The Croatian Sensation: Ready to meet Shamrock in MayComing off of an impressive card put on by up-and-coming promotion Strikeforce, it seems that this weekend’s anticipated UFC 109 bout between two MMA legends isn’t the only one that we have to look forward to.

This weekend, MMAWeekly confirmed that talks have already begun between Frank Shamrock (23-10-2) and Pat Miletich (29-7-2) to negotiate the terms of a bout in May, at an as-of-yet-undisclosed Strikeforce event.

Currently, Strikeforce has no events planned for the month of May, and has made no announcements regarding one.

Miletich returned to MMA following a years-long layoff, where he refocused his efforts on training the fighters of his team Miletich Fighting Systems back home in Bettendorf, and would eventually step in to coach his own International Fight League team, the Quad Cities Silverbacks.

For the finale of the 2006 season, the IFL setup their IFL: Gracie vs. Miletich event for September of that year. Featuring a coach vs. coach main event pitting Miletich against New York Pitbulls coach Renzo Gracie, Miletich would succumb to a guillotine choke at just past the three-and-a-half-minute mark of the first round. This was only Miletich’s second fight since March of 2002 at the time, when he was TKO’ed by Matt Lindland at UFC 36.

Miletich would go on to lose to Gracie in 2006, then KO Thomas Denny at an Adrenaline MMA event in December of 2008. Miletich is 1-1 since returning to MMA in 2006, and has lost three of his last five fights, two by way of first-round finish.

Opposite Miletich in May will be Frank Shamrock, a similarly seasoned veteran who, as well, has fallen upon touch competitive luck in his return run. To compliment a slightly less successful run in the IFL than Miletich’s Silverbacks, Shamrock has made a return run against some of the most notable talent to grace the sport. Like Miletich, Shamrock returned in 2006 and successfully dispatched Cesar Gracie by KO’ing him in twenty seconds flat. 11 months later, as a Strikeforce main event, Shamrock met Cesar’s brother Renzo, where an obvious oversight in the rulebook on Frank’s part lead to an eventual disqualification for knees to his downed opponent’s head.

Four months following his disqualification loss to Renzo, Shamrock battled Phil Baroni for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship, successfully submitting the New York Badass in the second round. His win over Baroni represents the last time Shamrock has tasted victory since.

In his first vie to defend his newly acquired title, Shamrock ended up absorbing a devastating left kick with his forearm in an attempt to block the shot, which ultimately broke his arm. The fight was stopped in the third round, and Cung Le was crowned the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

One fight later, at a catch weight of 179 lbs, Nick Diaz would TKO Shamrock near the end of the second round to give Shamrock his third loss in four fights. After a layoff from the sport that stretched back to 2000, Shamrock had returned to go an unimpressive 3-3, losing to both veteran-level & developing talent while learning first-hand how quickly the sport had evolved in his absence.

The two have not signed any contracts to meet in May. However, Shamrock was available to confirm for media at the Strikeforce event that he and Miletich had verbally agreed to fight each other in May.

Strikeforce currently does not have any events planned for the month of May, though they have an ongoing deal with CBS to broadcast their events in some capacity. Likelihood is that the event will end up televised in a prime-time spot.

Highly anticipated for no other reason than the fact that it could’ve happened a decade ago, a naturally welterweight Miletich will step into the cage to test his mettle against a slightly naturally larger Shamrock sometime in the early summer.

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