I’m interested to see how Chris Leben and Stephan Bonnar do. There’s also supposed to be “the biggest announcement to date” in UFC history.
It’s starts in about an hour . . . I’ll be back after the show.
Anything interesting?
Royce Gracie vs. Matt Hughes on the May PPV.
I really don’t think this show works well live. Sure there’s some drama in it but when all of the fights end very early we’re left with a ton of filler material. Not sure if that added fight was live or pre-taped from earlier in the night. If it was live, then I feel justified in laughing my ass off at the idea of the producers calling in the standby fighters to fill some airtime only to have the fight end in 11 seconds. I’d rather see an hour of tightly edited fights than two hours of live fight interspersed with big set pieces.
I found myself underwhelmed by the announcement to change all things UFC, because I have never seen Royce Gracie fight. I only got interested in the sport last year and I’m guessing he was retired or something?
Royce Gracie was in the first few UFCs, and defined them. Not many Americans had seen Brazilian jujitsu before, and it revolutionized the MMA world. He was utterly dominant, winning from every conceivable position that, to untrained eyes, looked unwinnable.
I don’t think his return will change much, though. The world has adapted. Everyone know how to deal with the Brazilian style now, unless he’s going to bring something totally new to the ring. His prime was also some 15 years ago.
That said, I’m looking forward to seeing him in the ring again.
I think the wily veteran vs. the powerful champion could be a good match, but Hughes is just crazy strong, and he’s no slouch on the ground. Royce had no ground and pound game to speak of. I hope Royce doesn’t turn into another Frank Shamrock…
I think the wily veteran vs. the powerful champion could be a good match, but Hughes is just crazy strong, and he’s no slouch on the ground. Royce had no ground and pound game to speak of. I hope Royce doesn’t turn into another Frank Shamrock.
I’ll bet George St. Pierre is pissed…
Plus, Royce Gracie always wore a gi in the octogon. Haven’t seen anyone do that in about 10 years. Wonder if he will switch to trunks, since several times he used his gi to choke people out.
You’ll still see a fighter in a gi in Pride FC occassionally, but my understanding is UFC is now purely a no gi competition, unless they also announced that they’re allowing the gi again. The gi and the lack of time limits were two elements of the old UFC’s that gave Royce an advantage. JSexton summed up it up well; Royce made UFC and MMA in general what they are today, but I tend to think he’s made his contribution and will be much more evenly matched than when he totally dominated all comers with vastly superior ground skills. It’s sort of like if Orson Wells rose from the dead and filmed Citizen Kane II.
Unless he’s secretly developed the sooper dooper pressure-point dim mak instant pants-pooping knockout, I would have to give this one to Matt Hughes.
BTW, why is his name pronounced “Hoyce”?
I think it’s the spanish pronunciation. I’ve heard Rickson’s name pronounced Hickson, as well.
Sorry for the double post above.
Spanish? I assumed, with all the talk of Brazilian ju-jitsu, that he was Brazilian, where they speak the Portugese.
Meaning?
Nah . . . For one, GSP might get his shot at Hughes in April anyway, and if not, he’ll just end up beating a guy who beat a legend (I really don’t see Royce beating Matt Hughes unless he gets the UFC to bend to his own rules.)
I’ve always wondered about this. I knew there must be some strategic reason that he wore the gi, because it seems like it would be a disadvantage by giving his opponents something easy to grab onto, but how did he choke people with it?
I’d pay to see Matt Hughes poop his pants.
From the ground, while in the bottom guard position.
Gracie was awesome. I got into the UFC starting with UFC 2. Those were the days, man. Long before government busybodies whined about how it was so violent. My interest level nose-dived when they restricted the fighters to one fight per event.
For those who never saw the greatness of the original concept, each event was 8 fighters. The first four matches were won through submission or knockout only. In the event of a tie, where neither fighter was knocked unconscious or tapped out, both fighters were eliminated and an alternate was brought in.
Immediately after the fourth (last) first round match, the winners of the first two matches came out and fought against each other, after which the remaining two first-round winners fought each other.
