Prime Royce Gracie vs Prime Matt Hughes

[Princemanzpoper]

Hughes was tooled by Penn and was fortunate that Penn suffered a rib injury in their rematch.Most who saw Hughes fight with Verissmo would tell you that he picked up a gift decision there,arguably in his fight with Serra also.He did dominate Newton in their rematch,but got lucky as hell in their first fight.


Shamrock fought to survive against gracie and held him in the same position the entire fight,not once making the effort to move forward and put himself in a position where he could actually win the fight,and his win over Severn was hardly just "decent".


Hughes wasn't much better in 2002 than he was in 2000 either.

[jakkups]

I disagree, Hughe's was far more intelligent and dedicated between 2002 and 2006 especially. Prior to that he had gifts and skills but lacked discipline.

The Verrissmo and Serra fights were close but I had Hughe's winning them, there was no gifting of anything for Hughe's, if he was gifted those wins then Royce was gifted the win against Saku in the rematch. The Newton fight, he got a lucky break in the first one, but the fact that he didn't run and hide, he smashed Newton in their rematch proving that when it came down to it he was the better fighter. For the first Penn fight it seemed clear that Hughe's completely underestimated him, just listen to the build up with Matt getting into his head that he was too big for BJ and thought that he would outmuscle him. He paid for it and BJ came away with a deserving win. But rib injury or not, Penn couldn't get Hughes out of there in the first 2 rounds of their rematch and got beat fair and square. And BJ is a far better fighter all round than Royce. Matt had to deal with a guy who could wrestle, strike and was world-class at submissions. With Royce you just have to worry about his guard, as long as you stay out of it you will win everywhere else, i.e. the first Sakuraba fight.

I see the rematch with Shamrock differently to you. Whereas you see Shamrock fighting to survive I saw Shamrock controlling Royce in their rematch. Royce did nothing in the rematch but hope that Ken would make the same mistakes he made in their first fight. But he didn't, he figured out Royce and stifled anything Royce tried. Not to mention busting him in the eye when they were standing.

The Severn win was impressive given the size difference but again this was against a guy who knew very little about submissions at the time. Like I said in my previous post, Royce's competition during his prime was littered with guys who came from one discipline and didn't know anything about any other martial art let alone martial arts which involved submissions and groundfighting. Hughe's is more well-rounded than Royce, plain and simple. Not to mention Matt is more well-rounded than the majority of Royce's opponents. Royce's only chance to win is to catch Hughe's early before he gets slippery, otherwise Royce gets stopped much like he did in their actual fight.

[F l i c k e r]

There's been a thread on this before I think. But anyhow, I always went for Hughes. It's real simple to me. At the time royce was in his prime he only knew BJJ and the guys he was fighting knew one discipline as well. Royce has never been the best BJJ player but due to the competition he was facing he looked amazing. Not to mention they (Royce's opponents} weren't anywhere near the athlete that Matt was in his prime. I think it would be no different than their actual fight they had at UFC 60. Matt via TKO.

I second this notion.