Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk

 

Born	Minneapolis, MN - USA, USA
Fighting out of	Oak Grove, MN - USA
Age	34
Height	5' 6" (168 cm)
Weight	155 lbs. (70 kg)
Overall MMA Record (W-L-D)	35-3-1
Strengths	Excellent wrestler, great conditioning, very strong.

 

Sherk began his mixed martial arts career in 1999 at the Dangerzone MMA Event in Bonville, Minnesota, opening with a twelve-fight win streak, including two notable victories over rising Judo star Karo Parisyan, and was picked up by the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001.
Sherk made his UFC debut at UFC 30 where he defeated Tiki Ghosn, via submission and was brought back to fight Jutaro Nakao at UFC 36, a fight in which Sherk won via unanimous decision. He also won his next fight against Benji Radach at UFC 39 when it was stopped due to a cut Radach received. Sherk was then offered a title shot against defending champion Matt Hughes for the UFC welterweight championship in April 2003. Sherk lost his title bid in a five round fight. Sherk fought three more times in 2003, winning all three bouts.

In 2004 Sherk signed with PRIDE and made his debut with the Japanese-based organization at PRIDE Bushido 2, facing Ryuki Ueyama, winning the fight via unanimous decision. His win in PRIDE would be his only outing in the company. Sherk went on to win seven straight fights, all by submission or TKO, but still was not signed to the UFC or PRIDE.
Sherk was invited back to the UFC for a fight with welterweight contender Georges St. Pierre in November 2005. Sherk lost by TKO, but was given another fight in the UFC at UFC 59, where he defeated Nick Diaz by unanimous decision, earning his first victory in the organization since 2002. During the post fight interview Sherk stated his intention to dropdown to the lightweight division. In October 2006, Sherk won the UFC lightweight championship at UFC 64, defeating The Ultimate Fighter 1 finalist Kenny Florian by unanimous decision. With his win he became the second champion in the UFC's lightweight division since Jens Pulver vacated the title in 2002.

After successfully defending his title against Hermes Franca at UFC 73 on July 7, 2007, the California State Athletic Commission announced that Sherk and Franca had both tested positive for banned steroids in post-fight drug tests. Sherk’s appeal was December 4, 2007, which saw his suspension reduced to 6 months, making him eligible to fight in early January 2008. Sherk denied use of Nandrolone, and has stated that he passed three separate lie detector tests confirming that he did not knowingly take steroids, and also claimed that errors were made with the lab testing procedures in which he tested positive. The CSAC decided to uphold the results of the positive steroid test, and as a result Sherk was officially stripped of the UFC lightweight title.

The match between B. J. Penn and Joe Stevenson at UFC 80 was then changed to be for the official lightweight title instead of an interim title. When Penn defeated Stevenson the UFC announced that Penn's first title defence would be against Sherk, who was reinstated by UFC in April 2008. Sherk and Penn fought at UFC 84 on May 24, 2008 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Penn defeated Sherk by TKO after Sherk was unable to continue at the end of the 3rd round.