Quotes about Rickson and his JJ ability

I will ask Megaton about this story to see if its true. I'm helping him prepare for europeans tournament.
 
Around 2006ish, Brazilian Top Team fighter Paulo Filho said something in the likes of:

"I have trained with the best guys from master Carlson Gracie and I don't want to diminish anyone, but no one has done to me in sparring what Rickson has done in the past couple of days."

Like someone posted in this thread earlier... some people not even associated with the Gracie family have come out to say that he is definitely the BJJ phenom everyone says he is.
 
shadowskip said:
The thing is, Rickson is old. There are lots of way to get him even if he's hard to beat. Guns, bombs, poison, etc.
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Not sure I follow. Young people are immune to guns, bombs, and poison?
 
chaps said:
Around 2006ish, Brazilian Top Team fighter Paulo Filho said something in the likes of:

"I have trained with the best guys from master Carlson Gracie and I don't want to diminish anyone, but no one has done to me in sparring what Rickson has done in the past couple of days."
.
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See I believe everything I've heard about rickson so I didn't exactly need confirmation but there's something about the end of that quote that sounds...very genuine yano?
 
Iarphairc said:
See I believe everything I've heard about rickson so I didn't exactly need confirmation but there's something about the end of that quote that sounds...very genuine yano?
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Hahaha. Nice one.

What he meant by that is that they trained together for a couple of days and apparently Rickson was having his way with Paulo Filho, one of the best BJJ Black Belts in MMA back then.
 
chaps said:
Around 2006ish, Brazilian Top Team fighter Paulo Filho said something in the likes of:

"I have trained with the best guys from master Carlson Gracie and I don't want to diminish anyone, but no one has done to me in sparring what Rickson has done in the past couple of days."

Like someone posted in this thread earlier... some people not even associated with the Gracie family have come out to say that he is definitely the BJJ phenom everyone says he is.
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Do you have link of that interview?
 
ASMBJJ said:
Is this the first time you've heard a testimony of Rickson's skill from a non-old school Gracie guy? There have been plenty of others as well that are well-documented. I know some of them sound like BS, but Rickson really is on another level.
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It's the first time I've heard it from a guy who didn't have some personal interest in promoting the Rickson myth. It's hard to take people seriously when their reputation or livelihood rely in part of propagating a myth of invincibility. Which is not to say I ever thought Rickson wasn't exceptionally good, but if you knock around BJJ long enough you hear some pretty out there stories that often turn out to be from guys interested in promoting their own lineage. Plus the fact that he didn't compete hardly at all as he got older despite supposedly being able to own everyone with ease does raise some doubts in my mind, yes.
 
Didn't Dave Camarillo have a very strong quote regarding training with Rickson?
 
"Training with Rickson is like trying to move a house. What he lacks in size he overwhelmingly compensates in technique and pressure. From the moment I engaged my guard, till the time I was tapping, I felt as if there was nothing I could have done to better my situation. His basic techniques nullified my game almost immediately, So to all the non-believers, I can only try to persuade you to eliminate all doubt and open your mind to Rickson Gracie" _ Dave Camerillo

My last instructor was a Rickson BB and current instructor is a Pedro Sauer BB. I have heard both say they've seen Rickson school world champions.
 
^^^

Dave is another legit guy with nothing to gain from mythologizing Rickson. I'm starting to believe...
 
2001 interview with Fabio Gurgel in FC Fighter magazine

FCF: You had the opportunity to train a number of times with Rickson Gracie. What can you tell about your training experiences with Rickson? Do you believe that the younger generations didn't have the opportunity to know the real Rickson on the mat?

FG: People think that I made up some stories to talk about him, and stuff like that. I would have zero interest in doing this! As much as I say that I do well against him the better for me, you know?! This isn't the question; the question is that I tell the truth! Gee, how can he catch you five times during training?? He does! I'm not training to avoid tapping, I'm training to learn, but obviously when I train, I want to win, and people didn't believe it, but it's the plain and pure truth! I don't feel any shame in saying, he has the most complete jiu-jitsu that I ever saw in my life, way ahead, and I mean really way ahead of the others! Do you know what I mean? He understands jiu-jitsu in a different way from everybody else; he's a phenomenon. If there's any, it's him.
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I simply dont buy it, it challenges common experience and reality to have someone who never really entered the major competition circuits of BJJ (because they didnt existed, he was focused on MMA etc etc), and suddenly he is miles ahead of any major grappler.

Even the likes of Roger get tapped during training and have ups and downs, the most dominants practitioners of any sport have ups a downs sometimes, or they are only dominant in competition at 100% all the time.

Yet Rickson persona has this TMA mysticism.

The only footage of Rickson i can find, shows that while he is good, he is no super human.

Here watch this, he is fighting your average former college wrestler with ZERO BJJ background and they school Rickson who only wins because the wrestler is oblivious at what to do.
[YT]Fngsgye5cg4[/YT]
 
Rod1 said:
I simply dont buy it, it challenges common experience and reality to have someone who never really entered the major competition circuits of BJJ (because they didnt existed, he was focused on MMA etc etc), and suddenly he is miles ahead of any major grappler.

Even the likes of Roger get tapped during training and have ups and downs, the most dominants practitioners of any sport have ups a downs sometimes, or they are only dominant in competition at 100% all the time.

Yet Rickson persona has this TMA mysticism.

The only footage of Rickson i can find, shows that while he is good, he is no super human.

Here watch this, he is fighting your average former college wrestler with ZERO BJJ background and they school Rickson who only wins because the wrestler is oblivious at what to do.
[YT]Fngsgye5cg4[/YT]
Click to expand...


If his opponent is really a former national heavyweight champion and the coach at El Camino then the narrator mispronounced the name, it would be Tom Hazell. Not exactly an average wrestler by any definition. Unless you meant "average hall of fame 2-time All-American Olympic-trials finalist"...




Tom Hazell:


(went to)...Oklahoma State and was a Big Eight Champion and 2-time All-American. His biggest highlights include finishing 2nd in the 1976 Olympic Trials, representing the USA in the Pan American Games and winning a gold medal and in 1978 in Tbilisi at the Russian National Championships, he took 2nd place.
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Unless in your world the average wrestler just barely misses making the Olympic team and every year 50% of college wrestlers are All-American. The guy has a similar resume as Couture, Henderson, and Lindland. Not exactly Mr. Joe Average.
 
So if I understand this correctly rickson is the GOAT bjj practitioner and it's not even close or a debate
 
His MMA career wasn't especially impressive - 11 fights with a lot of cans, often fighting the same guy multiple times. The only videos of him grappling are either exhibitions, light rolling with low level BJJ guys, regional competitions against Judo/Sambo practitioners with limited groundwork experience, and one where he gets smashed by Rolls. I'm not really buying the Rickson legend either.
 
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Einarr said:
His MMA career wasn't especially impressive - 11 fights with a lot of cans, often fighting the same guy multiple times. The only videos of him grappling are either exhibitions, light rolling with low level BJJ guys, regional competitions against Judo/Sambo practitioners with limited groundwork experience, and one where he gets smashed by Rolls. I'm not really buying the Rickson legend either.
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This is the view I've always subscribed to, I think Rickson is way too protective of his myth (he basically never took any risks on camera or in MMA fights, BJJ tournaments, etc in terms of fighting people who might actually beat him), but guys like Dave Camarillo, Fabio Gurgel, Roberto Traven, etc really don't have anything to gain by promoting Rickson and those are some pretty strong statements they've made about his ability. Who knows, maybe he has performance anxiety and he's worried about under performing in public, I have no idea.
 
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