Was Royce Gracie past it When he fought Matt Hughes?

Everyone knew Royce had a beating coming his way it was just a question of how bad it was going to be. And just to be clear... he was well past his prime and was considered an old man even then.
 
If we took prime Royce from the early to mid 90s and put him through a time machine, how would he have done against Matt Hughes?

My thought: He would have done a little better than he did, but not much. In his prime (as now) Royce was extremely loyal and faithful to Gracie Jiu Jitsu. He didn't think anything else was needed. He didnt train in striking, wrestling, he didn't even believe in weight training.

By the time Hughes came around, BJJ was recognized and respected. So guys like Matt Hughes added BJJ to his resume and trained until he was at a high belt (maybe even Blackbelt, I forgot). And that was on top of his exceptional wrestling and okay boxing.

And Gracie, although very good at BJJ, actually wasn't even among the elites of his day like Mario Sperry and Wallid Ismael. So in fact, Matt Hughes was better at his base (wrestling) than Royce was at his (BJJ), plus Hughes had several other tools.

So it's fun to speculate how these fighters would do against each other across time, but to be truly fair to the earlier generations of fighters, they should be compared to fighters in their time and context. And in his time, Royce was very good.
 
He was so far past his prime that you could see the outcome coming a mile away.
 
Are some of these replies in this thread a joke? Royce left the UFC in 1995 for a reason. Don Frye, Tank, Vitor, Coleman, Randy Couture, Tito all came on the scene from 95-97. Royce wouldn't have beat any of these guys. Royce was a top fighter from 92-94 and hasn't been a top fighter since. Any version of Matt Hughes would have killed this guy.
 
It wasn't about being past it. It was about superior skill in evolved version of fighting. Royce at his best couldn't beat Hughes.
 
Royce was past his prime, but that Hughes beats the best version of Royce that has ever lived.
 
Impossible to compare. Hughes was a product of a sport Royce basically created. If Hughes was at UFC 1 never having seen Jiu Jitsu he would have been caught with the same "magic" moves as anyone else. If Hughes were at UFC 1 knowing what he knew when he fought Royce he would have dominated the tournament easily.

Royce won so much early on because no one understood the mechanics of jiu jitsu. In a time where teh movie bloodsport was basically seen as a documentary everyone basically believed if this guy got on top of you he would instantly break your bones or put you to sleep. Look at how many people tap in the early UFC's before the submission is even locked in. Before Royce and the UFC no one had any idea what really worked in martial arts. Royce's legacy isn't in being unbeatable in MMA, his legacy is in creating MMA and showing the world what martial arts actually work in a combat situation.

Hughes and Royce came from different worlds and different eras. People can debate Tyson vs. Ali but boxing existed for a century before either of them. Royce in his prime fought in an experiment, Hughes fought in a sport created from what was learned fom that experiment.

Would Michael jordan beat Doctor J? Probably, but if Doctor J didn't come first than Jordan wouldn't have known that what he did later was possible. Comparing generations of sports will always end in a paradox where one can't comparatively exist without the other.
 
zy6a03.jpg
 
I'll be the 20th person to say it:

Royce was lightyears past his prime. And yes, Hughes would have obliterated any incarnation of Royce.

Royce is a BJJ practitioner first and MMA fighter second. The fight he had in Bellator with Shamrock...I felt like I time-traveled to 1993.
 
Would a prime version of Ronda beaten holly holm that night?
 
Prime Gracie scores the sub over prime Hughes. Hughes has showed he's susceptible to submissions on several occasions throughout his career. Hughes was much bigger, stronger, and younger when they fought. Gracie was the opposite, probably grabbing a nice paycheck.
 
In the early UFC's, Royce showed what a good but not very physically gifted grappler was capable of in a world where very few people knew grappling on a high level.

He was not the kind of guy to beat world class grapplers, and further. people like Crocop or say Wonderboy now with very evolved takedown defense would fucking destroy him even if they weren't as skilled of defensive grapplers as they are.
 
Royce was better at BJJ Hughes was better at grappling and fighting.
 
Royce was way past his prime in that fight. He was 39 or 40. Matt Hughes was retired by around 36 because he was getting KO'd all the time. Guys usually go downhill a lot around 32. It just gets worse from there.
 
A prime royce would've been able to keep the fight on the feet and used his longer reach and good boxing to either win a decision or wear down Hughes enough to get a late submission after battering him on the feet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,027
Messages
55,462,345
Members
174,786
Latest member
Santos FC 1912

Share this page

Back
Top