NBA Legend Shaquille O’Neal attributes much of his success in his 19-year career to mixed martial arts(MMA).
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Shaquille O’Neal is regarded as one of the NBA’s most dominant and successful players. He has won four NBA championships and a slew of other awards and records culminating in his entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Surprisingly, Shaq he credits much of his success to mixed martial arts.
Shaquille O’Neal recently spoke with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani about his MMA interest, revealing that he believes cross-training in MMA helped him win NBA championships.
“MMA is the reason I became a champion,” O’Neal said. “I always used to practice basketball. It wasn’t enough. Because when I played basketball, it was more wrestling. So when I trained MMA with Jon Burke, a friend of mine down in Orlando, I came back in the best shape of my life. That was in 2000. Won. Dominated.
“So I’m a creature of habit. Did it again, won a second championship. Did it again, won the third championship. Got cute, got away from it, lost. Got traded to Miami, did it again, won the fourth championship.”
Shaquille O’Neal and his connection to Mix Martial Arts.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort allegedly introduced O’Neal to MMA, and he instantly fell in love with the sport. Shaq has been a regular at the cage-side for most major UFC events since then, and after spending so much time around the sport, he believes MMA fighters are among the top athletes in the world, which is one of the things he enjoys about it.
“MMA is something that always kept my heart rate up,” Shaq said. “It was something I am very interested in. I’m a physical guy. I like physicality. You talk about athletes, MMA athletes are probably the best athletes on the planet. The training that they go through, the physical stuff that they go through, I’ve been to almost all of the top UFC fights, those guys are specimens. I wish I could hit some of those NBA guys I used to play against like that. So I’ve definitely been a fan of MMA.”
But he’s not just a fan. O’Neal continues to train and was once seriously considering competing. In 2010, there were reports that O’Neal would fight professional South Korean boxer Hong-man Choi, a monstrous mammoth who stood 7 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 353 pounds. O’Neal stated that he was interested in the fight, but nothing came of it.
“Listen, I did call out Hong-man Choi a long time ago because I’ve never fought anyone my size,” Shaq said. “Ever since I was 10 years old I’ve heard the phrase, ‘Pick on someone your own size!’ So at the time, a couple years ago, if he was willing to fight, I would have fought him. . . I just mentioned it. I wanted somebody to come back. Actually I wanted [UFC President] Dana [White] to come back and set it up but nobody ever did. . . I definitely would have given it a try.”
Dana White is definitely kicking himself for passing on this chance.
