But who has he ever faced with the combination of strong positional control, and understanding of submission defense, of Matt Hughes.
Keep in mind, this would have been a BLOCKBUSTER fight!
Hughes would have well known what the only path to victory was for Rickson – like he did with Royce.
If you want to somehow imagine them both in UFC 1 with zero knowledge of each other – then there is more available for Rickson to exploit.
It’s definitely a kind of abstract fantasy matchup – which is part of what makes these kind of threads fun IMO.
I’m not saying Rickson couldn’t catch him.
It’s a possibility, for sure.
But if you’re asking me to pick a winner – I just have to go with Hughes – and that’s for obvious reasons IMO.
But I’ve been wrong before, and if I was wrong that time it would have been pretty cool to see.
I was definitely wrong about the first Penn/Hughes fight.
I wasn’t a big Penn fan at the time, and was confidently picking Hughes.
No offense to Uno, but I didn’t think having that as one of the “signature” wins was all that impressive.
But the way Penn moved up and beat Hughes – it ended up being one of my all time MMA highlights!
I literally jumped up off the couch, and laughed like a kid on a roller coaster.
Was a Penn fan ever after.
The point is:
I don’t mind being wrong.
Sometimes it’s fun.
The problem is, in the case of Rickson/Hughes, we’ll never know.
I believed for a long time. I really wanted to believe. I liked the Rickson comparison to Qui Chang Caine - Almost mystical, perfection, and lived his life like pure water.
But then I found out Rickson was more in line with David Carradine.
Because he’s not the guy he made himself out to be. All you have to do is read about him and his family. There was a pretty informative thread here recently. From what I understand, his “memoir” isn’t flattering either.
Based on the above, he’d probably get along with Hughes.
I know someone who trained with Royce, Rickson, Renzo, Royler, and Rorian when they came to America and they were all still together. There is no way Renzo and Royce were better fighters. I like Renzo but his record proves it. If you think Royce was kicking Rickson’s ass then I don’t know what to tell you.
Rickson trained Royce for the earlier UFC’s, as soon as Rickson quit training Royce he started losing.
As far as being “Big Brothered”, Rolls was Rickson’s “big brother” but Rickson beat him and became the head of the family as far as fighting goes. I can’t think of one person who says Royce or Renzo became head of the family because they were superior fighters.
I can’t find it anymore, but there was a clip on the old inside MMA show on HD Net where Renzo and a journalist are answering viewer questions. One is “who’s the best Gracie”
Renzo says Rickson. The journalist says “actually you and Royler are much more accomplished. Rickson didn’t prove himself as much. I’d pick you or Royler”
Renzo laughs and says something like “you have no idea what you’re talking about my friend. It’s not even close”
Hasn’t it already…? Lot more BJJ/Wrestling fusion going on in MMA and in no-gi BJJ. I think that will continue.
There are a lot of teachers (including me) that teach a lot of wrestling in BJJ. I had a blue belt student move away and start training at a 10th Planet that had a separate wrestling class. He never wrestled. One day he called me and told me about going to wrestling. He said, “Everyone thought I was a wrestler, because I already knew all the stuff.”
So lots of people who learn BJJ now --a lot of places-- are learning a more “Americanized” (i.e. wrestling influenced) version of BJJ. Even the Brazilians are really into wrestling now. So, yeah, I think the positional hierarchy will continue to evolve. --Just look at the modern leg lock game. That alone is a big shift.
