I love Royce and I have the most respect in the world for him. I wish they would have not put this fight together, I felt sick before the fight because I knew what was going to happen and it sure enough did happen.
I feel it was a bad thing for the UFC to put this fight together.
Royce is amazing and every single one of us on this forum owe a GREAT debt of gratitude to him and his family for bring this wonderful sport to the world and giving us the amazing sport and Martial Arts of Jiu-Jitsu!!
Whatever debt we owe the Gracies has now been paid. This is a compliment btw. Since Royce is my age, I have to say I was hoping he'd show an improvement in style but age breaks you down. I feel old now :(
Well, it took MUCH longer for the world to fully incorporate BJJ into ints MMA arenal than I thought it would. What's next looks pretty exciting.
I was very sad. I love Matt and he is one of my favorite fighters and pretty much knew he would win I just hoped it would be more competitive.
Royce was my teacher and friend for a long time. We use to go to Magic Mountain and shit and he was my hero for a very long time. I respect the hell out of him and what he has done and I hope he is done doing it because that was very hard to watch.
Thank you Royce for everything man and Matt you are a friggin animal and you scare my wife.
I give it all up to Royce...he's the reason that I got interested in BJJ....then I started at a place called Next Generation for a little bit...a real little bit...and this guy Chris welcomed me and it was all good. Both of you are insperations to me and I pray everything will go well for you both and your families.
Royce looked slow and unusually passive. I hate to play the age card here, but I saw Royce move when he was younger fighter and he was incredibly fast on the ground....like the first Shamrock fight when he was briefly on the losing end of a mount and ZIP, he escaped in a second.
My first hint that this would happen was watching his training tape, where he aimlessly pawed his arms and legs in the air in an attempt to improve his striking.
I love Royce with all my strength, but this fight broke my heart.
In in late Nineties, I went to a Royce seminar in Denver where he was watching me roll with another beginner who was much bigger than I. I got excited because I escaped the mount into half guard and I saw that his neck was for the taking (guilotine!). I greedily wrapped around, ignoring that I only had a half.
Royce scolded me a bit, telling me that I was too eager to finish him. "Be patient. You have to clear the leg into guard before you try that move. Position before submission."
I never forgot those words.
Seeing Royce do the exact same thing against Hughes tonight made me want to cry. Hughes looked on the top of his game, but I agree with those saying that Royce look defeated before he stepped into the ring.