Well Gracie has trained MMA as a kid, so did many of this opponents that were bigger faster and more athletic than he was, and still won. Gracie’s advantage is that he is too technical and flexible, Tyson might get beaten like the rest.
I think Gracie was ahead of his time, but I don’t consider him a true MMA fighter or the guys he fought as true MMA fighters. I think Gracie showed how superior BJJ is to other combat styles and now it’s a must for any MMA fighter, but I don’t think Gracie’s 1990s style would work today. If he trained in current techniques I think he would have been a beast and demolished everyone else though.
I think around the time Matt Highs came around was when MMA fighters started getting good as a whole. I do miss pride though. Those were the best days because it was a bit more brutal and there was a true international presence. UFC pretty much just filters for US and Brazilian fighters.
Pride FC was more raw and savage, less restrictions than UFC, I think those people were generally more battle hardened and able than the pampered modern day UFC fighter. I do agree, UFC has a bias for Brazilian and American fighters.
That was a great format and the World Combat Championship really had great production values and a excellent 8 man event.Renzo was my favourite Gracie....to stay in and around the top from 1995 to 2001 like he did equipped with so little was fantastic. By the early Pride events...the myth of the Grace's was being shattered but still its allure remained because so powerful were the Gracie infomercials of the first 5 ufcs...the WCC tournament...Rickson in Vale tudo 94/95....even Ralph Gracie in Extreme Combat Championships....they were loud brash and were calling out everyone....just everyone from 1970s kung fu martial arts legends....80s world champion kickboxers....Hollywood martial arts heros....Mike Tyson.....it can't be disputed Royce beat Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn....2 good wrestlers...one pro....the other olympic...but both improved rapidly in this new sport after the 1st loss to Gracie...the Gracies had been cross training for generations....Bruce lee apart the rest of the world were blissfully unaware of cross training...Street fighter 2 and bloodsport pitted style v style....but no one had 2 or 3 styles......the Gracies did and for around 2 years they exploited it.....than all of them got out quick.....except Renzo who carried on flirting with the idea of the Gracies being unbeatable...his knockout over Oleg Taktarov fresh off his UFC 6 win earned him that right....but I beleive already by ufc 8-15 the gracies were yesterday's men.....don frye,Mark Coleman and Mark schulz ,than Mark kerr and the dangerous Russian igor vovchanchyn were superior fighters......once sakuraba emerged .......all that said you got to hand it to Royce ge came back to a Nhb landscape that had expanded rapidly in 4 years to fight in that 2000 pride gp....which represents the greatest era of pro fighting in my lifetime....by 2001 the Gracies were finished also rans....I doubt in truth Royce would have survived tank abbot in ufc 6...he quit cos the competition heated up and came back for the diminutive sakuraba...who wasn't gonna hurt him as badly as a vovchanchyn could...... Going back to Tyson.....the effect ufc 1-5 had and the propaganda of the Gracies and Art Davie...the total support they got from martial arts magazines of the time....their feeling was tyson would be on the matt in 20 seconds.....the truth is with hindsight......Royce and the gracie standard double leg takedowns were easy to counter for a athlete like Tyson with only 3 months takedown defence training...up close tyson would have landed some shot and put Royce in a coma.....but like I say the tournaments were manipulated gaslighting.....tank abbot wouldve shattered Royce chin too......Royce and rickson just handpicked C level opponents. Like I say when Royce left the scene...1996-2001 it went into stratosphere in levels....2001-2006 even more and we saw that when Royce got beaten with utter ease by a over respectful matt Hughes...
Who really cares about some rolling around on the ground garbage. Pulling a man to the ground or kicking his legs is basically the same thing as hitting a man in the nuts or eye gouging. A cheap gay tactic for men who can't fight. MMA built a whole sport around that crap.
Tyson is being humble. The way Tyson was especially back then he didn't give a **** who anyone was and would fancy it against anyone
The gracie clan were all running off their mouths....and there were a lot of mouths to feed 40 or 60 family members used to be part of Royce entourage and all needed feeding. That $50,000 cheque he said he was taking then all to disneyland with was never gonna stretch far.......a nice $25,000,000 handout from Mike tyson though would do nicely even though Royce would've looked like he got hit by a car afterwards
Most fights end up on the ground. If you have ANY training on that its a huge advantage. Mike would get off a shot before Gracie closed the distance. If Mike doesn't land something good he gets taken to the ground and becomes a fish out of water.
That was the early days of MMA. That was the kind of thing that happened to strikers with no ground game. The fighters today are in general much more well rounded.
Comments this remind of the boxing mentality of "Fight me like a real man!" But WAIT! No kicking, kneeing headbutting, elbows, takedowns/slams or submissions! Embarrassing lol
Watch two men fight - they box and throw punches. Now watch women fight. They grab each other's hair, they roll around on the ground, they kick each other's shins. MMA isn't street fighting, it's female fighting! That's why female MMA fighters are better than female boxers, it's their natural way of fighting.
Ok bro LOL By the way kicking someone elses shins isn't really affective as that's giving them the opportunity to block but it's okay you only know what boxing is and are just ignorant to MMA or even other stand up arts like Kickboxing, Muay Thai or Lethwei.
In those early MMA fights, most of the fighters were one dimensional. Meaning their background was in a single discipline. Most had never seen BJJ before and had zero idea what to do when taken off their feet. The game has matured and evolved greatly since then. Most MMA fighters are now more multidimensional and are familiar with ground fighting. I think Tyson was just being honest that if he was taken off his feet by Gracie that he'd be in some trouble. Of course if Tyson landed a shot on Gracie, he'd probably would be sleeping to this day.
