Sounds like this may have been the most important seminar you could have taken without realising it.
(1) Royce shows that he is a master of multi-tasking. An important trait not just in life but in GJJ. Teaching a seminar and making a new business venture simultaneous is what leads to successful growth. Lead by example.
(2) Royce made ppl feel uncomfortable because that’s how ppl learn. The more ppl walk on eggshells, the more they do not want to make a mistake. Again, Royce is a grandmaster type.
(3) You were yelled at for disguising your rank because it was a test. He KNEW you were a black belt. He just wanted to punish you for trying to be deceptive to a grandmaster by slyly going “nogi”. What you should have done was wore something to signify your rank like perhaps the BJ Penn no-gi shorts that have a black belt graphic on it.
(4) Royce promoted ppl that “passed” the test and to the same rank as him. Royce does not believe he is “above” others. Sorry you weren’t included in this group of elite candidates.
(5) Amount of content to teach at a seminar is important. Too little and the students feel gypped, too much and the students do not grip the material. Royce knew the perfect amount and thus cut the seminar short, as a grandmaster type knows when to “call it”.
For a Royce seminar he taught how to get up from sitting the right way for mma or any type of self defense situation and if you got up the wrong way he would make you do it again his way, then the next person who got up the wrong way had to do it 2x and the next 3x and so on, by the end it was up to 50 or so for the person that did not get up the right way, did this happen to anyone else who took a seminar from Royce?
In between a comment or two about Royce’s people contacting Mike Tyson to try to put together a fight, Royce relayed the following sentiment.
With the knowledge Royce has if he does not help us learn then who is the bad guy ?
The comparison was to a man in the desert that has plenty of water but does not offer any water to a person suffering in the desert. If I have plenty of water in the desert and do not offer it to help someone then who is the bad guy ?
^^^^ I want to mention that comment was not offered to the larger group but rather to a smaller group of us chatting with Royce off to the side of the main area/ trading knowledge.
i wasn’t, i just heard the doogie story from someone that was. brett had a couple of royce seminars starting in 95’ i think it was. That was a good run all the way from greenbough AlaBAMA!!
I think we probably see Ken vs Art, which Ken wins.
And Funaki x Royce.
I think Funaki would fuck up Gerard. His takedowns are a lot better than Royce’s. His ground work is not as developed, but more than enough to get Gordeu I think.
I think Funaki is big enough and experienced enough at that point to not get tapped like Ken did. A fight with him and Royce is really interesting. I like Funaki there, but I might be thinking with my heart as much as my brain.
I wouldnt be surprised either. In fact, he surely did. That said…
…there is a pretty sound logic to how the matchups were made. Boxing v BJJ is an ages old debate. Shamrock vs Smith was a match of big man grappling vs striking. Gordeau vs Tuli was the longest range striking vs the largest grappler. And Rozier v Frazier was a street fight.
All entertaining matchups with a solid reason. I dont think there are any permutations that would have made it any harder for Royce on that night
I don’t see Funaki causing Royce any more trouble then Ken did. They just weren’t ready for him at the time. Funaki in the early UFCs is fun to think about though.
I’ve thought a lot about those early events and whether the draws were done in Royce’s favour. But I just don’t see it. I mean you could argue he had favourable first opponents. Jimmerson, ichihara, Van Clief were all higher profile easier opponents. But Kimo sure wasn’t.
And then before the finals you had Shamrock and Remco in 1&2 who would had to have been seen as the most dangerous opponents and both were in Royce’s half of the bracket.
I think 3&4 it’s possible Shamrock and Severn were set up opposite Royce on purpose, but I think that’s just for buildup. Neither had tougher roads to the finals IMO. Leininger is a tough first matchup for Ken in UFC 3, but Kimo and then Yarbourough is not joke either.