I was curious who people think would win in a fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Rickson Gracie, both fighters in their prime. Sakuraba tore through every Gracie he faced when he was in his prime to the point of being called the “Gracie Hunter” but Rickson is considered by most to be the greatest of the Gracies.
I think that the fight would be somewhat similar to Royce’s first fight against Sakuraba, with Sakuraba being able to dictate where the fight goes. Rickson did seem to be a more well rounded and much physically stronger fighter than Royce and is said to be much better at submissions than Royce (although they to my knowledge have never went against each other so it could be debated). However most of Rickson’s opponent were not notable. So in my opinion Sakuraba takes this fight. I think his submission and take down defense as well as heart would would be too much for Rickson.
I would have to lean towards Sakuraba. Rickson gain most of his fame fighting guys that really don’t know MMA. Rickson just had a skill set that was somewhat superior to those that he was fight at the time. He actually had a hard time with the guy he fought in Pride, still won but it wasn’t an easy win by any means. While I do think if Rickson was starting today, he would be able to adapt his skills to compete with today’s MMA fighter, however, that is not the case. So I think a Prime Sakuraba beats a Prime Rickson. I actually think Saku does it quite easy IMO.
It was a very close fight, so many attempts and counters. Both guys were clearly in their prime at the time of this fight. Their quickness was almost hard to follow.
Id give the edge to Sakuraba but you cant count Rickson out. Rickson is one the the greatest Jujitsu guys of all time. Sakuraba is one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Sakuraba would kill him. Rickson never fought a real fighter with the exception of Masakatsu Funaki. Every other guy he fought had records like 1-5 or 2-7. They were nobodies. I believe Rickson’s the most overrated fighter in MMA history. Sure he’s a great BJJ guy, but he really didn’t do anything in MMA.
Damn, I kind of agree with you. But I actually really don’t think for Rickson as much of a MMA guy but more of a founder. Rickson wasn’t really doing MMA, he was just using his GREAT skill of BJJ to beat guys that had no clue what BJJ was when it came to fight guys outside of the BJJ loop. Rickson may be the best ever at BJJ, that I don’t know but he was never really a complete MMA guy IMO.
Yeah the main thing for me is that everyone always says “hey it’s 450 - 0 Rickson Gracie. He was an MMA god.” I’m not saying he was a bad BJJ guy, but you don’t count your BJJ wins (which even Royce says were made up) in with your MMA wins. He is supposed to be one of the best, but he only fought nobodies in MMA and doesn’t really deserve all the credit he gets in my opinion.
This is the whole George Washington had slaves argument. Well, he’s still George Washington and without him we’d still be having 3:00 tea time and singing “God Save The Queen”. Nobody’s perfect, but you can’t deny that Rickson is one of the biggest reasons we no longer have to put up with fake fighting.
Only fought noobs? Funaki was mentioned already, but what about Yuki Nakai? Another of his opponents, Nobuhiko Takada, subbed Mark Coleman and drew with Cro Cop. So I wouldn’t really say he only fought noobs.
I reckon he’d give Sakuraba a damn good run for his money. Royce fought Sakuraba to six rounds the first time, and Rickson is a level above Royce.
[quote=raylawley;2311988]Only fought noobs? Funaki was mentioned already, but what about Yuki Nakai? Another of his opponents, Nobuhiko Takada, subbed Mark Coleman and drew with Cro Cop. So I wouldn’t really say he only fought noobs.
I reckon he’d give Sakuraba a damn good run for his money. Royce fought Sakuraba to six rounds the first time, and Rickson is a level above Royce.[/quote]
So he fought 9 total noobs, Funaki, and a mediocre fighter. Yeah, that’s totally different. Anyways, Rickson we haven’t really seen fight anybody. Royce has actually fought real battles and has a much longer career. If he had such a hard time in all of his Sakuraba fights, I don’t think Rickson had much of a chance. Plus Rickson purposefully avoided fighting Sakuraba for years as Sakuraba made multiple public challenges.
