UFC 1 highlights
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqU6kgWHj_Y
The first ever UFC, where it was raw, nobody knew what to expect, accept Royce
Boxer
Karate
Kickboxer
Savate
TKD - Pat Smith
Shamrock
Royce
Sumo
Savate fighter - beat the huge Sumo fighter with a kick and a punch. Brutal fight against the kickboxer who beat the karate fighter, useful tactic to avoid the Ground as seen against the Sumo, and later with Royce when he manages to avoid the first td and cleverly use the cage walls, which is part of traditional Savate training, from the boats. For finishes with the KB, avoids the Ground or potential for it, by waiting til his opponent started to get up before moving in for a long range strike, does not try the stamping until the end. Interestingly, the KB beat the Karate with stamps an bent over punches. Against Royce does the famous multi tap out. Would have been interesting to have seen him fight Shamrock or Smith
Karate v kb - the KB is more versatile and gets the upper hand and wins, despite poor body conditioning. It has been suggested that for UFC one the promoters wanted a kickboxer, but didn't want one who was too good, and did not book a Thai boxer. The Karate man was not particularly good either, there could have maybe been a better choice. Went down and came back up mid fight, as no fighter had ground game.
Shamrock v Smith. The first two "MMA" fight ever, if you have to use that term, as these two were multi discipline. Shamrock was World level shootfighing competitor, an physically the most imposing fighter in the comp. Pat Smith was billed as TK, however, has boxing and Muay Thai, as well as some Ground, as can be seen in his use of the Guard. Shamrock wins by the leglock, though takes time to get into it, there was not a smooth transition. Pat tries his own leg lock attempt, as well as the stamp kick option. Pat entered UFC 2 the next year an had some awesome matches until beaten by Royce in the Final.
Royce:
1st fight against the "boxer" - again some criticism that the boxer chosen was not high class or ranked. Interestingly, the boxer chose to wear a bag glove on his left hand to protect it from all the jabs he expected to land during the contest, and his right hand empty for the KOs. As we saw, Royce took him straight down, he never threw one punch in the whole comp. Royce did not have to use a choke or lock, the boxer tapped out when overwhelmed.
The Shamrock fight, as discussed elsewhere.
Savate in the Final
Ryron an Rener breakdown the Shamrock match
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSS9CuuPvQg
UFC 2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB6turHGTVw
A year later, a far more polished event, now 16 fighters, so the extra stage, and a far better presentation and commentary
Royce v karateka - Mount arm bar finish
Veit - Muay Thai - showed some of his first fight kick, knees and elbows in slo mo
Pat Smith v RBWI - don't call what this idiot does as Ninjutsu - a perfect example of how not to fight - rush and attempted td - Smith awesome Ground n Pound
Karate v karate - cautious standing phase, no real karate or kb, stage 5 where neither knew what to do, some gnp an knees - two strikers and he had to finish on the ground with a choke
Veit Thai against huge Judoka Remco - just like the last one, unexpected techniques and finish - Remco does soto makikomi, can't find the scarf hold to progress, so finishes with an elbow, a thai technique
Royce v a kf-er - guard arm bar standing, to face down version
Pat Smith again - takes out the kickboxer - finishes with a standing guillotine, a grappling technique
Royce v Remco - grappling v grappling, following kb v kb - obvious Final will next be grapple v kb - this is a chance to see Royce fight a good grappler, and one much bigger and heavier - shoot, clinch, td, rear mount, gi choke
Final - Royce v Smith - quick clinch, td, start of headlock turn finish, which would normally be an armbar or choke finish, Royce finishes with punches to get the submission
UFC 3 - whole event
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv7aoA25GKw&t=4566s
This includes Royce match with Kimo - Royce wins, but has to be carried out and can't continue the competition
The winner, Jennum, was an alternate who never had to fight in the qualifiers - he is a Police officer and his style was listed as Ninjutsu, specifically Togakure, which he probably got from Hayes
Hackney KENPO fights a huge Sumo wrestler - similar to the Savate v Sumo in UFC 1 - Happo Ken early knockown, Thundering Hammer finish. Great example of Sumo Tsuki as Keith is pushed through the Octagon wall and out into the crowd
Shamrock fight against Judoka who established Guard but not progress any attack from there - Ken ends with punches - so Wrestling v Judo did not end with a submission as would have been expected
Karate v Thai - the Thai boxer opens with a wrestling td for some reason, in standing uses low kicks and knees - despite Karateka also supposedly having a Jujutsu belt, no real ground game from either - in standing Karateka wins with punches
Shamrock was scheduled to fight Hackney next, but Keith was injured so an alternate came in, a kung fu based kickboxer. Ken couldn't manage the TD, tried a standing sleeper, which he couldn't close, there was some standing punch exchanges, an attempted wedgie, then it went down, Ken took the back and won with a sleeper.
