Skip to search.

Breaking News Visit Yahoo! News for the latest.

×Close this window

Cagewriter - UFC

Cagewriter

Wed May 06 08:30pm EDT

Shaquille O'Neal: hoopster, twitter fan, MMA fighter?

By Maggie Hendricks

It seems that everywhere, people are catching on to the benefits of learning mixed martial arts. Everyone includes basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal, who is spending his off-season training at Jonathan Burke's Gracie Gym in Orlando.

O'Neal, who is listed at 7'2" and 325 lbs., goes by his old nickname at the gym, Diesel. He's been training with Burke for 10 years, where he does the full gamut of MMA, boxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and wrestling. Cagewriter spoke with Burke who said that O'Neal is in great shape, and loves the nature of the training.

"We can work drills 20 times through, and he works his tail off on everything," Burke said. "He has way more talent with this stuff than people would imagine."

O'Neal's specialty? Much like Clubber Lang, it's pain. Shaq-fu is said to have some killer knees as well as a phenomenal rear naked choke. He isn't the only athlete to try MMA, as former Redskins wide receiver Michael Westbrook is now a jiu-jitsu player who won his only MMA match. Marcus Jones, a six-year NFL veteran, turned to MMA in retirement, and has won four fights. Will Shaq ever enter the cage?

"Not while he's playing," Burke said. "But you never know."

O'Neal recently told former UFC champ Chuck Liddell in a Twitter Post to look out for him. The upper weight of the UFC is 265 lbs., but with Jose Canseco fighting a 7'2" kickboxer in Japan, anything can happen. He just may be the first athlete to hold four NBA championship rings and a title belt. 

digg delicious

Related Articles

Launch Article Browser

Cagewriter

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

Related Photo Gallery

More MMA Photos »

Y! Sports Blog