would Royce Gracie be top 5 today?

You don't actually believe that do you?

I mean, all due to respect to Rickson, but I think even in BJJ Jacare would beat him and plenty of no-gi guys as well.

 

Chuck Liddell was a good D1 wrestler, captain of his team as well, and would take down any boxer in MMA and pound a hole in their head. He also has some nasty kicks.

 

:good

 

:good Agreed!!

 

:good An honest post! It reminded me of watching UFC 1 and wondering "What if a world class boxer (Such as Tyson, at the time) fought in this?" But of course, MMA has evolved to such a degree that the question is not longer feasible. Any boxer who attempted to win an mma fight on boxing skill alone would probably find himself in a bad spot very quickly.

Quite simply, boxing and mma are two entirely different sports.

Ask yourself this "Could the best table tennis player in the world beat Roger Federer?" At table tennis? Undoubtedly! At tennis? No chance!.

 

That is probably because Dan Severn was a heavyweight and Royce Gracie was a welterweight/middleweight.

They fought at a time when the UFC had no weight class (Which does make Gracie's achievement even more laudable).

Both are in the UFC "Hall Of Fame".

 

:good Excellent post!!

 

Travis Lutter diet!!

 

:good I could not agree more

It was the manner of Hughes defeat of Gracie (Absolute domination) rather the defeat itself that was surprising (To me) but then I had expected Royce to have developed some stand-up during his years outside of the octagon!!! And, as you rightly say, the sport is evolving at such a pace that people are starting to question Hughesl!!

 

no

 

I agree.

I was shocked at the thread on that other forum.

 

Boxing and MMA are not two different sports. These guys have the physical and mental talent to fight. This is why MMA come from single disciplines and it is also why boxers like Cintron, Klitschko and Hatton have been successful at other sports.

 

forget about fedor. alexander emelianenko would murder royce!