- Joined
- Jul 26, 2016
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Very well said!! He made all the fighters around the world realize that they needed change their game, they needed to learn bjj because they noticed that without that weapon in their arsenal, they couldn´t survive on the ground with those who had it.Royce is a fighter from a different time. Yes, by today's standards his MMA game is from the jurassic period. He has good fundamental Jiu-Jitsu but his striking game consists of a front kick and punches on the ground to open up submissions and that's about it.
Back in the stone ages he actually was a good fighter. He deserves the respect he gets. His career basically existed to show people what BJJ was and how effective it could be. He handled several guys way bigger than him and could take a punch if he needed to. He weathered the storm against Kimo and ate a solid shot from Shamrock, he also went to war with Sakuraba in 2000. The guy was tough.
He never evolved his game, never showed much interest in anything other than Gracie JJ, we saw how that worked for him against Hughes. He will always be a pioneer for MMA, can't take that away from him.