For Ken Shamrock’s career, Saturday’s fight in England at Cage Rage 25 is a lose-lose proposition. The best case scenario? He gets a convincing win over a fighter almost no one has heard of, Sunderland’s Robert “Buzz” Berry. The worst case? He gets smashed by a bigger and younger opponent and sees future large paydays against Kimbo Slice, Don Frye, and his adopted brother Frank go up in smoke.

Ken Shamrock is 44 years old. He’s an established brand name, arguably the biggest star in the history of MMA. At this stage of his career he doesn’t need tuneup fights. The engine is too worn out to risk it and the broader question is this: what is he tuning up for? Tito Ortiz, himself only a marginal contender thanks to years of wear and tear, made it abundantly clear with three decisive wins that Ken is no longer able to compete with the top talent in the sport. No one is going to be fooled into thinking that Ken would be a good opponent for Quinton Jackson because he beats a couple of Robert Berrys. So the benefit in fighting and beating Berry is simply the short-term financial gain of whatever Pro Elite is paying him for his time. The potential losses are much more significant.

There is a principle called the the law of diminishing returns. For a short time, even after he’s no longer a top fighter, Ken Shamrock fights have value. Look at Mike Tyson as his boxing counterpart. Tyson was never a top fighter again after his prison stint. Yet for years, promoters were able to sell the Tyson name and people were willing to wager their hard earned money that the “old Tyson” would be back. The old Tyson never came back. He died along with his invincible aura at the hands of Buster Douglas, and eventually fans caught on.

In 1997, Tyson-Holyfield II did 1.99 million PPV buys. By the time he had his final fight with Kevin McBride in 2005, Tyson was drawing just 250,000 buys. It took eight years for fans to catch on that Tyson was done. Ken Shamrock is in his eighth year since returning from the WWE. His window as a PPV and television draw is rapidly closing.

Shamrock, like many of the best and most charismatic fighters of his era, got out of the fight game when the money disappeared in the wake of the John McCain campaign to eliminate human cockfighting from the face of the Earth. He went to what Eddie Goldman would call “the fake professional wrestling” and actually made himself a more valuable commodity than ever before. When he returned, first to Pride for showdowns with native stars Alexander Otsuka, Kazayuki Fujita, and archenemy Don Frye, he drew big money.

With the perfect foil in the form of Tito Ortiz, Shamrock drew the UFC’s biggest buyrate of the Zuffa era at UFC 40 and returned again to headline the best and most successful season of The Ultimate Fighter, again with Tito as his nemesis. It’s the biggest drawing feud in MMA history and clearly established one thing: people will tune in to see Ken Shamrock fight. But the Shamrock people saw was no longer the World’s Most Dangerous Man. He was old, tired, and at a competitive disadvantage because of his old school mentality and 1996 skillset. It wasn’t enough to be a chicken and beef eating leglock man in the new century. His brother Frank had changed the game, raised the bar for everyone in the sport. Ken had been left behind, a relic from an earlier and simpler game. Dana White made sure he got the big payoff and then let him go from his contract. He had served his purpose and in Zuffa’s mind was not a UFC-level talent anymore.

Now Ken has an opportunity, not to secure his legacy, he’s done that already with a storied and legendary career. He has an opportunity to make up for past transgressions and secure his family’s financial future. That’s not going to happen with tuneup matches against journeymen, it’s going to happen against some of the well- known fighters floating around the sport’s fringes. Save what remains of your drawing power for fights that matter to the fans. Let Bob Meyrowitz book Shamrock-Abbott for YAMMA, let Gary Shaw book Shamrock-Slice for CBS, and bow out with a final grudge match against Frank next year. These are the money fights. Leave the Robet Berry’s of the world to fight the Bo Cantrells. Ken Shamrock deserves more as he faces that final curtain. So do his fans.