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The Lion's Den

Est.	N/A
Founded by	Ken Shamrock
Primary trainers	Ken Shamrock Guy Mezger
Past titleholders	Ken Shamrock 1st King of Pancrase (Pancrase 1994); Superfight Champion (UFC) Guy Mezger 7th King of Pancrase (Pancrase 1998)
Prominent Fighters	Travis Lutter (UFC) Jerry Bohlander
Training Facility Locations	Reno, Nevada Dallas, Texas
Official Website	Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den Lion's Den Dallas

The Lion's Den is a mixed martial arts team and training facility that was based out of Susanville, California but has recently moved its headquarters to Reno, Nevada. The team was founded in the early 1990s by UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, and featured such fighters as Mikey Burnett, Vernon White, Jerry Bohlander, Tra Telligman, Pete Williams and Guy Mezger. The Lion's Den now has a clothing line run by Ken Shamrock.

The team was founded out of necessity, as the then-new sport of mixed martial arts began to take off in the early 1990s. Shamrock, who had fought at UFC 1, had trouble finding adequate sparring partners to prepare for fights. Shamrock attracted the attention of American Pancrase fighters Vernon White and Guy Mezger early on, and formed the first ever mixed martial arts team.

The Lion's Den is known for its brutal try-outs because once accepted into the Den the members would live in Ken's home having their dinner provided by Shamrock. Ken needed to make sure only the best got through. The try out consisted of the following:
500 squats
250 push ups
250 sit ups
50 yard run carrying a man of near equal weight on their back
Repeated runs up and down bleacher steps
Bear-crawls up steep hills, lugging heavy barrels of water and sand bags up steep hills

The candidates who were still left at this point would then go on to do as many pull-ups as they can without stopping. From there, the candidates went to the actual Lion's Den facility for several hours of sparring. Shamrock wanted fighters that could get through this ordeal without quitting, even after their body had failed on them. It was at this point, when the candidate was still trying even long after their muscles had failed, that Shamrock knew he had a Lion's Den member on his hands.

Although not initially trained by Shamrock, the Den took in and taught additional skills to Oleg Taktarov and Maurice Smith, amongst others.

Shamrock, Bohlander, and Mezger have all engaged in MMA feuds with Tito Ortiz. Ortiz emerged victorious through his competition with the Lion's Den, defeating Bolander, avenging his loss to Mezger, and beating Shamrock three times.

At one point, every Den member had won their first fight, but when Ken left for professional wrestling with the World Wrestling Federation, the Lion's Den quickly fell apart. Having left no real hierarchy (Ken was always in charge, everyone else fell under him) the Den was left with five different instructors teaching five different ways.

Recently, the Lion's Den was reformed, and is currently training new up and coming fighters.[1]

Fighters currently representing The Lion's Den v • d • e
MMA Fighters
Nat. Name Org. Ht. Wt. Win Loss Draw No Contest From USA Ken Shamrock IFL 72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 26 12 2 0 Macon, Georgia USA Jerry Bohlander KOTC 71 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) 199 lb (90 kg) 11 4 0 0 Napa, California USA Travis Lutter WEC 71 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) 186.5 lb (85 kg) 12 4 0 0 Gann Valley, South Dakota USA Mikey Burnett Pride FC 66 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) 170 lb (77 kg) 5 2 1 0 Tulsa, Oklahoma USA Tra Telligman UFC 74 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 233 lb (106 kg) 7 5 1 0 Dallas, Texas USA Pete Williams UFC 75 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 11 6 0 0 San Lorenzo, California USA John "Guns" Gunderson IFL 70 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 155 lb (70 kg) 15 4 0 0 Medford, Oregon USA Vernon “Tiger” White IFL 72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 25 31 2 0 Palo Alto, California Team info • updated 2007-09-02

• Scott Bessac
• Alex Andrade
• Atilla Bodor
• Joe Hurley
• Dennis Lehto
• Dan "The He-Man" Molina
• Pat "Bam Bam" Healy
• Roy Nelson
• Joe Martin
• Devin "Mighty Mouse" Conkling
• Herbert "Whisper" Goodman
• Killa B Nimmi
• Ken Shamrock is now the coach of the International Fight League team the Nevada Lions which features Vernon "Tiger" White , Dan Molina, John Gunderson, Pat Healy, and Roy Nelson as starters with fighters such as Joe Martin (who made his IFL debut in January 2007 in lieu of White), Rick Reeves, and Devin Conkling as alternates. The Lion's Den recently moved to Reno, NV in April 2007.

• Ken Shamrock's official Lion's Den page