At this point everyone thought it would be Ken v Royce in the Final
Royce comes to the ring for his match with Howard, the karateka, who had a specific plan to combine karate with jujutsu to fight Royce, which would be something worth seeing - however this is when the Gracie's throw in the towel and Royce leaves the competition, meaning no alternate, so Howard goes straight to the Final, matched against Shamrock, another fight everyone would want to see
However Shamrock announced he couldn't come out so Jennum is brought in - with not enough fighters or alternates left to make a second Semi, this became the Final
Take nothing away from Jennum, he dominated what was a great match with standing strikes, td, groundwork, and won by GnP
So, by definition, a Ninja won UFC3
The Royce/Kimo fight on it's own
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVov2TEYJ8k&t=618s
Royce's toughest match. Takes ages to establish the TD, and it gives Kimo the back then Guard - on passing the Guard to take Mount, upa, Royce now has Guard an tries Triangle setup. Stage 4 with Kimo stacking. On standing, Kimo sets up for rear BH for a suplex so Royce defends, gets it to the Ground and finishes with the face down arm bar. Interesting use of the hair pull, as has been noted.
UFC 4
No clips available yet, so we will add them when they become available
In this comp Royce got to fight Hackney, and the final with Dan Severn is where he first wins with the Triangle - 10 years after Lethal Weapon
In UFC 3, the Kimo fight, we see him attempt the Traingle and arm bar from Guard, and fail to get either
UFC 4 is a more polished Guard game, which we'll hopefully see next
In the meantime, here is Rener doing a breakdown of the Beast match
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNV4t_be-EE
UFC 5
Royce v Shamrock Super fight, what we all would have liked the UFC3 Final to have been - neither competed in the actual event itself, that was won by Dan Severn, who Royce beat in UFC 4
This was a very technical match, with Royce fighting from Guard as he did with Kimo and Beast, this time not able to get an advantage, or move towards a submission
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXDT44zT8JY
There is no vid for the whole event at this time
Here is the final match where Severn wins the title
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBeA263yU3w&t=485s
His opponent is a Judoka who doesn't wear the gi - some stand up, no actual Judo or Wrestling throws, punching, and Dan wins with a submission
So with Dan losing to Royce in UFC 4, he now wins UFC 5
In subsequent events there were Superfights where Royce opponents faced each other - Ken and Royce tied at the first Superfight in 5, so Ken is technically Superfight Champion going into these, which he defends and wins
UFC 6 - Shamrock v Severn, winner of UFC5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=neP5mgRygO8&t=466s
Classic wrestling match, mainly all standing, Ken wins with a guillotine
UFC 7 - Shamrock v Taktarov, winner of UFC6
(no clip)
At this point, Shamrock has fought and defeated the winners of both UFC 5 and 6 - he is Undefeated except for his first fight with Royce
UFC 8 - Shamrock v Kimo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbX7hYesLk&t=13s
Straight to floor, series of positions, and Ken ends up in Guard with Kimo standing, as Royce did - Ken wins with leglock
UFC 8 itself was the fight between Don Frye and Gary Goodridge which Frye won by submission - the Ken-Kimo match was used on the posters as "the Superfight everyone's been waiting for" - the event was billed as "David vs Goliath" as smaller lighter fighters were matched against Heavyweights, something never done in Combat Sports - this had nothing to do with the Ken-Kimo feature event of course
Though a great match, and the one we wanted to see, the opportunity here would be to follow the pattern of the last two events, and see Ken fight the winner of UFC 7, which of course was Ruas, the other other fight we all wanted to see, and the one we never did
UFC 9 was Shamrock v Severn 2 - with Ken winning again
There was no Superfight from UFC 10 onwards
Royce was not invincible the way he was portrayed and came close to being defeated in the matches above
Royce first lost to Yoshida, a Japanese Judo Master in Japan, choked out because he didn't tap
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pwMnKNNuDM
Helio lost to Kimura in 1949, which is where the armlock's name comes from, in his honour as it was the technique he used. So both generations of Gracie, Helio and Royce, were defeated by a Japanese Judoka. Though GJJ was refined from Judo, it can still be dominated by it.
