Gracie wasn`t a good UFC fighter, the UFC was awful in the early 90`s, was Tyson serious when he stated he would have been afraid to fight Royce Gracie?
Probably. However it's hard to say how well an elite boxer would have done against an elite BJJ practitioner back in the day. I think the same patterns apply, who gets to who first. Does Tyson land a monster punch or does Gracie take Tyson down. Now as far who is the more talented athlete, it's definitely Tyson. Take both guys start training them both in MMA at age 10 and have them fight at age 24. Tyson wrecks Gracie every time.
He was the best in the 90’s Gracie Mark, no one could match his BJJ really, but I don’t think he avoids a Tyson that’s throwing, I see Tyson clipping him with something weak and Gracie sleeping
Tyson understood the enormous advantage that a grappler has over a pure striker on the ground. The look of panic in the early days of MMA when a wrestler started to work a kickboxer on the ground was seen often. That said, with a couple of years of takedown defence training, Tyson himself would become a very big problem for the smaller and weaker grapplers like Gracie.
Royce didn't have very good takedowns and I find it hard to believe he could of beaten Tyson but at the same time we've seen what happens plenty of times when boxers fought in the early stages of MMA with no knowledge of grappling. For example James Warring who was a former World Cruiserweight Champion and had a background in kickboxing went to the finals of an MMA tournament and at 218 pounds lost to 180 pound Renzo Gracie and Warring couldn't stop this terrible takedown from Gracie. This content is protected
Exactly! I do suggest watching the other two fights he had before this though, first Warring knocked out a Savate fighter then he fought Erik Paulson who for most of the fight Warring had a death grip on Paulson's hair! Still Warring did better than any other boxer in 90's MMA!
Heres the link to those fights btw Warring vs Savate fighter This content is protected Warring vs Paulson This content is protected Here's a a interesting proto MMA match I saw on Reddit a few months ago btw Former Light Heavyweight champion Mathew Saad Muhammad vs a shoot wrestler Muhammad was far past his prime years and towards the end of his career but man that shoot wrestler took him out in no time at all This content is protected
Yeah I should of linked them fights, it was sad to see Saad Muhammad go out like that but he was way past his prime. Tamura was a decent fighter and this was his frist shoot fight so Saad had much more experience despite being way past it though.
Here's Matt Skelton trying out MMA just before he entered Pro Boxing and was a 70+ fight veteran in Kickboxing against accomplished 295 pound Freestyle wrestler Tom Erikson who fought Shannon Briggs in a K1 fight, look at how he was able to score a takedown from that much distance and how easy he made him tap. This content is protected
Here's Francois Botha's attempt at MMA here while past his prime at about 36 he is here I believe he fought Judoka Yoshihiro Akiyama and even with a 77 pound weight advantage Akiyama in his first Pro fight experience took Botha down in less than 10 seconds with an awful takedown: This content is protected
The WCC divided the participants into strikers and grapplers, ensuring the final would be that match-up. Submissions were not allowed in the striker group. That might've been the tournament Renzo stepped on one his opponent's neck after defeating him...maybe. Renzo also beat Maurice Smith in the 90s. This was after Smith's victory over Mark Coleman. Smith was the first kickboxer to have any sort of success in MMA. He doesn't get a lot of mentions anymore, but Renzo was special. I remember him tooling Frank Shamrock on the ground, though way undersized, back in 2007.
I may, or not, be an atheist; but this is blasphemy. Royce Gracie is the entire reason MMA is even a thing. Royce was the catalyst. He is the reason this sport exists. Royce won 3 out of 4 tournaments in which he faced 3+ opponents in each event. He isn't just a pioneer. He is the pioneer.
Gracie has beaten seasoned MMA fighters that were stronger, bigger and more athletic than he was and he-still beat them. It would not surprise me if he can do the same to Tyson.
Straight up Gracie would have won. If they both trained in MMA as kids I think Tyson as the superior athlete would have won. Tyson was also a very skilled and disciplined in his field.