Andre is dead on. For whatever reason, Sak just did not have any interest in winning that fight. From the very beginning when Royce was on his back, Sak just stood there and let Royce kick his legs 900 times. He threw barely any of his own kicks, didn't show any inclination to go to the ground, and didn't step back so that they could fight on the feet. Just stood there getting his legs kicked.
It'll be interesting to find out what all his talking was about in the third round, assuming we ever do.
Royces arm was fine after that fight, I trained with him the following weekend and he had a slightly black eye,
Hughes won, but Royce never got involved, these things happen in a fight, he got out of position with that wild elbow and got taken down and Hughes looked unstoppable that match.
Just like BJ easily overwhelmed Hughes the first fight dosent mean thats what will always happen (watch Hughes vs Penn 2 for proof)
Thats what makes MMA so interesting
Randy Couture dominates Liddell easily 1st fight,2 and 3 fights he gets ko both times
"Im gonna go ahead and say thatthe fight was worked. Sakuraba just didnt fight. He was able to easily defend whatever that Royce attempted, but never really took initiative."
Sadly, this is my worst fear coming true. This is something that i don't even want to believe because Saku is one of my heroes and it is my opinion the one throwing the fight should be bashed.
If there is a rubber match anytime soon or NYE I will consider this a worked match.
This fight went the way it did because Saku's body, knees and neck are destroyed.
If Royce had, over the course of his career, fought Silva, Noguiera, Mirko, Rampage, and Igor, we wouldn't be talking about this fight, because Royce would never have come out of retirement. And I say that with all due respect to Royce as a fighter - I'm sure he would still be willing to fight, but there's no way his body would hold up after that level of beatings.
These are just more lame excuses to try and hide the fact that Sak's legacy, especially as it pertains to the Gracies, was destroyed by Royce last night.
That's right, Royce destroyed Sak's legacy by being knocked down, failing to take Sak down, failing to prevent him from passing his guard, failing to sub him, failing to hurt him standing, failing to hurt him on the ground, failing to come anywhere close to a sub attempt, failing to control position, but "pushing the action." Those sure were some devastating knees to the thigh, though!
EVILYOSHIDA,
usually we see pretty close to eye-to-eye on things but I gotta ask you, as it seems you've bordered on trolldom with these anti-west pro-japanese posts..
But where does this stuff about sakuraba wanting royce to verbally quit etc come from?
I've read the Japanese newspapers and sports magazines, and they quote sakuraba as having been actually really happy about the rules royce requested.
He wasn't thinking of it as special rules, he was thinking of it as "real japanese rules." or in other words, he said the best is "one round - ipponshoubu" - one round, win or lose is decided by the catch (either ko or submission).