Morning Report: Ken Shamrock thinks lack of consistency will hurt Brock Lesnar in his return at UFC 200

Before Brock Lesnar intermingled the worlds of the WWE and the UFC, there was Ken Shamrock.

The UFC Hall of Famer began his career as a pro wrestler, training in smaller promotions before travelling to Japan where he began competing for Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi which eventually led to legitimate fights, the creation of Pancrase, and his legendary MMA career. With Brock Lesnar's upcoming return to the octagon after a four and a half year hiatus to the WWE, Shamrock - in an interview with Marc Charles from The MMA Talk Show on Money Talk 1010 AM in Tampa, Florida - was asked his opinion on Lesnar's return to competitive mixed martial arts and how his WWE stint may affect his return. (Interview transcribed by Marc Charles.)

"I appreciate people making decisions and doing things they want to do but I think he's jumped back and forth too many times from wrestling to fighting, to wrestling to fighting. I mean this is his third time around I believe. I think it's going to hurt him, it's going to mess up his... you've got to have consistency.

"When you're a professional athlete, you have to do something for a period of time. So if he continues to keep going - oh he did wrestling first and then he did MMA and then he goes back to wrestling and now he's back to MMA again - I don't think he's really stabilized himself or set an example for himself in MMA. I mean he was there a short time, then he was gone. I mean he's really done more in pro wrestling than he has done in anything else."

Shamrock knows a thing or two about jumping between the two sports. He won the first ever UFC Superfight championship in 1995 at UFC 6, submitting Dan Severn with a guillotine choke (after fighting to a draw with Royce Gracie at UFC 5 for what was intended to be the inaugural championship). Shamrock defended his championship twice before losing it in a rematch to Severn in 1996. Shortly after that, Shamrock made the jump to the WWE (then known as the WWF) where he became an Intercontinental champion, and a tag team champion. After a three-year stint with the WWE, he returned to MMA in 2000 to compete for Pride FC and the UFC, even challenging Tito Ortiz for the UFC light heavyweight championship in 2002 but never reaching the heights of his first MMA run.

As for how Lesnar will perform re-entering the UFC after his such a long break, Shamrock is skeptical of the return.

"Well he should have put a little more work into his ground game with his submissions, defensive submissions, and definitely his striking. His striking is horrible. So I think he needed to pay a little bit more attention if he's gonna come back. He needs to take some time and really focus on that and not just jump back into it because he's a great wrestler because that's just not going to get it for him in these days."

Shamrock also knows a bit about the difficulty of returning to an MMA game that has passed you by. Shamrock's excursion to the WWE was only for three years, but in that time the landscape of MMA changed dramatically and his limited game could no longer compete. Before his departure Shamrock amassed a record of 23-5-2; Shamrock's record upon his return is 5-12.

Lesnar has been gone for almost five years but the heavyweight division remains remarkably similar to where it was when Lesnar retired. At the time, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, Cain Velasquez, and Junior dos Santos were the top four heavyweights with Lesnar rounding out the top five. Now those same four remain in the top five and Lesnar has been replaced by current champion Stipe Miocic.

Despite their similar career trajectories, Shamrock doesn't see many similarities between himself and Lesnar. He believes that he is an MMA "purist" whereas Lesnar is merely "a guy that's big, strong, and wrestles very well." Perhaps those differences mean Lesnar will fair better in his return than Shamrock but Shamrock doesn't appear too keen on Lesnar's chances.

"I think [the UFC and the WWE] are both gonna get something out of it, I'm just not sure it's gonna be good for him. I hope it is. I really hope he wins because I'd hate to see him lose, even though I like Mark Hunt, but I'd hate to see him lose after having to come back and it doesn't work out for him. I think it's gonna hurt him more than it would Mark."

Brock Lesnar fights Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200 on July 9th in Las Vegas, Nev.

You can listen to the rest of the interview below where Shamrock calls the Brock-USADA exemption "very political," talks about his beef with Dan Severn, and the UFC 199 media situation.

5 MUST-READ STORIES

Fool me 37 times... Fedor Emelianenko says he is closer than ever to signing with the UFC.

Hendo or bust. Michael Bisping wants Dan Henderson rematch or Georges St. Pierre superfight.

