UFC Unleashed yesterday - Royce Gracie (Gracie vs Hughes coming soon)

[phydaux]

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gus,

I'm quite interested in learning about UFC/Pride fighting, from a spectator's point of view, but I'm having a hard time finding any sort of intelligent discussion on the subject. Sherdog seems to have a bunch of fanbois who love to fight over which organization is better; is there a better board out there?

yasher

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MMA.TV

There is a link at the top of the page to The Underground Forum. Best MMA forum on the internet.

Also, there is a sister forum called The Otherground. That's much like OOT here. I hang out there all the time.

[antifish225]

I agree with lots of the above, should be a good fight, I think hughs will likley win....BUT......he is currently a 3 to 1 favorite, my money will be ROYCE as that spread is just too big (Plus I am in my mid 30's and watched all the early UFC's on PPV - I loved Royce back then)

[Performify]

For those interested in the upcoming UFC:60 this weekend, I've dropped my usual full card predictions in this thread in Sports Betting. Even if you're not interested in wagering on it, you can use my writeup as a pretty decent preview of the fighters styles / etc. i've also got a pretty lengthy writeup on Gracie / Hughes, as the main event deserves.

The card is pretty disappointing overall, but there should be a couple good fights there.

[Hoya]

Am I the only one that thinks Hughes might try to keep this standing for a while?

[cbloom]

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A well rounded fighter like Fedor or Sakaraba or Vanderlai Silva just didn't exist until after the first couple UFCs (because nobody besides the Gracies were training that way).


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I don't think that's completely right; the Russian Sambo guys were always very well rounded, but their style and fighters weren't making it over to the Western world until just recently.

http://stratfordsombo.tripod.com/art...history-2.html

Ironically Sambo/Sombo and BJJ are both modern/practical adaptations of ancient Jiu Jitsu, whereas Judo is a modern stylized form of Jiu Jitsu developed for less violent use (competition/submission).

[Performify]

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Am I the only one that thinks Hughes might try to keep this standing for a while?

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You're not the only one. Hughes will do his best to keep the fight standing. He was pretty extensively interviewed on Sherdog, and so was Pat Miletich, and both said Hughes intends to keep the fight standing. Hughes went as far as to say that he'd stand up out of Gracie's guard when and if the fight goes to the ground.

However, Gracie has a very significant reach advantage on Hughes, both arms and legs, and I think Hughes is not going to keep the fight standing as much as he thinks. Gracie will get this fight to the ground.

Its probably not going to be nearly as exciting as anyone thinks. Hughes isn't going to want to take a lot of chances on the ground. Gracie has a tremendously defensive guard, and with his long legs he can keep Hughes from landing a lot of significant strikes on the ground.

We'll see. Ultimately, i really wish this was a better format - at bare minimum five rounds, and ideally ten minute rounds instead of just the standard five. In a five round, ten minute bout, you'd see someone win. Instead, odds are this is headed to a Hughes win by a rather boring decision.

[jokerthief]

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Am I the only one that thinks Hughes might try to keep this standing for a while?

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You're not the only one. Hughes will do his best to keep the fight standing. He was pretty extensively interviewed on Sherdog, and so was Pat Miletich, and both said Hughes intends to keep the fight standing. Hughes went as far as to say that he'd stand up out of Gracie's guard when and if the fight goes to the ground.

However, Gracie has a very significant reach advantage on Hughes, both arms and legs, and I think Hughes is not going to keep the fight standing as much as he thinks. Gracie will get this fight to the ground.

Its probably not going to be nearly as exciting as anyone thinks. Hughes isn't going to want to take a lot of chances on the ground. Gracie has a tremendously defensive guard, and with his long legs he can keep Hughes from landing a lot of significant strikes on the ground.

We'll see. Ultimately, i really wish this was a better format - at bare minimum five rounds, and ideally ten minute rounds instead of just the standard five. In a five round, ten minute bout, you'd see someone win. Instead, odds are this is headed to a Hughes win by a rather boring decision.

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Hughes has a really long reach for a 5'9 guy though 73.5". Hughes will knock out Royce. First or second round. There, I am now on the record.

[Bob L]

A few things to point out.In the early days Royce fought 2-3-4 opponents in 1 night.As well if there were rounds they were long enough they didnt come into play.Also Royce could lay on his back to what seemed forever -just waiting for his opponent to make 1 mistake and he would get him to tap out.Now because of boredome for viewers the fighters get to be broken up and will stand again.Keep in mind becuase Royce would fight 3-4 times in 1 night he would go out of his way to avoid striking (and save broken hands,fingers etc) and make the opponent tap out.As well back then there were no wieght classes -sometimes opponents weighed double or more.
Although in old rules I would like Royce to win -but the new rules really favor a great striker and decent ground person-which points to Hughes.If they get to the ground Hughes just needs to stall and defend enough to get broken up or have round end-then they are back on feet and adv Hughes.
No rules like UFC1 -adv Gracie
Todays UFC -Hughes big adv

[TriangleChoke]

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A few things to point out.In the early days Royce fought 2-3-4 opponents in 1 night.As well if there were rounds they were long enough they didnt come into play.Also Royce could lay on his back to what seemed forever -just waiting for his opponent to make 1 mistake and he would get him to tap out.Now because of boredome for viewers the fighters get to be broken up and will stand again.Keep in mind becuase Royce would fight 3-4 times in 1 night he would go out of his way to avoid striking (and save broken hands,fingers etc) and make the opponent tap out.As well back then there were no wieght classes -sometimes opponents weighed double or more.
Although in old rules I would like Royce to win -but the new rules really favor a great striker and decent ground person-which points to Hughes.If they get to the ground Hughes just needs to stall and defend enough to get broken up or have round end-then they are back on feet and adv Hughes.
No rules like UFC1 -adv Gracie
Todays UFC -Hughes big adv

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I agree with you completely...i wish it had the old rules though because it was more true to real life combat....nobody tells you to break up and that the round ended when youre out on the street.....
And i just wanted to add for the comments on his fight against severn...Royce in no way got whooped in that fight....you guys are just going with what those commentary dudes back in that day that didnt know a damn thing about BJJ...they kept going on about how severn was in the mounted position and had him where he wanted and that royce was on his back and at disadvantage. Royce had him in his guard the whole time, its a damn good position for him, and severn was never in the mounted position, for this to have happened his pelvis would have to have been at royces stomach or chest, in other words = he never passed royces guard.....i mean for gods sake those guys didnt even have the slightest idea about the triangle choke, when royce got him into it, they were just like, oh well hes not going to do much with this since hes got his shoulder in their too...well the shoulder is actually vital for that choke to work...
in any case these guys maybe well rounded fighters, but that only means that they are pretty good in several fields....Royce is EMMINENT in his field , which is the ground work...so if he can take it there hes definetly got a big advantage...

[KDawg]

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Ultimately, i really wish this was a better format - at bare minimum five rounds, and ideally ten minute rounds instead of just the standard five. In a five round, ten minute bout, you'd see someone win. Instead, odds are this is headed to a Hughes win by a rather boring decision.

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I agree with this fully. Part of what made the Sakuraba/Gracie fight so legendary was the unlimited rounds part of it. The problem is that Nevada isn't going to bend on the rules for this fight at all. I wouldn't have any problem with UFC having like 3 or 4 undercard matches and have an extended time limit for this match at all, since that is how gracie works at his best and Hughes has never been tested like that because the uber long fights don't exist like they did ten years ago. I think a special rules fight here would also let us see Hughes' full range of techniques and would lead to a much better fight since both of them would have to engage at some point due to the exhuastion factor