Old Man Fighting Championship: Dan Severn wants to come out of retirement and face the winner of Gracie/Shamrock III

Quote :: As loyal readers of CagePotato through thick and thin, you know what kind of respect we have for UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn. We’ve sung his praises from the highest mountain tops. We’ve named our future children after them (at least, BG has). Hell, we’ve even been luckily enough to be graced with his presence in the form of a brief but glorious mailbag column back in the day. Simply put, “The Beast” is the ultimate man’s man, a legend, and the kind of guy that could turn Ron Swanson into a prepubescent-voiced, salad-eating socialist if he so desired.

But like many fighters before him, Severn hasn’t exactly settled into retirement easily since collecting his 101st win back in 2013, especially when it comes to his former rivals Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie. Back in 2011, Severn tried to draw the Brazilian out of retirement for a match a UFC Rio that, for better or worse, never came to fruition. So from the moment it was announced that Gracie and Shamrock would be doing the damn thing one more time at Bellator 149, you just knew that Severn would have something to say about it.

Now 57 years old, Severn is still ready to strap on the wrestling boots and manties at the drop of a hat, it would seem. Speaking with MMAJunkie, Severn not only preemptively put the Shamrock-Gracie winner on blast, but called for a “Masters Division” to give the Mark Colemans and Randy Coutures of the sport a place to keep throwing down.

“Well, they were on my to-do list in the first place,” said Severn. “So sure, I’d do it.”

“I think there is an appetite for, I don’t know, call it a masters division, like they have in other sports. And as long as it’s done right and those masters compete against other masters, I think it’s something people want to see. You just can’t put the 50-year-old guy against a 25- or 30-year-old guy, because the reality is that no matter how good your skills are, they are diminishing.”

In all honesty…this isn’t the worst idea we’ve ever-HEAR US OUT.

Look, guys like Severn, Gracie, Shamrock, and so on; they live to compete no matter how bad it affects their health. Us high-minded, all-seeing Internet writers can’t try and act like we understand the mindset of these guys all we want, but the truth is that we have no clue and never will until we step into the cage ourselves. The desire to test oneself at the ultimate level of any sport isn’t something that can simply be shut off, not by the worries of their training partners, life coaches, doctors, or even their damn families. So if soulless promotions like Rizin are content to sit idly by and continue giving guys like Kazushi Sakuraba fights until they literally beaten to death in the ring — which, they are — then shouldn’t we at least try to level the scales by having these old dudes compete against each other? We’re not being cruel, we’re simply softening the blow!

I dunno, I’m just saying that if these grizzled SOB’s still have some fight left in them, we let them fight. Not to mention, we’re sure that Royce could use the extra cash.

http://www.cagepotato.com/senior-citizen-throwdown-dan-severn-wants-out-of-retirement-to-face-shamrock-gracie-iii-winner/

they should have an over 40 league for mma fighters.

i wouldnt mind watching tank abbott fight dan severn or mark coleman vs shamrock.

when you have kids and work 80 hours a week a little laughter is therapeutic for the soul

Yeah the idea itself ia not ridiculous, just this (these) fights.

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