Frank Shamrock proved that he is still a force to be reckoned with at the March 29th StrikeForce event going toe to toe with one of MMA’s elite strikers in Cung Le.

Unfortunately for Frank he will have to wait possibly eight months to rebound from his spectacular loss due to a broken arm. His arm snapped when he blocked one of Cung Le’s trademark kicks during the second round.

Immediately after the brake his arm was turning red and starting to swell. Amazingly Frank was able to continue throwing punches with it and even had Le in some trouble late in the third round. That was until Cung landed his second to last kick that completely separated the bone. Shamrock threw one punch with his right arm and knew it was over for him. The end was apparent when Le landed one last vicious head kick that Frank could not block.

The kick fractured Frank’s right ulna as evident in the X-ray above. It took five hours, a plate and six screws to surgically correct his damaged right arm. He was told by the doctor that it would take four months for the bone to heal. After that he will have to return for a second surgery to have the plate and screws removed. It will then be another 10 weeks before his arm is ready for action.

In reality a loss might be the best thing that could have happened to the invincible Frank Shamrock. He wasn’t the same fighter after that fight and you could see it in his post fight interview. Frank even stated that it humanized him. He also made light of his injury during his post fight interview and had this to say about Le.

“To all who doubted Le’s submission abilities, he put a pretty good submission on my arm.”

Frank felt that if he had not sustained the injury that he would have taken over the fight in the fourth round. He stated that Cung Le’s style is not 100% biomechanically correct and that all of Le’s kicks would have tired him out by the fourth and fifth rounds. I’m not sure I believe that he would have taken over but I do think he has a point about Le’s kicks wearing him down. It takes a ton of energy to keep throwing as many kicks as Le did.

Despite his broken arm, Frank Shamrock plans to return and fight another day. His camp confirmed with MMAweekly.com that he will be back after the plate is removed and his arm is healed. Unfortunately it could be 2009 until he can make his comeback.

As for his next opponent, it could just happen to be a family affair. After all his rumored fight with Ken was presumably set to happen at the beginning of 2009.