Royce tried his usual Guard game, and Yoshida had an answer for it. We see some leglock exchanges and a reset. Great example of aki Nage where Yoshida, standing inside the open Guard, picks Royce up an slams him down. Yoshida takes side control, yoko shiho gatame, progresses to tate shiho gatame, and applies the choke.
Royce was dominated and defeated by Matt Hughes at UFC 60 on the Ground
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7edm6aZyFI
Interesting standup phase with some kicks - Royce in trunks and VT gloves and not a gi - TD was inevitable and Matt was dominant as soon as they got there - Matt worked Side Control and nearly got an arm bar, though Royce would not submit - and then took the back and finished with a rear GnP
A big flaw in the Gracie Ground game is shown in both the Hughes and Yoshida matches in that rather than Side Mount, both opponents use the Judo Yoko Shiho Gatame, which has armlock submissions, and Tate Shiho Gatame - in Yoshida fight he gets the choke from there, in Hughes fight, Mat ends up with a rear version of the hold a uses the GnP rather than sleeper choke. Gracie Combatives has lots of counters for Side Mount, no submissions, and does not address Yoko Shiho, or have a proper defence against it.
NOTE: STMA Ground Combatives uses the 4 Four Quarter Judo pins in their original taught form, and Yoko submissions, as well as the Scarf hold, from the original Kodokan Judo and Jujutsu series
Most interesting of all is Sakuraba, called The Gracie Hunter, who beat not just Royce, by Royler and Renzo as well. These matches were at Pride in Japan, all in a wrestling ring not a cage. Sakaruba proved that Japanese JuJutsu is still The King, the parent of Brazilian Jujutsu
All BJJ players who believe they are studying some new unbeatable system were shown that real JuJutsu is still Japanese, and there is still a lot they don't know
Sakuraba Gracie highlights
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNlQQ-SX3X4
Note Royce is wearing his gi and VT gloves as the Sport was evolving and different rule sets and models were being developed. This was around 1999/2000 and the term MMA had not yet been coined
More Sakuraba Gracie fight footage in this clip
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlFuoNpT83I
The Royce Sakuraba rematch is interesting
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OVWUY9ehDo&t=1012s
Much more kickboxing, esp from Royce, a proper modern "MMA" fight, and Sakuraba is dominant when it does go to grappling - 3 rounds of 3 mins and Judges awarded the Win to Royce - see what you think
Interestingly, Sakuraba never fought Rickson - he might not have found that match so easy
UFC 6
This was when we started to see a lot more standing and punching, with all the initial "all fights go to the floor" theory of the first events, we now see fighters getting back up, resets, some kicks, but most of all boxing
The winner, however, was still a grappler, Oleg Taktarov, Russian Sambo fighter who beat Tank Abbott in the Final
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aueauNvxspM&t=1599s
We also saw the return of Pat Smith
Paul Varelens, the huge cross training "Trapfighter" who Tank beats in the Semi, went on to face Ruas in the Final of UFC 7
UFC 7
The debut of Marco Ruas "The King Of The Streets" who was this year's Champion
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jvQMZd2620&t=56s
Superfight is Shamrock v Taktorov, another victory for Ken, beating another UFC Champion
More comments later
