obviously these were just clips and the quality was real low but here are some first impressions
- nice to see two almost pure grapplers go at it
- Yoshida looks bigger, stonger, sturdier base than Royce, Royce looks more flexible, mobile, faster
- by the end of the reel it appears that Royce is the far superior grappler, and I believe that in staight ground grappling, Royce would win every time
but, it should be noted, it looked like Yoshida was seriously gassed
and Royce didn't finish from the top, which I'm sure even Royce would agree is the primary goal
- I think Yosh would have been in serious troube if elbows from behind were allowed
- All in all, as a huge Gracie fan, it was awesome to see basically another installment to the Gracie In Action series in which a Gracie slaps around a helpless victim
Above all, I have respect for both guys for climbing into the ring and letting their technique do the talking
Peace
the clip I saw was only the first round...royce was ahead, but wasn't a domination in my mind...
i'd like to see the second round...people say that's when royce really turned it on...
the clip I saw was dragontail.tk....is this the one you saw?
From this clip it looked like the first part of the match was competitive, but by the end, Royce was just slapping Yosh at will
The first half of the first round was competitive, but Royce took over 5-7 minutes into the first round (I'll have to watch the match again to be sure of the time). I was extremely impressed with Royce's performance--he gave Yoshida a tougher time than Silva did.
absolutely, I agree STP...my point, I think, is self-evident...I believe in ground-grappling, Royce is superior...Yoshida is undoubtedly better at throws
Man, does anybody know when the full match will be available online?
lol, doesn't look like it will be
boo
The biggest thing to me was just how loose Yoshida's grappling was and how much control he lost when Royce took off his gi. That was a huge change. This is not indicative that Royce is a better grappler though, since Yoshida looked very tight in the first match.
Also, clearly, he does not have the instincts to defend his legs yet.
Royce worked him pretty good from what I saw, but I want to see it all.
Hawk
I got a tape of this event yesterday.
Royce had his way with for most of the second round, but even near the end when he was landing almost at will it never seemed like he was close to a finish.
Royce definately beat him up a bit, but don't buy for a second the story that it was one sided or that Royc beat the living shit out of him. If they had done another round Royce probably woulda caught him in a sub before long, as Yoshida was completely gassed.
Overall, Yoshida's poor condition cost him more than anything, I believe the reports that he didn't train as hard as he should have.
Royce did do some wonderful groundwork. He also swept Yoshida while he was standing a Royce was on the ground, pretty nice. Yoshida looked out of shape compared to his GP appearences.
agreed. I saw the fight and it was no beatdown. Royce was never close to finishing the fight he was just landing his jelly punches and pulling Yoshi's gi.
YOshida was closest to finishing the fight w/ an armbar.
Yosh was completely gassed and IMO still recovering from that devastating groin strike.
Think about it. Royce hasn't fought for the past few years, injury free and in good shape.
Yoshida got beat down by Tamura, had to have blood let out from his knee... He had a hard fight w/ silva and this was all within the past few months.... After Silva in mid-november you expect Yoshida to be in good shape 12/31? Gimme a break dude... the reports are real. Yoshida didn't train for Royce. He, like sakuraba, did it for the company.
I believe it was Nakamura who was quoted as saying Yoshida didn't really train. I think Tamura fucked his leg up bad, he's had trouble with it before that, IIRC.
Nakamura also said that he felt that Yoshida wasn't really motivated to fight Royce for some odd reason. I guess he didn't hold a grudge towards Royce for basically ruining his image in the western hemisphere.
Well, his image is okay with the majority of the western world after the GP, I think. Except for a few zombies.
He defied everybody's expectations against Silva. But judging from his diary entries he was really bummed out after that Silva fight! Everybody gained respect for him but I guess he couldn't feel satisfied because of his gold medal syndrome.
I just don't get how people think this was a win for Royce? It was a draw, Royce had the upper hand but it wasn't a beatdown. Also not wearing the gi and at the same time understanding gi techniques put him at a major advantage. I liked the whole BJJ/Judo angle but I guess Royce just admitted that he was no match for YOshida w/ the gi.
Hey marsupial, did you check the prefight footage w/ Royce cussing Yoshida out? That was so low class it was unbelievable. I could hardly believe that this guy saying "fuck off Yoshida" " he's a fucking liar" is one of the few legends of MMA. And Royler laughing at Yoshida in the corner saying " What kind of fight is this?" That was in bad taste. Poor.
All that drama around this fight just bothers me, it takes away from it for some reason. At least Royce tried to make up after the fight. Sorta. He also said some complementary stuff about Yoshida in post fight interviews. Royce did let himself get out of hand with some of that stuff, I think, the yelling and all. I never like to see that kinda thing; this is supposed to be honorable combat, not angry frat boy brawls. I don't know, the emotions surrounding this fight are just too over the top.
I think a rubber match will be interesting, Royce will be so emotional and unruly, Yoshida can get his head on and condition himself. It might even be possible for people to view it as a fight and not some ridiculous iconic BJJ vs. Judo crap. I hope it happens.
It was great idea for Royce to take the gi off; it had to throw off Yoshida's game plan. I know I didn't expect that to happen. Maybe Yoshida will pull the same on him if the third match happens. I'd like Yoshida to get comfortable w/o the gi anyway, I just think its better not to use gis in vale tudo.
good post Marsupial.
I think Royce definately showed why people always say his BJJ is for fighting more than sport grappling, just by how much better he did in MMA compared to the grappling match, where he got controled alot and didn't get a sweep or anything. Make it a fight, and Royce became a much better groundfighter than his grappling matches would say.