Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk

by The_Muscle_Shark
| Jan 26, 2009
| 444 views
| 2 comments

This is Sean Sherk. He is my favorite UFC fighter. Here is what they say on Wikipedia:

is an Americanmixed martial artist currently fighting for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He currently holds a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) record of thirty-three wins, three loses, and one draw. Sherk has fought in both the UFC and PRIDE Fighting Championships, and is a one-time UFC Lightweight Champion.

Sherk began fighting MMA in 1999, where he originally fought at the welterweight weight-class. During his time as a welterweight, Sherk suffered two loses; one to Matt Hughes and one to Georges St. Pierre. In 2006, Sherk decided to drop down to the lightweight class of 155 lb. In his first fight as a lightweight, Sherk defeated Kenny Florian to become the first UFC Lightweight Champion in over four years. After his first successful defense with the title, Sherk was stripped of the title after testing positive for steroids. Upon his return in May 2008, Sherk failed to win back the title from the champion, B.J. Penn. Sean Sherk was born on August 5, 1973 in St. Francis, Minnesota. Sherk began wrestling at age seven. He continued to wrestle for eleven years, where he wrestled over 400 matches. After finding Greg Nelson's Minnesota Martial Arts Academy in 1994, Sherk began to practice boxing, shoot wrestling, and Muay Thai. In 1999, Sherk defeated Roscoe Ostyn by decision in his first MMA fight.Sherk began his mixed martial arts career in 1999, where he went on an eight-fight win streak before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2001. Sherk fought only one fight before leaving the UFC. He eventually came back and fought Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Championship. He lost the match and went on to sign with PRIDE Fighting Championships (PRIDE). In 2005, Sherk resigned with the UFC and lost to Georges St. Pierre.

Sherk made his UFC debut at UFC 30, where he defeated Tiki Ghosn. After going 5-0-1 outside the UFC, he was brought back to fight Jutaro Nakao at UFC 36, a fight which Sherk won via unanimous decision. On September 27, 2002, at UFC 39, Sherk defeated Benji Radach when the fight was stopped due to a cut Radach had received.

Sherk was then chosen to fight Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Championship on April 25, 2003. Sherk lost the fight via unanimous decision after going five five-minute rounds. Sherk won two of the overall five rounds, becoming the first fighter to ever fight a full five round fight with then-champion Matt Hughes.

Following his loss to Hughes, Sherk fought three more times in 2003, winning all three bouts. In 2004, he signed with PRIDE and made his debut with the Japanese-based organization at PRIDE Bushido 2. Sherk defeated Ryuki Ueyama via unanimous decision, in what was his only outing in the company.

According to Sean Sherk's website, the Japanese fans are the ones responsible for giving him the nickname "The Muscle Shark." While he was popular in Japan, Sherk found it difficult to travel and support his family and found he could make a better living fighting as a main event on local shows. He also cited his lack of health insurance for making this decision.

Sherk was invited back to the UFC in 2005 for a fight with Georges St. Pierre. Sherk lost by TKO, but was given another fight in the UFC at UFC 59, where he defeated Nick Diaz via unanimous decision. During the post-fight interview, Sherk stated his intention to drop down in weight to the lightweight division. In October 2006, at UFC 64, Sherk defeated Kenny Florian via unanimous decision to win the UFC Lightweight Championship. With this win, Sherk became the first UFC Lightweight Champion since Jens Pulver vacated the title in 2002. Sherk fought the bout with a torn rotator cuff and was forced to rehabilitate afterwards.

In July 2007, Sherk successfully defended his title against Hermes Franca at UFC 73. After the fight, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) announced that Sherk had tested positive for Nandrolone, a banned steroid, in a urine test the day prior to the fight. After testing positive for twelve ng/ml of Nandrolone, Sherk was fined $2,500 and suspended from competing in California for one year. Sherk's suspension was reduced to six months after appealing his allegations on December 4, 2007, making him eligible to fight in early January 2008. Sherk claimed errors were made in lab testing procedures. He claimed that failure of the lab to properly test the vials used in the earlier, positive tests for any remaining steroid content may have resulted in his sample becoming contaminated. However, Quest Diagnostics and the CSAC denied any errors were made. During this time, Sean Sherk attempted to challenge the CSAC by employing his own lawyer and submitting polygraph lie detector tests. While Sherk passed these tests, the CSAC made an unusual decision to cut his suspension in half rather than uplift it. This was seen as strange by many in the community, including the reporters at Sherdog.com, the largest mixed martial arts reporting website. In an article, they detailed how the CSAC's decision did not echo that of past cases where bans had been lifted after providing minimal evidence. The decision was seen as even more unusual after test results proved that Xyience supplements in Sherk's possession were tainted with the same steroid agent that was found in his bloodstream.

Following the CSAC's decision to uphold the results of the positive steroid test, the UFC officially stripped Sherk of his Lightweight Championship. At UFC 80, B.J. Penn defeated Joe Stevenson to win the vacant title. After the fight, UFC president Dana White announced that Penn's first title defense would be against Sherk, who was reinstated by UFC in April 2008. Sherk and Penn fought at UFC 84 on May 24, 2008. Penn defeated Sherk by TKO after Sherk was unable to continue at the end of the third round.

Sherk fought Tyson Griffin at UFC 90: Silva vs Cote. He defeated Griffin via unanimous decision.

