Former UFC champion Frank Shamrock claims he’s just another victim in the fake news cycle.
On Thursday, WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Shamrock, the UFC’s inaugural light heavyweight champion more than 20 years ago, was under by police for animal cruelty after he tied up one of his mother’s dogs, Zelda, in the back of a pickup truck at Dallas’ Love Field airport and abandoned it for five days. Shamrock left some food and water for Zelda in the truck, then got on a plane to return to his home in California
In a phone interview with WFAA-TV, Shamrock admitted what he did.
“They can charge me with whatever. I will show up,” Shamrock told the station. “It is what it is. I’m not hiding in any way. It’s an unfortunate and terrible thing. I’m an animal lover, and I ran away crying. … It’s an old dog. No one wants a 6 1/2, 7-year-old dog with a goofy hip.”
By late Thursday night, Shamrock took to Instagram to says he’s not being investigated and dismissed WFAA-TV reporter Rebecca Lopez’s story as “fake news.”
This is #fakenews. @abcnews Edited to create a story. Very sad. Rebecca Lopez you should be ashamed of yourself, I am not being investigated and only took the call to help bring #awareness to #animalcruelty and #elderabuse. Funny how you don’t report the All the facts – just the names that create headlines. #sharelovenothate #checkfacts #speakthetruth 👎🏽
Shamrock, 47, is coming up on the 10-year anniversary next month of his final MMA fight, a knockout loss to Nick Diaz in the now-defunct Strikeforce. Prior to that, he lost Strikeforce’s middleweight title when Cung Le broke Shamrock’s arm in a TKO win to take the belt.
