Royce

[Super Mario]

Last night UFC Unleashed had a show focusing on Royce Gracie.

They showed several of his fights from the first few UFC shows.


I am not really sure how to say this without offending someone, but I have to say that I don't think Royce is as great as he is reguarded. Some people say he is the greatest MMA fighter of all time.

And I just have to ask, why? Because he was fighting a bunch of guys who had no clue whatsoever how to defend against BJJ? The majority of the Gracie fights that I have watched he is facing guys who had no idea what to do when the fight went to the ground, and they ended up tapping quickly. I don't think that was because Gracie was such a great MMA fighter, but because his opponents were not trained in anything but stand up techniques. I watched the Kimo fight and think to myself, Kimo isn't all that great of an MMA fighter really, but he's putting up the best fight so far against Royce than anyone else in the UFC had so far. That makes me think that THAT Royce with those skills from the first few UFC shows wouldn't be 'Royce Gracie' if he entered MMA today.

I think that people have a hard time separating his family legacy in MMA and his actual overall MMA skill level. He was a great GJJ artist. Yes, he was. But he is not the greatest MMA fighter of all time by any means in my opinion. He may be one of the greatest GJJ artists of all time, that would be fair, but to say he's the greatest MMA fighter just doesn't make sense to me. It's called MIXED martial arts. Not one skill set against people who have no idea how to defend it arts. GJJ, yes. Overall MMA, no.

I don't really know what I am getting at, and I am sure that people will have their ******* in a bunch, but just because you are the first best at something doesn't mean you are the greatest of all time like some people believe he is.

I have heard many arguments as to why he is the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and it ALWAYS comes back to his family legacy and what they have done for and meant to the MMA world. But to me, it's two different things. I respect what his family did for MMA. But I can overlook THAT and see that if he faced some of the fighters around since people started learning BJJ, then he would have his ass handed to him.

I think he was great, but I don't think he is as great as everyone makes him out to me.

Flame away.

 

[Ty Hope]

Well, he is a pioneer of the sport and introduced BJJ to most of the public. People had never seen what he did before. As far as competing against guys from today, who knows if there even would be guys with skills like today (or mma as a mainstream sport at all for that matter) if guys like Royce hadn't paved the way. No one knows for sure, but what he did was revolutionary.

 

[Ty Hope]

As far as him being "the best at what he did", I dont think there are many true mma fans that think that at all. Like I mentioned before though, BJJ would most likely not be what it is today without Royce (or the Gracie family).

 

[kdailey4315]

He was without question the greatest of his era. Would he be the greatest today? Probably not. He proved that BJJ was the best when everyone was one dimensional. Now BJJ is just a small part of MMA where everyone is well rounded. I don't think you can call him the best ever. It's like comparing pitchers from the early 1900's to pitchers of today. It's just so different you can't really compare them.

 

[hector234]

Royce pretty much introduced BJJ to a lot of viewers back then. To see a guy his size going up against bigger people and winning freaked people out.