How good was Rickson Gracie

Competitions in Brazil had been going on since the late 1930s, it was certainly highly structured in Rickson's time with the major competition being the Copa company de jiujitsu which Rickson was unbeatable in. Only major difference was the sport hadn't grown internationally then, but Brazil still dominates the mundials.

No reason to believe he wouldn't do great today if he was in his prime. Most of the more modern greats like Marcelo Garcia and the Mendes bros rave about the skill of Rickson when they've trained with him. Even Andre Galvao

This content is protected

 

MMA didn't exist 10 years before that point. Sakuraba had risen to prominence less than 2 years before then so you can't say he was ducking him.

 

I'm not disputing that Royce has the better resume, I'm just maintaining that Rickson was the more skillful grappler and superior athlete. Since neither had any real striking ability and relied solely on their grappling, I believe Rickson H2H was the more capable fighter.

 

He's made all sorts of outlandish claims over the years. Why are you pretending that this isn't a thing? It's one of the long-standing jokes/memes in MMA circles for a reason.

 

There is such a thing as "MMA wrestling." I.e fighters whos wrestling works in the context of MMA better than it would in actual wrestling competition. The same applies to BJJ and other arts. Not saying that this is necessarily the case here, but it certainly could be. What we do know is that Royce accomplished far more in MMA and thus is the greater fighter.

 

Yeah he's said some really ridiculous comments about fighters over the years, like how Noguiera's jiujitsu was amateur, Fedor was just an "ordinary" fighter, current fighters are poorly trained etc etc...You know who else made many outlandish comments about many other fighters? Larry Holmes. "Lennox Lewis has no skills", "Klitscho bros have no jabs or hearts", "Foreman is a bum", "Rocky Marciano couldn't carry my jockstrap" etc. It doesn't make Holmes a fraud or invalidate his achievements. There's a difference between making ridiculous comments and some nut inventing an entire fictitious history about himself.

 

It doesn't invalidate it because making dumb comments isn't the same as being a professional fraudster.

 

Yes Holmes had a better boxing career than Rickson had in mma, no ****, but that wasn't the point I was making.