Royce Gracie: Ken Shamrock’s alleged steroid use ‘made no difference’ at Bellator 149

Royce Gracie returned to action almost nine years after his last MMA fight, scoring a TKO win over longtime rival Ken Shamrock at Bellator 149. Weeks after the contest in Texas, Shamrock took another hit when his drug test came back positive for nandrolone and methadone, and also for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio.

Gracie, who improved to 15-2-3 as a mixed martial artist and 2-0-1 against Shamrock, wasn’t shocked when he found out that his rival failed another drug test. In fact, he didn’t even seem to care.

"I don’t think too much about it," Gracie told MMA Fighting. "It doesn’t make any difference. It made no difference."

In 2009, Shamrock also tested positive for steroids (norandrosterone, noretiocholanolone and stanozololin) after a win over Ross Clifton. Gracie tested positive for steroids himself after a fight with Kazushi Sakuraba in 2007.

"I don’t follow Shamrock," he said, "so I didn’t even know he was caught (for steroids) before."

On his Twitter account, Shamrock denied taking any illegal substance. Gracie poked fun at his opponent for still "complaining and making excuses" after his second loss in Bellator.

Just saw the latest circus story on me
To my fans please wait for the smoke to clear it will then be clear answer
God bless

— KEN SHAMROCK (@ShamrockKen) 22 de março de 2016

This is what I want my fans to do stop looking at the purple elephant in the room what's important is getting this fight overturned? ?????

— KEN SHAMROCK (@ShamrockKen) 22 de março de 2016

This is a good one the amount of steroids I was supposedly have had taken I still lost weight yep that's right lost 10 pounds

— KEN SHAMROCK (@ShamrockKen) 22 de março de 2016

"Shamrock was always famous for complaining and making excuses," said the Brazilian. "He was kneed in the stomach, it wasn’t a low blow. I told him after the fight, ‘if you want to complain, complain to the referee’. But when I saw the replay, it wasn’t a low blow. The second knee hit his face and he kind of went out. He was lost, and woke up when he hit the ground."

Victorious in his return to the cage, which turned out to be a huge success for Bellator and Spike TV, the jiu-jitsu expert left the door open for another MMA fight.

"I only sign one fight at a time," Gracie said. "I know that ratings were great, everybody watched the fight. It was the highest ratings for Bellator, which is good. If they call me again, I’d do it. If they don’t call me, there’s nothing I can do about it [laughs]. Some people ask me why I haven’t fought before, and that’s because nobody called me before. I came back now, and it did great numbers.

"I never called anybody out," Gracie added when asked about who he would like to fight next. "The way I see, when you’re in there, you’re being challenged. People always wanted to fight me. My father didn’t make us fighters, he made us teachers. We fight to prove that our art, Gracie jiu-jitsu, is the best."