You forgot the part where after going at it for a while with nobody managed to tap the other, Royce caught Oleg with a gi choke choke for the tap. He realized he found eggs weakness and exploited subbing him several more times.
Yes, Roy really said this.
Somehow over the years people have substituted Oleg in their memories for the Sambo guy from the story. I found the original:
Several months into my Jiu Jitsu training, a Russian Sambo player (named “Nikolay Baturin”) stopped by my self-defense class at the University (of California) and asked to roll with me. I said sure. What happened next was mind blowing! I began to tap the mat like an experienced conga player. I had never felt such pain and pressure on my ankles, knees and hips before. I asked him what he was doing and he said, “Sambo.” I asked him if he would mind showing me some of that stuff and he agreed.
I trained off and on with him for about the next year. During that time, my familiarity and confidence with leg locks grew and began to manifest itself. I began to tap some of the senior blue belts and newer purple belt at the academy. However, my glory ended abruptly when Rorion called me into the office one day and politely asked me to stop doing leg locks. He said they were causing hard feelings amongst the students, and, he would prefer that I not do them any more. I agreed and kept on training.
Well, one day, my friend/Sambo instuctor accompanied me to a training session at the Gracie Academy. Boy was that a memorable experience. I will never forget that day. All classes ceased as Royce and Nikolay engaged in a friendly (and lengthy) grappling match, with all of the Gracie students (and Rorion) watching from the sidelines.
What happened during the match was amazing!!
When I first brought Nikolay Baturin to the Gracie Academy, he was relaxed. However, things got a little tense there in the beginning.
First, Nick began by stretching out in one of the private rooms at the Academy. He was not interested in going into teh big training room. Suddenly, Royce walked in, introduced himself and asked Nick if he wanted to roll “right now.” Nick replied, "give me about 15 minutes to warm up and then we’ll grapple. Fifteen minutes came and went. Nick went into the big training room and was greeted by a ton of faces, all waiting to see him and Royce do battle.
Then, the moment we had all been waiting for, Nick and Royce started grappling from a standing position. This is where things became tense. I knew Nick was an awesome Judoka because I had done some training with him myself. Plus, I had seen Nick throw a lot of the Judo black belts in San Diego, with ease and finesse. So, to see him start standing with Royce made my heart go pitter patter!)
Anyway, within a few seconds Nick throws Royce to the ground. Not a hard throw, but a throw none the less. Royce and Nick engage in a bit of ground work and then I see Nick go for Royce’s foot, really hard. He had it on real tight too. I saw Royce grimace and move faster than I had ever seen him move before. About twenty seconds later, Royce had escapes Nick’s foot lock and was beginning to apply a foot lock of his own (on Nick). Now mind you, Nick does not feel any pain when the foot lock or heel hook is applied. He leg is like a frickin’ titanium rod. Nick will even let you lock his leg and relax his foot. Still, he feels no pain. And that’s what happened when Royce took his foot. Nick relaxed and let Royce take his foot. Finally, Royce gave up and moved on to something else.
There was a number of positional exchanges between Royce and Nick. Neither person was dominating. But then about 10 minutes into the match, Royce got a collar choke on Nick. Nick squirmed and finally tapped.
Royce and Nick went again. However, this time Royce knew where Nick was weak: collar chokes. So, Royce went after Nick’s neck again and again. Royce repeatedly tapped Nick, again and again. Finally, the match ended.
Rorion was sitting nearby and commented on Nick’s performance. Rorion said, “Nick, for someone who’s never trained in Jiu Jitsu, you have really good technique. I am impressed with your skills.”
The group class training began and Nick participated. When it came time for mat time (randori), Nick put on a spectacular diplay of Judo! Nick threw everyone around like barbie dolls. He even did randori with just one hand. Nick was awesome. Royce was awesome! I will never forget that night. I can still see that one purple belt being thrown so high his feet nearly hit the ceiling.
