What if Royce lost to Gerard Gordeau in UFC 1?

I really don't think that Rickson was ever a better MMA fighter than Royce, yes his Jiu Jitsu is better, but I think that wouldn't have really mattered in the early UFC's as Royce's groundwork was already good enough in relation to the other fighters that it would have been a case of diminishing returns with Rickson.

I feel Royce would be better able to deal with the early UFC fighters better than Rickson would have due to his heart, aggresion, and defense, also an intangiable that I can't quite find the right word for, maybe "intiative" or something along those lines. Rickson's takedowns and takedown defense were just flat out bad at times, definiately no better than Royces and significantly worse than Shamrock or Ichihara, and his striking and striking defense was even worse, clearly worse than that of Royces from what I've seen.

I think Pat smith might have been able to pull one out against Rickson, catching him off guard with his hands in that robotic stance, although I wouldn't favor him.

I really feel Rickson would have lost to Shamrock same for Ichihara, if they had it in their mind to keep it off the ground at all costs, theres really no way for Rickson to get either of them down, and they both, especially Ichihara would have battered him standing, I mean even Takada in the second fight was able to stay clinched up with Rickson for almost 10 minutes, cutting Rickson with a punch, hurting him with a knee, and then actually ending up with the Takedown before getting stupid and getting swept and subbed.

Funaki set the gameplan to follow, but was too confident in his groundgame, if he or the other fighters mentioned would have had an early sprawl and brawl type gameplan and really stuck to it with full commitment, Rickson would be pretty helpless.

I don't mean to insult Rickson, but Royce was much more impressive as an MMA fighter, however much less impressive he was as a pure jiu jitsu fighter, in the early UFC's than Rickson was against Takada and Funaki.

Rickson - Takada 2
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/rickson+takada+2/video/x12osr_rickson-gracie-vs-nobuhiko-takada-2_sport

Rickson - Funaki
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/rickson+funaki/video/x2j1nu_colosseum-2000-rickson-gracie-vs-fu_sport

 

rickson might have lost to the fighting preist to. lol. leopoldo or something. royce pretty much lost he couldnt fight after that

 

Kimo Leopoldo, and yea i agree, I didn't even think of him.

I see Ruas and Frye tearing Rickson apart, although Royce never fought them so its a bit off topic. I do feel that Rickson would have beat Severn though, as Severn's striking was just as bad and would have taken Rickson down.

 

yah in UFC 4 severen strikes where terrible if he had any common sense he would of owned gracie. he rid him for 17+ mins. if he just head butted or punched or learned some subs hed be good.

 

true. royce could barely take down that karate guy in ufc 4.

 

I'm getting it from watching his MMA fights, not his grappling matches, or his training, but his real fights; his slam in the first Takada fight was after 3 minutes of nothing, then a terrible shot that Takada shrugged off and threw a knee, which Rickson caught, thats how he got the slam, once it was basically given to him he got off a good slam, but he didn't set it up with any sort of technique.

Royce was at least decent at taking down from the clinch, he got Kimo down that way, Rickson was not good at it at all.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/rickson+takada+2/video/x82nz_rickson-gracie-vs-nobuhiko-takada_sport

 

how old were you then?

 

2. i didnt see it until i was around 6 tho.

 

wow. you've been exposed to ufc rather young. nice!!!!:good

 

ahah ure so full of ****.

 

HOW THE **** AM I FULL OF ****? u ****ing ***git my dad loved it and showed it to me u ****ing ***git.

 

Calm down there buddy. Let me ask you this, have you seen the UFC 1 once and than just stopped or you were kinda following the WHOLE thing since you were 6? Cause I've seen early UFC when i was really young too but it didn't really mean anything to me then.

 

well i always loved UFC but i usually just liked the highlights, but i saw every UFC.

 

See, the reason i was asking was because i was wondering, if you have been watching UFC for so long... why would you be asking or saying this?

 

yah. ok... i was the watching the first 4 with freainds and i was watchng UFC 72. big deal? i was wondering how it went from that to that. i dont remember when MMA practicioners started coming in.