After a short break, the winners of those two semifinal matches fought each other for the title. So to win the octagon, you had to win three fights in a row in the same night. There were no rounds, no judges, no weight classes, no gloves, and exactly three rules:
- No biting.
- No fish hooking. (Fingers yanking the corner of the opponent’s mouth)
- No head butting. (This wasn’t a rule until UFC 3 or 4, IIRC.)
The best feature was the lack of weight classes. I remember one match between a spindly little Mui Tai (sp?) kickboxer and a friggin’ sumo wrestler!
It was the most hardcore MMA contest imaginable, and it was dominated by Joyce Gracie. He truly was the greatest, winning the first two events fairly easily, finally losing in the finals UFC 3. That’s 8 consecutive wins.
Gracie was THE MAN.
I believe all the early events are still available on DVD, and I highly recommend them to any UFC fans unacquainted with the originals.
A gi is sort of a mixed blessing, with advantages and disadvantages. On the downside, a grappling gi is really hot and really heavy, it offers your opponent all kinds of handholds on you, and if someone knows what they’re doing it can be used as a weapon against you – the collar can be used to choke you into submission. If you’re in a bad spot, it’s harder to escape with a gi on.
On the plus side, someone like Royce wants his opponent to get a handhold on him. No doubt in early competitions a few people thought “lookit karate boy there! I’m gonna grab his kung fu suit and give him a beating!”, not realizing that they were putting themselves in grappling range and giving him exactly what he wanted. From there it offers other advantages, namely traction and a handhold on yourself. Grappling skin on skin can be tricky because you’re both sweaty and there’s nothing but hands, arms and legs to hold on to. A gi makes it a good bit harder for your opponent to escape and keeps him in grappling range (exactly where Royce wants an opponent), and makes it easier to apply a hold or a choke.
One example: Imagine being behind your opponent. Apply a half-nelson with your left arm, trapping his left arm with your hand behind his head. Reach around with your right and grasp the left cuff of your gi. Now you’ve got a handy garrote to choke your opponent out.
There are, of course, innumerable variations. It can also be used as a fulcrum in a joint lock. Oh, and if your opponents are grabbing your gi, then they aren’t grabbing you. Your gi feels no pain.
@Ellis: You forgot eye-gouging, but yes, it was virtually no rules. Remember the fight that Kimo lost because he was punched in the groin a good dozen times? :shudder:
@Otto: Yes, the Gracies speak Portuguese. Nearly all the sons have names that start with R, pronounced like H. I presume that’s a Portuguese thing, but I don’t speak it myself.
Whoops, you’re right. My bad.
Meaning I have to get my Shamrock brothers straight. I meant Ken Shamrock, in reference to his stint in the world of professional wrestling :rolleyes: , and his recent record, which has been less than stellar. He should retire from the ring, IMO.
Didn’t Tank Abbott try to make a comeback a couple years ago? How did that play out?
Dunno. Last time I saw him was Pride - Final Conflict. He lost on a choke to Hidehiko Yashida (spelling?).
Thank you, I was going crazy trying to remember the third rule. I knew it was three, but for the life of me couldn’t remember eye gouging. The head butt rule may not have been instituted until the governmnet got involved and watered the whole sport down with rounds, gloves, weight classes, etc…
As for Tank Abbott, his most recent fight was a 45 second loss by submission. I just saw it again last week, but I can’t seem to remember who it was that owned him like a bitch. Sure was a nice armlock; Abbott looked hopelessly outclassed.
Not that Tank was ever particularly good; he never won a UFC, but I don’t remember him getting humiliated quite so badly. Obviously the field has gotten better, so it’s possible that Gracie will be walking into the lions’ den, but he was so far and above the field in the early days that he might still be ahead of them to this day.
In my previous post, I mentioned that he didn’t win the third UFC. While that’s true, I remembered this morning that he didn’t lose a match in UFC 3; he broke his foot or leg or something in his second match that year, (and still won it), and so was unable to continue. So he did not go 8-1; 8-0 was his complete record from the first thre UFCs.
Eliminating both competitors in a tie was ideal. That was real incentive to avoid inaction; either you knocked the guy out, submitted him, or went home. It greatly reduced the need for the fighters to be separated.