Here are his fight record:

33 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw^[4]
Record	Result	Opponent	Method	Event	Date	Round	Time	Location	Notes
		Frank Edgar		UFC 98	May 23 2009			Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
33-3-1	Win	Tyson Griffin	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 90: Silva vs Cote	10/25/2008	3	5:00	Rosemont, Illinois, USA	Won Fight of The Night
32-3-1	Loss	B.J. Penn	TKO (strikes)	UFC 84: Ill Will	05/24/2008	3	5:00	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	For UFC lightweight title
32-2-1	Win	Hermes Franca	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 73: Stacked	07/07/2007	5	5:00	Sacramento, California, USA	Defended UFC lightweight title; tested positive for banned substance after fight; later stripped of the title
31-2-1	Win	Kenny Florian	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 64: Unstoppable	10/14/2006	5	5:00	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Won UFC lightweight title
30-2-1	Win	Nick Diaz	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 59: Reality Check	4/15/2006	3	5:00	Anaheim, California, USA
29-2-1	Loss	Georges St. Pierre	TKO (Strikes)	UFC 56: Full Force	11/19/2005	2	2:53	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
29-1-1	Win	Joel Blanton	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	BP: Pride and Glory	9/17/2005	1	N/A	Georgia, USA
28-1-1	Win	Lee King	Submission (Arm Triangle Choke)	Extreme Challenge 60	11/12/2004	1	2:20	Medina, Minnesota, USA
27-1-1	Win	Brodie Farber	Submission (Choke)	SF 6: Battleground in Reno	9/23/2004	1	0:55	Reno, Nevada, USA
26-1-1	Win	Darin Brudigan	Submission (Arm Triangle Choke)	Cage Fighting Xtreme 2	9/4/2004	N/A	N/A	Brainerd, Minnesota, USA
25-1-1	Win	Gerald Strebendt	TKO	Extreme Challenge 58	6/11/2004	1	3:52	Medina, Minnesota, USA
24-1-1	Win	Eric Heinz	Submission (Neck Crank)	Pride and Fury	6/3/2004	1	0:58	Worley, Idaho, USA
23-1-1	Win	Jake Short	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	ICC: Trials 2	4/30/2004	1	N/A	Minnesota, USA
22-1-1	Win	Kaleo Padilla	Submission (Neck Crank)	You Think You're Tough	4/17/2004	2	1:17	Kona, Hawaii, USA
21-1-1	Win	Ryuki Ueyama	Decision (Unanimous)	PRIDE: Bushido 2	2/15/2004	2	5:00	Yokohama, Japan
20-1-1	Win	Charles Taylor	Submission (Keylock)	EP: XXXtreme Impact	12/28/2003	2	0:58	Tijuana, Mexico
19-1-1	Win	Mark Long	Submission (Strikes)	Extreme Combat	12/12/2003	1	N/A	Fridley, Minnesota, USA
18-1-1	Win	John Alexander	TKO	Extreme Combat	8/2/2003	1	N/A	Anoka, Minnesota, USA
17-1-1	Loss	Matt Hughes	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 42: Sudden Impact	4/25/2003	5	5:00	Miami, Florida, USA	For UFC welterweight title
17-0-1	Win	John Alexander	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	Extreme Combat 2	12/7/2002	1	N/A	Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
16-0-1	Win	Benji Radach	TKO (Cut)	UFC 39: The Warriors Return	9/27/2002	1	4:16	Uncasville, Connecticut, USA
15-0-1	Win	Jutaro Nakao	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 36: Worlds Collide	3/22/2002	3	5:00	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
14-0-1	Win	Claudionor Fontinelle	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	UCC 6: Redemption	10/19/2001	2	1:04	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
13-0-1	Draw	Kiuma Kunioku	Draw	Pancrase: 2001 Neo-Blood Tournament, Round 2	7/29/2001	3	5:00	Tokyo, Japan
13-0	Win	Curtis Brigham	TKO (Towel)	UW: St. Paul	7/15/2001	3	1:15	St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
12-0	Win	Jason Purcell	TKO	UW: Ultimate Fight Minnesota	6/2/2001	1	1:42	Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
11-0	Win	Marty Armendarez	TKO (Punches)	KOTC 8: Bombs Away	4/29/2001	3	2:07	Williams, California, USA
10-0	Win	Manvel Gamburyan	Decision	Reality Submission Fighting 3	3/30/2001	1	18:00	Belleville, Illinois, USA
9-0	Win	Tiki Ghosn	Submission (Shoulder Dislocated)	UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk	2/23/2001	2	4:47	Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
8-0	Win	Karo Parisyan	TKO (Towel)	Reality Submission Fighting 2	1/5/2001	1	16:20	Belleville, Illinois, USA
7-0	Win	Ken Parham	Decision	Submission Fighting Championships	11/3/2000	2	N/A	Collinsville, Illinois, USA
6-0	Win	Karo Parisyan	Decision	Reality Submission Fighting 1	10/10/2000	1	18:00	Belleville, Illinois, USA
5-0	Win	Steve Gomm	Decision	Extreme Challenge 28	10/9/1999	1	10:00	Ogden, Utah, USA
4-0	Win	Scott Bills	Decision	Extreme Challenge 28	10/9/1999	1	10:00	Ogden, Utah, USA
3-0	Win	Kurtis Jensen	TKO	Extreme Challenge: Trials	10/4/1999	1	N/A	Mason City, Iowa, USA
2-0	Win	Johnnie Holland	Submission (Keylock)	Ultimate Wrestling	8/13/1999	2	2:10	Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
1-0	Win	Roscoe Ostyn	Decision	Dangerzone - Mahnomen	6/19/1999	N/A	N/A	Mahnomen, Minnesota, USA