrock said his new project will focus on the lives of the competitors that are working to succeed in MMA, not the alcohol-fueled antics of alpha-males locked in a house.
“You can’t just show up and have fights,” Shamrock said. “Fights don’t mean anything. You can’t lock eight guys in a house and have it mean something. It’s been done. It’s boring.
“I’ve got a guy that sleeps in the park across the street because he doesn’t have a place to live. But he gets up every day and comes over and does cardio, and then he shows up for 12:00 training. That dude is an extraordinary dude, because he believes it. It was raining for the last two weeks, but he was sleeping out in the park with a trash bag over his head. But he didn’t miss a day of training. That, to me, is extraordinary.
“What’s out there, at least as I’ve seen, is not extraordinary. It’s the same old, ‘Guys beating each other up for no reason.'”
Shamrock said he also hopes to help guide the growth of the show’s subjects through the sometimes-cutthroat business side of MMA.
“We’re looking to take on guys and guide them professionally because there’s a huge lack of professional guidance in the industry,” Shamrock said. “And we’re looking for eight guys to really become our talent and to follow them around as they go through this journey.
“But we’re not going to lock people in a house or do anything weird. We want them to go on their journey. And if they end up in Strikeforce, on Showtime, God bless them. If they end up in jail, we’re going to go visit them. I think truth is more powerful than anything we can make up. But right now the truth is people are really hungry for this sport and willing to do extraordinary things to be successful.”
Shamrock said the show’s subjects will also have a chance to appear on a future Strikeforce card. But there will be no guarantees, just opportunities for those willing to put in the necessary work.
“We’re going to follow these guys around and film their journey,” Shamrock said. “I have a feeling a couple of them are going to end up in a show somewhere. We’re going to pick that guy that we think has it, and he’s going to have a chance of a lifetime. Whether he makes it or not will be up to him.”
The tryouts are open to the public, and interested participants can learn more by visiting Shamrock’s official website.
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NO THANKS, I'M NOT INTERESTED.