Through the 80s and early 90s, I watched a helluva lot of Boxing and Kickboxing, but I'd never heard of ANY of these guys that were at UFC 1.

In 1993 at UFC 1, what if Royce's opponents were top pros of the day like:

Mike Tyson
Roy Jones
Gerald McClellan
Simon Brown
Julian Jackson
James Toney
Tommy Morrison
Evander Holyfield
Dennis Alexio
Don the Dragon Wilson
Rick Roufus
Maurice Smith
Ernesto Hoost
Jean-Yves Theriault.
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^ I'd bet on them ALL taking out Royce in any kind of fight in 1993, 1994.


I'm sure there's top Muay Thai fighters of the era could have done it too, but I'm unfamiliar with the best Muay Thai men of the era; there wasn't much broadcasted in those days.

I think there's pro wrestlers with good amateur backgrounds at the time that could have taken him.
You think even smaller wrestlers like Brett Hart or the Dynamite Kid couldn't do the job? Dr. D David Schultz ? Ravishing Rick Rude?

The legend of Greco-Roman wrestling, Aleksandr Karelin from Russia? He was in his prime at the time.

Meng/Haku/King Tonga would have KILLED Royce Gracie.




Both Kimo and Keith Hackney sure as $#!t weren't anything close to being world-class strikers nor world-class fighter/athletes, yet they sure rained down the boatloads of punishment on Gracie until eventually getting caught in a submission. Kimo actually had no martial arts background at all, Tae Kwon Do my rosy red rectum...


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