During his reign as the UFC Superfight Champion, he was widely considered the 1 mixed martial artist in the world, [ 17 ] and in , Shamrock was ranked by Inside MMA as one of the top 10 greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time.
In addition to his mixed martial arts career, Shamrock has had considerable success in professional wrestling, particularly during his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation WWF, now WWE. Additionally, Shamrock was also one of the first wrestlers to use the shoot style of wrestling in America, being credited by WWE with popularizing the legitimate ankle lock submission hold.
His father, Richard Kilpatrick, was a United States Air Force enlistee, and his mother, Diane Kilpatrick, was a waitress and dancer who had her first son when she was Kilpatrick had three brothers and grew up at a predominantly black neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia.
Kilpatrick was often left to fend for himself, and, without his parents' supervision or guidance, got into many fights. His father abandoned his family when Kilpatrick was five. His mother married an Army aviator named Bob Nance, and the newly formed family moved to Napa, California , Nance's hometown. Kilpatrick and his brothers were outsiders in this community, coming from a poor background and speaking in a Southern accent. They continued to cause trouble and get into fights and began using drugs.
Nance, who fought in the Vietnam War, joined the local fire department and also worked in roofing and upholstery. Kilpatrick became involved in and excelled at sports at a young age, playing in Little League baseball and Pop Warner football. Nance remembered a veteran coach telling him that he had never seen a player with as much heart and tenacity as the young Kilpatrick.
