he was special for the time UNIFIEDTEAM1. Look at what happened when Royce fought a guy that knew JJ and was agile...Saku beat down Royce.
If Royce was THAT special he wouldnt be reduced to Gimmick fights now-a days and wouldnt come close to being tapped by a Matt Hughes whom has trained in JJ for many many years less.
Sorry but The Gracie name def holds a place in MMA history, but the name doesnt really do much for me anymore unless this is a Gi comp.
Royce was special due to the marketing hype. There were plenty of BJJ/VT fighters in brazil that would have done the exact same thing he did, but they didn't.
It's like a computer genius inventing the PC, but not knowing what to do with it, then someone like a Jobs/Gates buys the rights to it for $25,000 and becomes a billionaire off of it.
Rickson said in an interview one time that he and his brothers had more success in NHB then other BJJ champs, because they were in the U.S. for a long time, training to beat big American wrestlers in Vale Tudo.
"If other BJJ BB are better mma'ers, why don't they own the belt?
3 time UFC champ Biatches!!!"
They weren't great marketers like Rorian. That goes back to my genius vs. marketer analogy.
Ok...to all the haters...if you take out the "should a, could a, would a" statements, their posts would be empty.
How about we discuss what Royce DID do. Like fight and defeat 3-4 fighters per night in the early UFCs...against fighters all 1-3 weight classes above him. How many of your big headed UFC guys do this even one time now? How about two championships in a row?
Does Chuckie fight AND win more than one fight a night? Does he fight ABOVE his weight class?
And yes, Rickson was NOT used because he was considered the best Gracie fighter at the time.
Yes, Royce was and is special. Not God, but a very large contribution to the formation of the sport we call MMA. What's wrong with that?
cxx- you cant compare. diff times, diff athletes, diff training.
cant do it buddy
vengence- you are kind of missing the point though. You have to look at things in context of the era.
It's the same as you would in boxing with the old legends- would you say Jack Johnson or Rocky Marciano couldn't fight or weren't that "special?" Of course not.
That's the point. Royce's contribution GAVE us the whole SPORT! the whole training methods that came after were a DIRECT result of these fights and what fighters HAD to do to be competitive.
There was a lot special about Royce. No he was not the most talented BJJ guy it the world (but an awesome fighter). However, he was a skinny kid who took on fighters of all weights and styles then beat them with his families art. He opened our eyes to BJJ which means he will always be an icon for BJJ and MMA. The sport has evolved but Royce, Rickson, Renzo and the rest of the Gracie family will always be the pioneers of MMA.
The UFC was going to take off regardless of Royce and BJJ. If he had never entered, some other fighter/style (probably Shamrock)would have reigned until eventually everyone figured out how to beat him. Take away Royce and Ken most likely would have become the number one UFC fighter during that period, a catch wrestler who opened the eyes of the world to grappling (sound familiar?) A BJJ fighter would have eventually entered in and added another dimension to what guys like Shamrock were doing.
Don't overestimate the effect Royce had. The UFC would have been popular regardless of what fighter, or style, reigned supreme at that time.
"yet Royce almost always left the cage with so much as even a scratch on his face"
Shamrock and Kimo banged his face up pretty good. The guys he managed to leave the ring without a scratch against were completely clueless on the ground and not even particularly worthy represenatives of their arts.
You have to realize that almost every fighter during the first three years of the UFC were strictly B and C level in their own respective sports.
"Rickson didn't do it cause he actually has some muscle on him, and selling gracie jiu-jitsu as the everyman equalizer works better with a lanky "regular" guy "
not rorions exact words ,but close
Guys
In the 1970's as a kid I wanted to be a kung fu master. Why? = Bruce Lee and I was small like Bruce Lee, Hence picked on all the time.
Today I am a 45 year purple belt in BJJ and loving it
why = Royce Gracie
When you young guys get my age and are able to tool
young studs when they first walk in the door who bigger, stronger and with unlimited stamina,
you will think to self how effective BJJ really is and that without Royce convincing the world of its effectiveness, these studs would be able to whip your
ass because you would not of known about it.
Guys I have alot more confidence in my self now and it is all due to Royce Gracie, that makes him my hero.
Signed Former Coward.
"So, why didnt he continue after Kimo?"
1995 UW INTERVIEW.
RG: I could not see.I had big blank spaces in my vision
I hoped they would go away before the fight began.
UW:you could have avoided the technical loss and withdrawn from the locker room.why did you go into the cage ?
RG: I came to fight
yes
By this thread's standards, people like Jackie Robinson couldn't be considered special .. i mean fuck, he'd probably suck compared to today's baseball athletes, and i'm positive he wasn't the first black guy to pick up a baseball bat and hit a ball with it.
Benjamin Franklin's (lifestyle aside) "discovery" of electricity must be discounted because i'm sure thousands of others throughout history had seen what lightning could do.
What Royce is/was is a pioneer.. not of fighting, or vale tudo, or hell even the UFC. But he, his persona, his demeanor and his look, opened people's eyes to the art of BJJ.
I'm sure lots of other people could of won the UFC back in the day... but they didn't, and you can paint it any way you want, but you can't erase history nor his obvious impact on BJJ and martial arts in general.
And any Brazilian black belt that says they could of done the same thing back in the day, is most likely right.. but also jealous. Deal with it.
Actually lots of people here are questioning his influence also.
And yes, he was special, perhaps not gifted, but it takes a special kind of person to have the kind of influence he's had in the world of martial arts.
How many of you study bjj & hang out on forums about mma? His fights started all the buzz. How could this normal guy beat all those other black belts/streetfighters. Now the sport has evolved into something great. if it wasn't for him I still think kung fu is this best.
royce will always hold a special place in mma
"YOU PUT THE DEVIL ON THE OTHER SIDE....IM GOING TO WALK IN TO FIGHT" and smiles
hell yeah he was........