Ken Shamrock: Yes, I used steroids

The allegations about the World's Most Dangerous Man proved to be true. After years of dismissing accusations -- not to mention a positive test result last year -- one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's first Hall of Famers finally came clean about his steroid use as a mixed martial artist. The admission of Ken "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Shamrock aired Friday on HDNet's Fighting Words with Mike Straka show.

Shamrock in the past has said he took steroids for professional wrestling, but until now he has denied using steroids as a fighter, even after testing positive last year and receiving a one-year suspension from the California State Athletic Commission.He has been the subject of suspicions for years. During his rise to prominence in the early 1990s for the Japanese organization Pancrase, Shamrock was one of the largest and most muscular athletes in the promotion. For his fights in the pioneering days of UFC, he weighed 220 pounds or more.

Shamrock returned to his professional wrestling roots when he started performing for the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1990s and added even more bulk. Yet when he came back to U.S. competition in 2002 -- after states such as Nevada and New Jersey started regulating the sport and testing fighters for performance enhancers -- he dropped to light-heavyweight.Two of his opponents from the early days of UFC, Royce Gracie and Dan "The Beast" Severn, for years have suggested that Shamrock uses banned substances.

"Take a guy like Ken Shamrock ... without drugs, he would probably only weigh around 175, 185 pounds," Dan Severn said in a 2004 interview. "At one point, he was up to 245."

Frank Shamrock believes his adoptive sibling gained confidence from steroids. From a 2008 interview:
"My brother Ken did them his whole life. Why do you think that his mind is so fried? Why do you think he crumbles before the big fights? He's got no psyche. He let steroids give him a false sense of security and the moment that stuff is gone he's no longer superman. ... He's the only guy that I'll tell on, because he's always in trouble anyway."

Although Ken Shamrock might be the highest profile fighter to confess to steroid use, he's not the only one. Cage Potato has a list of mixed martial artists who have tested positive; several of them admitted taking something illegal.

source: content.usatoday.com