would Royce Gracie be top 5 today?

I'm pretty sure in an mma fight Fedor would spark him out.

 

I was going to take this thread semi-seriously and ask "in what division do you mean?", but..

 

Screw the Rickson talk he fought to many cans besides Funaki. Renzo has the best standup of any Gracie and hes beat Champions like Maurice Smith, Takatorv, Frank Shamrock, Newton and Miletich.

 

Sometimes.

...but not ^ that ^ stupid.

 

He'd get destroyed. Not only has he not evolved much in over a decade, he couldn't hit 200 pounds unless he took the Travis Lutter diet.

 

That's not to say there aren't smaller non-HW athletes today (or conceivably in the future) who could be successful in a free-weight interdisciplinary (including integrated/evolved MMA) martial arts tournament staged today in the same manner that Gracie was...

...it just wouldn't be Gracie (not even prime).

 

What rules would that be under?

In a boxing match? Tyson, Lewis and Klitschko (either) knock Emelianenko out.

In MMA? It depends on the length, diversity and quality of the HW boxers' cross-training (and preferably at least some prior cage experience before stepping in with the #1 straight away)...

 

This is pretty much the universally accepted opinion.

 

Chuck has one of the best sprawls in MMA history and was a wrestler before he was a striker.

He would take down any boxer in his prime.

He would not stand with them.

The reason chucks ktfo so many guys is because they could'nt take him down so they were forced to strike with him.

Those same guys would not be forced to strike with a world class boxer with no ground game.

No boxer is doing much in mma unless they learn to stuff a takedown.

 

They would'nt tear jack **** up unless they could stop Chuck from takeing them down.

Chuck was asked how he would have fought Mike Tyson and he immediately said that he'd take him down, and he would unless Tyson developed a takedown defence.