Quote Originally Posted by Brockton Bomber
Actually Rickson could crack a lil. And Royce Gracie in his prime could definitely be UFC or Pride WW champ even today. Probably even compete with the heavies. Prime Royce had amazing resistance to strikes, and he closed distance like a friggin cobra. The only reason he lost to Saku and Hughes is because he was shot. The 400-1 claimed record for Rickson is not and MMA record, but his combined record in jiu jitsu, sambo, judo, and MMA competition. Helio, his father, said as much when Rickson was 9-0 MMA. With minimal training in strikes, prime Rickson would still smoke any HW in pride or UFC today, maybe even without. Rickson fought the best, although the sport was in its infancy.

The story about picking Royce for UFC because he was scrawny was also true.

As far as producing future champs is concerned, there's a couple of Gracie kids that are 16 and 19 I believe, and JJ champs. These kids have been training in strikes for years, and apparently they're bigger than the last generation. When these kids are old enough, somebody's getting owned.

The Gracies are the first family of MMA.
I gotta disagree on a prime Royce being able to beat the best of the world WW's right now. I give Royce a huge amount of respect for beating three bigger fighters a night multipile times, but I feel that early UFC's rules definately had some things that favored his game. You take out the Gi, add scoring, add the refs ability to stand up stalled out fighters and rounds w/a time limit I think Royce would have found it a little more dificult. All that combined with not only better skilled and well rounded fighters but all together much better athletes I just don't see Royce being the hugely dominating force that he was. I would be hard pressed to pick a prime Royce against GSP, Hughes or BJ Penn.