Maybe being the same is the problem. Miesha Tate believes Ronda Rousey won't be the same if she ever returns to the UFC.

Morning weigh-in. The UFC is adopting the early weigh-in procedure for this weekend's event.

Serious gym. Ilya Grad thinks Sage Northcutt needs to stop training with his father and go to a "serious gym" after sparring session wit the prospect.

EXTRA CREDIT READING

High stakes. Eric Stinton of Sherdog.com discusses the high stakes around this weekend's main event.

MEDIA STEW

Getting a lot of free fights today, including arguably the greatest heavyweight tilt of all time.

And one of the greatest upsets of all time.

And the specious decision that got Eddie Alvarez his title shot.

GSP talking about Rory.

Luke just wants to teach you things and this week he has great help.

Kind sentiments from the champ.

Cool video. Too bad Ireland took over the scoring for Sweden as well.

Here is that rallying cry from @thenotoriousMMA to Ireland ahead of the start of #euro2016. We are here to take overhttps://t.co/wvOs5K8O4s

— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) June 13, 2016

LISTEN UP

Cheap Seats covering the upcoming weekend and our favorite future fight: Bisping vs Hendo.

Ray Thompson joins Anik and Florian

Knuckle up.

TWEETS

Get hype.

Fiiiiiiiight weeeeeek!!!! MacDonald vs Thompson and Cerrone vs Cote this Saturday LIVE and FREE on @FS1!!!pic.twitter.com/QthNYb7W1U

— Dana White (@danawhite) June 13, 2016

Well rounded he is Joe.

Just got through painting this Turtle pic.twitter.com/l5DQAc6P8W

— Sage Northcutt (@sagenorthcutt) June 12, 2016

So apparently Miesha Tate was in some position of honor at a race this past weekend.

Was an absolute honor!! https://t.co/YYjVwccZHs

— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) June 12, 2016

That has to feel incredibly cool.

Wow! Middle of Times Square. @Ufc 200 #brockisback

A video posted by Daniel "DC" Cormier (@dc_mma) on Jun 13, 2016 at 3:19pm PDT

Anderson kicking pads in a training mask.

Não é fácil já deu vontade de desistir, mas vale muito mais a pena continuar galera.As pessoas são irracionais, ilógicas e egocêntricas.
Ame-as MESMO ASSIM. 
Se você tem sucesso em suas realizações,
ganhará falsos amigos e verdadeiros inimigos.
Tenha sucesso MESMO ASSIM. 
O bem que você faz será esquecido amanhã.
Faça o bem MESMO ASSIM. 
A honestidade e a franqueza o tornam vulnerável.
Seja honesto MESMO ASSIM. 
Aquilo que você levou anos para construir,
pode ser destruído de um dia para o outro.
Construa MESMO ASSIM. (Kent M. Keith)

A video posted by Anderson Silva (@spiderandersonsilva) on Jun 12, 2016 at 6:42pm PDT

Conor training with Dillon Danis, accomplished world champion grappler.

what you gonna do.

A photo posted by @dillondanis on Jun 13, 2016 at 9:52am PDT

And he's British so that rec should probably come with extra credence. Plus Cub's logo is dope.

I was with @cubswanson last week and he gave me this. A bottle of his own branded beer. Killer Cub. A 10% brown ale. I just drank it. I have to say it was delicious. If you see this around give it a try. You won't be disappointed. Thanks Cub!

A photo posted by Mikebisping (@mikebisping) on Jun 13, 2016 at 9:15pm PDT

Honestly I'm kind of surprised anyone is allowed to walk with any flag other than a Reebok one.

I was not allowed to walk out with my Assyrian/American flag because of the new UFC policy which only allows countries currently recognized. Even though I was very disappointed with the new ruling, the UFC staff told me that they would review the Assyrian flag and let me know if I would be allowed to use it next time. I was grateful I was able to take this picture after my fight. #assyrian #american #ALLGLORYTOGOD

A photo posted by Beneil Dariush (@beneildariush) on Jun 10, 2016 at 1:33pm PDT

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Alex Reid (10-9-1) vs. Manuel Garcia (27-19-0); Bellator 158, July 16.

If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Until tomorrow M-Rmy, be easy.