Wow in all of the fights I’ve seen him in I’ve never actually seen him lose before. If I’m not mistaken his record was something like 52-0, maybe 1 but anyway. This fight may be old but I just seen it last night when he lost to Matt Hughes. I think they said that Horace had stopped fighting and decided to come back and he already had 11-0 record.
But the way he lost was unbelievable. He was dominated the whole fight. Matt had him in that armhold I thought how was it possible for his arm to bend THAT FAR and him not tapping out yet alone it breaking. His arm looked like rubber. What was more disturbing was that his arm was still healthy after he escaped it.
But he still got knocked out. I’ve seen Horace take out some of the biggest dudes with his grappling techniques but this is the first time I’ve seen him lose and I’m sure I’m not the only one surprised.
I remember that fight (I think you’re talking about Royce Gracie?)
He didn’t dominate nothing in that fight. MMA has moved on, and Royce may be an influential trainer and figurehead, but as a fighter, he’s no longer relevant.
lol. It’s Royce Gracie. Yea, Portuguese has weird phonetics. Either way, yes it is pronounced Hoyce. Not Horace, wow.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Kalle wrote:
What year is this?
lol, my thoughts exactly. Didn’t that fight happen in like 05?[/quote]
06’ but close enough, regardless, Royce is out of his prime. Again, what year is this? The guy was an animal in like 94’.
I can predict the future though for those of you stuck in the past. He will come up positive on performance enhancing drugs after he wins the fight with Sakuraba.
LMFAO! I wasn’t thinking obviously. But the fight could be old but I just saw it last night for the first time. lol He may be older now but I never thought that Il’d see a fighter dominate him like Matt did.
Royce was never all that good as far as I understand. I never trained with him, but I hear within his family he wasn’t considered all that great of a fighter, definitely poorly rounded, and succeeded early on for illegitimate reasons. Without someone ringside shouting commands at him he was lost, and the matches he won he dominated because they were really just BJJ matches without his opponent’s knowledge.
Horace? LOL. But yeah, basically UFC 1-4 was: Royce knew BJJ, the guys they set up for him to fight didn’t. Royce would get killed by a laundry list of pretty everyone in modern MMA.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Horace? LOL. But yeah, basically UFC 1-4 was: Royce knew BJJ, the guys they set up for him to fight didn’t. Royce would get killed by a laundry list of pretty everyone in modern MMA.[/quote]
Yep.
The whole Hughes-Gracie thing was a farce. Royce got his ass handed to him by a 143 pound part-time janitor (Hideo Tokoro) just six months earlier. How anyone thought Gracie stood a chance versus a beast like Hughes is beyond me.
[quote]forkknifespoon wrote:
Royce was never all that good as far as I understand. I never trained with him, but I hear within his family he wasn’t considered all that great of a fighter, definitely poorly rounded, and succeeded early on for illegitimate reasons. Without someone ringside shouting commands at him he was lost, and the matches he won he dominated because they were really just BJJ matches without his opponent’s knowledge.[/quote]
I think that is overstating things a bit.
Royce was not considered the best fighter in the family (Rickson), but he is a tough SOB who has absorbed some tremendous beatings and still came out on top. Plus, he is the only Gracie who gave Kazushi Sakuraba any kind of run for his money.
Royce might not be great by todays standards, but deserves respect for being a tough old bastard who set the standard for a fledgling sport. He is the Babe Ruth of MMA.
I know this is going to sound anal but Gracie, going into the Hughes fight, was 13-1-2. His first lost, discounting the loss to Harold Howard, which was a forfeit, was to Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba.
I know it probably doesn’t matter. That said, seeing as it seems like Sakuraba is actually going to die for our entertainment we really should take every opportunity to promote his legend.
Total-MMA.com, which, one of the best MMA analysis sites, on the internet are, on their forums, doing a project called the MMA 50 in which they trying to put together the list of the top 50 MMA guys, based on various criteria.
If anyone is interested the thread where people discuss the criteria can be found at…
