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They had a Judoka later on that failed miserably against Shamrock. But Ultimate Fighter 1 had no one..
Which was a little strange..
Which was a little strange..
Did the Gracies leave out a Judo player in UFC 1 because it was deemed too similiar to GJJ?
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In Hulk Hogans book
He claims he was asked to be part of UFC 1 but he demanded they let his training partner in the tourney. On the night before UFC 1 hulk hogan and his training partner Brutus Beefcake were down in the hotel lobby playing video games when Royce came up to then and tried to hustle them by doing some street magic. Brutus and Hulk nearly beat Royce up but the UFC owner came down and demanded they all separate. Hulk was furious, he was a champion of a number of underground pride fights in the 70s, he deserved respect. He called up the matchmaker and said "I'm fighting Royce in round 1." The matchmaker said we want to save you two for the finals, biggest draw. Hogan said, "that's not gonna work for me, jack." Him and Beefcake left and never looked back. What could have been?
Note: He actually said all of that in his book.
He claims he was asked to be part of UFC 1 but he demanded they let his training partner in the tourney. On the night before UFC 1 hulk hogan and his training partner Brutus Beefcake were down in the hotel lobby playing video games when Royce came up to then and tried to hustle them by doing some street magic. Brutus and Hulk nearly beat Royce up but the UFC owner came down and demanded they all separate. Hulk was furious, he was a champion of a number of underground pride fights in the 70s, he deserved respect. He called up the matchmaker and said "I'm fighting Royce in round 1." The matchmaker said we want to save you two for the finals, biggest draw. Hogan said, "that's not gonna work for me, jack." Him and Beefcake left and never looked back. What could have been?
Note: He actually said all of that in his book.
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In Hulk Hogans book
He claims he was asked to be part of UFC 1 but he demanded they let his training partner in the tourney. On the night before UFC 1 hulk hogan and his training partner Brutus Beefcake were down in the hotel lobby playing video games when Royce came up to then and tried to hustle them by doing some street magic. Brutus and Hulk nearly beat Royce up but the UFC owner came down and demanded they all separate. Hulk was furious, he was a champion of a number of underground pride fights in the 70s, he deserved respect. He called up the matchmaker and said "I'm fighting Royce in round 1." The matchmaker said we want to save you two for the finals, biggest draw. Hogan said, "that's not gonna work for me, jack." Him and Beefcake left and never looked back. What could have been?
Note: He actually said all of that in his book.
Is that the same book where he said Metallica asked him to be their guitarist, but he turned them down, and he's flown around the world so many times for wrestling that he's a year younger than he actually is going by his birth certificate?
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They didn't want any of that Ruas smoke.
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Yeah and he had a celebrity boxing match with George Foreman after he stole the hamburger grill from Hulk. Foremen went hard and so Hogan drilled him and knocked him out. After that George was forced to give the rights to the grill back to Hulk.
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I heard they asked Big John McCarthy not to participate (he trained with them prior to UFC 1); not the same thing as in the OP but still relevant.
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Remco? He wasn't high-level like Christophe Leininger (1984 Olympic alternate) who faced Ken Shamrock in UFC 3. Ken cross-faced him and pounded him out. Royce couldn't easily overpower him like Ken, but I doubt Leininger had high-level NHB/MMA type submission skills in 1993. Literally no one was training for that except the Gracies and maybe a few others in Brazil and Japan. Most judo guys were more oriented to sport judo.
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They turned down quite a few guys allegedly. It was never a tournament of the world's best martial artists like it was presented to be, not even close. Gokor is the more famous story, they rejected him as he was a decorated Sambo and Judo guy, Rickson also didn't fight him.
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It took Remco like 13 minutes to submit a 165-pound Pencak Silat fighter, though. There was also a Dutch grappler (sambo I think) who was cornered by Gerald Gordeau. He won his first match via submission then decided not to continue.
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Yep, they could've also invited their non-BJJ foes from Brazil like Ruas, Hugo Duarte, Tadeau, etc. but none of them were asked to participate until after Royce left. Oleg Taktarov won a UFC-like tournament in Russia the same year as UFC 1 (1993) but also wasn't invited until after Royce left.
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Apparently Rorion told Art Davie not to invite Oleg Taktarov as he his skills were limited. This was after Oleg tapped out everyone in Rorions gym. Oleg even thought Rorion went to see Davie to make sure he got an invite. They avoided a lot of guys who could have got the better of Royce.
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Oh yeah, think it’s pretty known they manipulated at this point.
They weren’t inviting Ruas or Taktarov, let alone likes of Karelin, Cikatic, Yoshida, or any high level boxer.
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I've seen a rumor that Meng (allegedly the toughest pro wrestler ever in real-life scraps) was invited but I'm not sure if that's true.In Hulk Hogans book
He claims he was asked to be part of UFC 1 but he demanded they let his training partner in the tourney. On the night before UFC 1 hulk hogan and his training partner Brutus Beefcake were down in the hotel lobby playing video games when Royce came up to then and tried to hustle them by doing some street magic. Brutus and Hulk nearly beat Royce up but the UFC owner came down and demanded they all separate. Hulk was furious, he was a champion of a number of underground pride fights in the 70s, he deserved respect. He called up the matchmaker and said "I'm fighting Royce in round 1." The matchmaker said we want to save you two for the finals, biggest draw. Hogan said, "that's not gonna work for me, jack." Him and Beefcake left and never looked back. What could have been?
Note: He actually said all of that in his book.
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Even the matchmaking was very suspect. Royce starts out against a one-gloved boxer...a guy who really thought he could punch with one hand and grapple (with zero grappling experience) with his other hand? And by the final fight against Royce, Gordeau had both a broken hand and broken foot. That's a pretty touch handicap for a "savate" kickboxer.
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It was a showcase for Gracie Jiu-jitsu. Genius marketing.
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More like they were protecting their brand. They turned down a few well rounded for the time guys. They claim because their focus was single style vs single style. Reality they just knew the well rounded guys threatened the whole gambit. As the whole thing was a vehicle designed to elevate and advertise BJJ which absolutely worked. Judo also had a real threat to beat them just on its own.
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Rickson ducked Warrior for years...In Hulk Hogans book
He claims he was asked to be part of UFC 1 but he demanded they let his training partner in the tourney. On the night before UFC 1 hulk hogan and his training partner Brutus Beefcake were down in the hotel lobby playing video games when Royce came up to then and tried to hustle them by doing some street magic. Brutus and Hulk nearly beat Royce up but the UFC owner came down and demanded they all separate. Hulk was furious, he was a champion of a number of underground pride fights in the 70s, he deserved respect. He called up the matchmaker and said "I'm fighting Royce in round 1." The matchmaker said we want to save you two for the finals, biggest draw. Hogan said, "that's not gonna work for me, jack." Him and Beefcake left and never looked back. What could have been?
Note: He actually said all of that in his book.
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Yeah it worked.
As late as 2000, when Pride did their Open Weight GP, Royce was still the betting favourite to win if memory serves, as crazy as that sounds now.
