The Lion's Den is an American mixed martial arts team and training facility that was based out of Lodi, California and San Diego, California. The team was founded in the early 1990s by UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, and was the most dominant fight camp in the early UFC. It featured fighters such as Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, Vernon "Tiger" White, Jerry Bohlander, Tra Telligman, Pete Williams, and Mikey Burnett.
Establishment
The team was founded out of necessity, as the then-new sport of mixed martial arts began to take off in the early-to-mid 1990s. Shamrock, who had fought at UFC 1, had trouble finding adequate sparring partners to prepare for fights. Shamrock attracted the attention of American fighters Vernon White and Guy Mezger early on, and formed the first ever mixed martial arts team in the USA.
In trying to come up with a name for it, Shamrock recalled a documentary he saw about lions. The documentary showed how a group of lions hunted their prey and worked together. He felt his group of fighters should work the same way and be like a family, so he chose to name his gym the Lion's Den.
"Top of the Food Chain" The Lion's Den was highly successful for many years and was widely regarded as one of, if not the best, mixed martial arts schools in the world throughout the late 1990s and into the early 2000s. Fighters such as Guy Mezger, Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, and Jerry Bohlander all became UFC Champions. Mikey Burnett came very close to winning the UFC Welterweight Championship, losing a controversial split decision to Pat Miletich at UFC Brazil. Guy Mezger was consistently ranked in the top 10 as a Light Heavyweight during his time with the UFC and PRIDE, and was ranked as high as the #6 Light Heavyweight fighter in the world in 2001, behind such notable names as Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, and Chuck Liddell. The Lion's Den was also dominant in the King of the Cage promotion in the early 2000s, which at the time was an upper echelon MMA promotion. Vernon White and Joe Hurley both achieved championship gold in KOTC.
It was fighters who had roots in the Lion's Den that were the original champions in three of the UFC's first four weight divisions. Ken Shamrock was the original UFC superfight champion in 1995, beating Dan Severn, which became the UFC heavyweight championship. Frank Shamrock was the first UFC middleweight champion in 1997, beating Olympic gold medal winning wrestler Kevin Jackson, which is now the UFC light heavyweight championship. Jens Pulver, who trained briefly at the Lion's Den in 1999 before joining Bob Shamrock's "Shamrock 2000" MMA gym and then moving on to MFS, beat Caol Uno to become the first UFC bantamweight champion in 2001, which is now the UFC lightweight championship. Mikey Burnett lost a close split decision to Pat Miletich for the creation of the UFC lightweight championship in 1999, which is today's welterweight title.
Other fighters, such as Tra Telligman and Pete Williams, earned the respect of the MMA world by defeating giants of the sport in upset fashion. Telligman defeated one of Pride's best fighters, Igor Vovchanchyn, at Pride 13 - Collision Course in a stunning upset. After this victory, Tra was ranked as the #10 Heavyweight fighter in the world in MMA. Williams knocked out former UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Coleman with a high kick to the head in overtime at UFC 17, and eventually earned a UFC Heavyweight Championship title shot. Pete Williams was also ranked as high as the #6 Heavyweight fighter in the world as of May 2000. The Lion's Den was also successful in the Pancrase organization. Ken Shamrock and Guy Mezger became King of Pancrase multiple times, and Frank Shamrock won the interim King of Pancrase title.
The Lion's Den also attracted many top fighters from outside to seek help in their training, including UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Coleman, UFC 6 tournament Champion Oleg Taktarov, and UFC Heavyweight Champion Maurice Smith. After losing at UFC 5, Taktarov went to live and train with the Lion's Den, and subsequently went on to win the UFC 6 tournament. Maurice Smith, a world class kickboxer, offered to help the Lion's Den with their striking in exchange for help with his submission and ground skills. While training with the Lion's Den, Maurice Smith defeated Mark Coleman to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship, and became the first striker to survive the attack of a world class wrestler. Smith later joined forces with Lion's Den fighter Frank Shamrock to form their own team, called The Alliance. Coleman, after losing two fights in a row to Lion's Den fighters, went to train with the Lion's Den and was coached and cornered by Ken Shamrock at UFC 18.