Re: UFC Unleashed yesterday - Royce Gracie (Gracie vs Hughes coming s
I've seen a lot of Royce Gracie fights and the whole fight vs Sakuraba (90 minutes) twice. That fight was in 1999 or 2000, right? Sakuraba then was a well-rounded top MMA fighter, and the Royce did very decently against him. Sakuraba is also known to be the most capable fighter against Gracies specifically. Royce's gi got abused pretty horribly in that fight and he took a lot of damage because of it. Also he must have had like 100 free punches at Sakuraba's head and had he been only a slightly better striker, or maybe even just approached taking his punches more carefully, Sakuraba could have been knocked out easily at several points in the first 30 minutes. I may be wrong on this... but I think based on this fight, Royce is a good match for today's top MMA fighters and he's probably learned since then. He's more well rounded now than in UFC 1 and 2 days ... he's got a Karate black belt now and has done boxing training.
The fight against Hughes will definitely be a tough one but I think Royce is a fair match. Will be interesting to watch.
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