What would of happened if an experienced Vale Tudo fighter had been in the first UFCs.
Here's some guys that were fighting before the first UFC that could have easily won the first UFCs AND beaten Royce.
Mario Sperry
Bustamante
Wallid
Ruas
Taktarov...maybe
Funaki...maybe
There's probably hundreds of guys in Brazil that could have done what Royce did, but like I said, these guys could have beaten Royce. Just based on having more Vale Tudo experience and possibly better BJJ.
Were there any other guys?
"that would of never happend, the fightrs were hand picked by rorion gracie "
Rorion could have messed up and put some tough russian in there....that would have been funny.
Sperry came in highly touted in Extreme Fighting, but ended up losing to Igor Zinoviev.
Art Davie also had really high expectations for Oleg going into the UFC, but he ended up helpless against Severn. Besides Oleg usually took A LOT of shots (although he was too tough to ever quit), and probably wouldn't have beat Ken in a no-time-limit fight either. (Their Superfight officially ended in a time-limit draw, but Ken was too strong for Oleg and by the end Oleg was just riding out the clock for a draw.)
Wallid got his ass beat by Takahashi.
Busta was tough as hell vs. Erikson who outweighed him by about 100 lbs., and made it to a 40-minute draw, but still you can't just assume that he would have eventually submitted Severn like Royce did.
All the guys you mentioned would have been interesting and tough individual-styles matchups for Royce. But you are taking for granted that they would have been able to beat everyone else as well.
Imo, out of that list Ruas was your best bet to have been able to beat Ken and Severn (as well as Remco, Pat Smith, and Kimo).
It's pretty safe to say Royce did it with 90% GJJ. Wallid's and Sperrys BJJ was probably better than Royce's. Plus they were probably more well-rounded.
It's not about first to invent something. It's about first to bring it to market. Rorian Gracie did that when no one else did, but yeah, there were plenty of guys in Brazil that could have done what Royce did.
"But again, the toughest opponent for them may not necessarily have been Royce, but rather bigger, stronger grapplers like Ken and Severn."
You make a good point. The reason why Royce beat those guys was b/c he didn't try to match their strength/power and go toe-to-toe. He played his game and not that of his opponents.
"It's pretty safe to say Royce did it with 90% GJJ. Wallid's and Sperrys BJJ was probably better than Royce's."
Wallid and Sperry have never been known for their guards. In Wallid's case, for being such a great top player, his guard blows. I don't know how Wallid/Severn would have ended, because I certainly don't see Severn finishing Wallid with slaps, and I don't see Wallid submitting Severn from guard. And Wallid getting top position is a very minute possibility.
Sperry had trouble with an Egyptian wrestler in ADCC 98 when he had to use his guard. The guy knew nothing other than wrestling and Sperry had to settle for a referee's decision after 15 minutes. Just something to think about.
"That fight was long after the first UFCs...it doesn't apply here."
Sure it applies. Erikson was a huge powerful straight-up wrestler. Busta was the smaller BJJ master. It was still the style-vs.-style days, before the era of cross-training. The analogy to Royce-Severn is sound.
Can you say you are 100% sure Busta/Sperry/Wallid would have been able to submit Severn from the bottom as Royce did? I'm not.
The bottom line is that while the BJJ guys almost always won in the early days, they didn't always.
Royce did.
Could they have beaten Severn and Ken? They could have.
The guys Royce fought had no clue! Tom Erickson was wise to what BJJ was and knew what to look out for. Same with the guys Sperry fought in ADCC. Even Severn wised up...and fast (Royce would have never won a rematch)