Rorion told Nick that if he ever wanted to train again, he was welcome at the Gracie Academy. We all shook hands after class and called it a night. (Note: I remember training with Royce the next day in class. I also remember looking down at his left foot and seeing the top of it was all black and blue. I did not say anything though cause I knew where it had come from. I too had been put in a foot lock by Nick and did not tap in time, and remember my instep being black and blue!)
yet again royce comes through
Makes sense. Positionally sambo guys aren’t that strong, especially a guy like Oleg back then.
Oleg just into the US around UFC 1.
"In order to get in touch with Hollywood actors, and having watched the [Ultimate Fighting Championship] event [UFC 2] Taktarov contacted the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in 1994.
Itt was around UFC 3 Oleg came to Gracie acadmy. Roirion felt he was decent but not all that. Oleg was green and skinny at the time. Wasnty anything special. He asked to get in UFC, the next UFC was UFC4, the line-up wa pretty much picked out and Rorion said no for this one. Well guess what UFC Oleg was in, the VERY NEXT UFC called UFC5.
If they black balled him it was for one whole event (UFC4).
And again this is Oleg’s sour story on it. Plenty say they were black balled.
Brawl and NHB Evolution books are now like 20yrs old and my memory is hazy but in one of them it was (I think) Art Davie telling the story of Rorian talking him out of putting Oleg in one of the UFCs, telling him he’s awful and the fights will suck …. And it wasn’t till later he realized Rorian didn’t want the potential threat to Royce in there.
Well, Royce wasn’t in [the] UFC V [Tournament], so at that point, there was also no reason to keep Oleg out.
Objectively, there were people much less skilled than Oleg in both UFC 4&5, so I don’t buy Rorion’s characterization of Oleg’s skills.
Yeah Art Davie sent Oleg to the Torrance Academy.Rorion said that he didn’t amount to much when Art asked about him.
Standard Rorian operating procedure…
In the early days, Rorion basically described Carlos Gracie, Sr. as a lesser important figure in BJJ --almost an assistant to his dad Helio --the Grand master of GJJ.
In reality, it was EXACTLY the opposite. Rorion never really gave Carlos props as THE FOUNDER of GJJ. He was always described as someone who trained , but was more into the diet. Quite misleading and it contributed greatly to the rivalry between the Helio & Carlos/Carlson sides of the family.
This thread sure sheds a lot of light on BJJ in general.
Art & Rorion have been bad mouthing each other for years with little snide comments.
Rorion didnt think Oleg was all that and in a Submission fighter mag int he said Oleg always kept his face wide open on the bottom and thats going to get him hurt. Then in UFC 5 Severn ended up dropping knee bombs of death of his forehead. Oleg ended up getting better and was tough as nails, but intially it looks like Rorion was correct.
Dorian had a pretty sharp eye for suitable competition, like an over 50 karate master for instance. Royce drew a tough bracket.
And you dont have to. This was early days and its not like internet to pick fighters from. it was grainy vhs tapes and in person auditions or word of mouth of tough guys or whatever. Everyone says they got black balled, but thats not the case. And at 1st it wasnt a givin UFC was doing a superfight, but Emin Boztepe was talkin shit and it kinda of catalist to Royce fighting one fight as Emin wanted only to fight Royce. Its not like they were sitting around scard of Oleg andd trying to figure out a way to let him in but avoid. Come on man. This is just popular gracie hate BS that keeps getting floated around.
See there is context to this shit you yougnsters dont get. The gracies wanted to also prove their art vs other “Popular” arts and ANYONE with a name of any kind. Which is why they were asking in all MA mags for fighters tio apply. Ichihara was a big name in Japan and a karate master and thats what they wanted. Oleg was known by nobody, as was sambo.
You’re preaching to the choir, my condescending friend.
It was a joke.
I’m 60.
I know your one of the local geezers, I was F’n w/you on the comment.
I resemble that, thank you.
did emin ever fight mma
I bet Rorion never said that.