I just finished watching the gracie vs sakuraba 2 fight.
Let me point out that Royce, is probably one of my favourite fighters
ever. I have a photo of us standing together at home.
I truly cannot believe that the judges a) gave Royce the victory & b) a
unanimous decision.
I gave all three rounds to sakuraba. It was not a great fight, but all the
main activity came from Sakuraba in terms of striking takedowns and
submission attempts.
Royce I know you sometimes read these posts, we have met before and
I truly respect you. You are the one that risks it all to get into the ring, i
do not, so really i should stay quiet. Im just offering an opinion.
Do you truly in your heart believe you won that fight? Do you believe
you clearly won every round.
I was totally shocked. When the announcer was reading the decision,
everyone in the room was expecting Sakuraba's hand to be raised.
Then Royce's hand shoots into the air.
If the opposite decision occured there would be pandamonium on the
forums. I think there is a real bias to the Gracie family on here. I
believe Sakuraba has been utterly robbed, because the Gracie
bandwagon is so huge, sak get no support for this travesty.
Furthermore because the main mma forums are gracie bandwagon
orientated the truth will never get out.
Royce, as mentioned earlier you are one of my favourite fighters, we
have met several times and I have followed your progress since the
early 90's. I was so dissapointed with the decision.
I understand at the end of the day, it was not your fault. You entered
the ring like a hero. You will always be a hero to me, i just wished i
never saw this.