This is my first post in the MMA forum and I'm not sure what the MMA community is like here. Haven't been following MMA as much as I did 12 years ago when Pride was the premier MMA event. But does anybody see a resemblance between Rickson Gracie and Floyd Mayweather? Both guys in their primes were undefeated and both guys came up with excuses to duck their rival. Rickson ducked Sakuraba and Mayweather appears to be ducking Pacquiao.
Saku would have been huge, but Rickson ''ducked'' alot of good fighters from that time period Im sure they could have done 90 000 in Japan in this one
True, but what set Saku apart from everybody else is that he defeated Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan and Rickson did nothing to represent that Gracies against Sakuraba.
Sakuraba didn't duck anyone. He was calling out Rickson but Rickson contented himself with pro wrestlers.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ock-Gracie-Sakuraba+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Pride offered 5mil to Rickson, which is huge money for mma even today but in 2000 it is amazing how big that fight would have been. I'm not sure it could be said Rickson ducked Sakuraba though.
By the time MMA rolled around in the US, Rickson pretty much only fought for money as he was getting up there (by professional standards). Rickson was 35 when the first UFC happened, so when 2000 rolled around he would have been 42. He had far more to lose than to gain other than money at that time due to his "400-0" record. Of course then there was the lose to Tripp, that didn't REALLY count because he didn't know the rules etc. etc.
Rickson didn't trust fighting for Pride after the dodgy results of the Royler/Sakuraba fight. As big as that fight would have been - the real Mayweather/Pacquiao of MMA was Couture/Fedor in 2007.
Vic! You're Brazilian so you should know the story - but Rickson went to Ruas' dojo and challenged him to which Ruas declined - stating that he needed time to properly train for the fight.
Dickson ducked Sakuraba. Even before Rockson died, Rickson gave some absurd excuses. "Saku does not have a warrior auraso I won't fight him" etc. In my opinion, the real Champion of the Gracie family was Royce. That guy was a bad mother ****er in his prime and was the guy the Gracie family used to represent them in the cage when they brought Vale Tudo to America.