If there is one thing the Sega Genesis game Eternal Champions taught me, it’s that we need to find a way to get all great MMA fighters whether they are from the past or present (I want to say future) and somehow pit them together to see who is the best fighter.
PART 1
Since I’m making a list, that I hope many of you will agree with or at least come up with a good rebuttle, I’ll start with someone that many people see as “one of the greatest!” Royce Gracie, while he was a great fighter he was great because he knew “a secret” that no one else at the time knew. A secret that propelled him to the upper echelons of fighting supremacy. But Royce will tell you, he isn’t even the best in his family. That goes to Rickson, he isn’t even the most techincal as that goes to Royler (Roger, now) So how can people consider Royce the greatest? Yes he did win the first few UFC’s and did so with relative ease at first, He ran into walls very quickly after his career began. My best example is despite it being a boring fight, in the rematch between him and Ken Shamrock, Ken figured out a way to nullify the Gracie magic secret and stalled him into a draw at UFC 5. I’m not trying to discredit Royce in any way, I can promise you that even as old as he is now he could still tap me and 90% of the rest of the world out. With that said, he was a multi-stripped black belt when he fought Ken Shamrock the second time, and despite the fact that Shamrock was fighting to decision Royce and not to win, I think Royce should have been able to find a way to beat him. In all truth, Royce Gracie is a one trick pony, and even though it’s a really, really good trick. Once you figure out a way to avoid that one trick it’s not like he’s going to knock you out. So, let’s take him off the list of the greatest fighter of all time as in todays days and age he wouldn’t fair well against modern well rounded fighters. Innovative, he absolutely was, sport changing sure, but if a prime Royce fought even B level fighters of today’s world he wouldn’t do so hot. Please see the Matt Hughes fight as evidence.
Another Gracie name that should at always be thrown in as potential candidate for all time greatest fighter is Renzo. I know most people expected me to say Rickson, but Rickson to me, is more of a mystic figure than he is a fighter. Rickson came out, beat people with the same trick Royce was using, struggled to beat a few not as skilled as himself Japanese fighters (Yamamoto) and then sailed into the sunset. I imagine his Jiu-Jitsu is out of this world, as are his philosophies and ways of going about BJJ, but all time great Rickson is not. Renzo on the other hand, I think is criminally overlooked when it comes to talking about the greatest Gracie fighters. Renzo was undefeated for years around the world when people started to figure out how to avoid his submission game. He up kicked a very dangerous and much larger Oleg Taktarov into sillyville and knocked him out cold. Something that the heavy swinging Tank Abbott couldn’t even do. He submitted Maurice Smith in 50 seconds who by that time had previously been the UFC Heavyweight champ Mark Coleman by out hustling and leg kicking the day lights out of an at the time invincible Mark Coleman. Coleman at the time was undefeated and a man that was feared by everyone. Please keep in mind, both of these fights I’ve named had Renzo giving up tons of weight. As a matter of fact most of Renzo’s fights had him giving up weight. He choked out the great Pat Miletich, broken as he was by then, Pat Miletich is still a tough, tough man. Renzo had also put so much pressure on the reinvigorated champ Frank Shamrock that Frank started looking for a way out of the fight and I say, and anyone in the game will tell you Frank purposely started throwing illegal knee’s. If you want to get into that argument really quickly, here’s my point. There are level’s of pressure in grappling. A 150 pound white belt will feel like a 150 pounds when he is applying pressure on you. Meanwhile a 150 pound black belt at Renzo’s level will feel like an immovable object that weights far more than 300 pounds. So much so that for the first few months of BJJ if someone like Renzo put pressure on you, not even submitting you, but just putting his body across your’s you would tap. Frank Shamrock has been in the game a long time, he know’s his body and his opponents body well enough to know where his knee’s would land. Frank was looking for a way out as he was being controlled and knew soon enough he would be submitted. Frank then went on to say that Renzo was faking it. Renzo, the same man who fought off a Kimura that broke his arm and he shrugged it off rather than tap to Kazushi Sakuraba. That Renzo? No. I’d rather find out that my parents aren’t really my parents than accept that garbage. So should Renzo rank as one of the greatest? It’s a good guy to put stock on as he fought everywhere, but by the time the camera’s and the competitors that mattered came along he had already been through wars, knee and elbow surgeries and focused a lot of attention of his very successful New York school. Also, you can’t forget his knockout to Dan Henderson that happened when he was still a very active competitor. That loss to Henderson aside, When Renzo lost it was usually by decision.
Even if he isn’t the greatest fighter, he certainly should be considered the greatest fighter of the very famous family. A man that even to this day fights with Matt Hughes and or BJ Penn a few years ago and doesn’t get killed. That’s a telling sign of how tough he is.
by Derek Dean
