UFC superfights... predictions?

[Mr.B]

Hughes vs. Gracie predictions anybody?

Should be interesting. Hughes has a clear advantage in strength, but Gracie fought in the early days of the UFC without weight classes so he's proven he can handle stronger opponents.

Gracie may be past his prime, but the guy is always dangerous. I remember seeing him basically be carried out of the octagon after his bout with Kimo.

Liddell vs. Couture looks to be interesting but I'm really looking forward to seeing Franklin vs. Loiseau. It's looking like this will be a very interesting year of fights.

[Munkymagic]

Just my opinion but Hughes will maul gracie. Gracie dominated in the days when strikers were strikers and grapplers were grapplers. Hughes is fantastically versed in both and far too strong for gracie

[Mr.B]

Certainly possible, but if there's anything that I was reminded of while watching last nights Ultimate Fight Night on Spike TV...

Fights often end suddenly and unexpectedly. Even great fighters get caught in a bad position and BJJ has proved time and time again to be the best style for beating bigger and stronger opponents.

Hughes is strong, but he's nowhere near as strong as some of the top heavyweights that Royce beat back in the day so his strength and speed don't necessarily mean he'll win. I do think that Hughes is well rounded enough to win, but he better not take the fight lightly. There's a good reason that BJJ is one of the 2 or 3 foundational styles for nearly all MMA fighters and Royce is arguably one of the best BJJ fighters in history.

[oakleyno1]

gracies gonna kill him!
btw which set of rules are they using now days aint seen it since hmm UFC 8 lol

[oakleyno1]

well i have but not a full tourney or nefin

[raleights]

Certainly possible, but if there's anything that I was reminded of while watching last nights Ultimate Fight Night on Spike TV...

Fights often end suddenly and unexpectedly. Even great fighters get caught in a bad position and BJJ has proved time and time again to be the best style for beating bigger and stronger opponents.

Hughes is strong, but he's nowhere near as strong as some of the top heavyweights that Royce beat back in the day so his strength and speed don't necessarily mean he'll win. I do think that Hughes is well rounded enough to win, but he better not take the fight lightly. There's a good reason that BJJ is one of the 2 or 3 foundational styles for nearly all MMA fighters and Royce is arguably one of the best BJJ fighters in history.

true but I think hughes knows how to use his strength better than the brutes royce fought, not to mention all the other tools at his disposal - he's just got everything you could want to fight in mma. I don't think it's in royce to do whatever has to be done to win, he'll use gracie jujitsu and that'll be where it stops for him. hughes will do whatever is necessary and the same goes for frank shamrock and cesar gracie who are about to go at it. both skilled but once again cesar will not go outside the art of jujitsu and frank will bring an AK-47 if he needs to.


who knows maybe royce took a lesson from rickson and learned how to strike

[englishbob]

Hughs will batter the old man

[yoitsdan]

Hughes has said outright that he's gonna keep it on the ground. MMA has changed a lot since the days of royce gracie. Matt will have too much takedown defence and he'll beat him up really bad. It won't be pretty I'm sure.

[moonlight19]

Gracie is one of those rare athletes that you never want to bet against.

He's Royce Gracie for christsake. He invented the modern sport of MMA. It was he that showed everyone out there that they had to come to his world of Gracie JJ or be vanquished.

Hughes is a stud though. Even still I think Gracie has the advantage on the ground.

What a great fight.

Dana White really knows how to run it over there. Always the best and most interesting matchups. They should make him the Czar of boxing and maybe we'd see great fights all the time instead of once a year at best.

[oakleyno1]

wot dayt are they fighting, and yeah nop1 beats gracie on the floor

[raleights]

Gracie is one of those rare athletes that you never want to bet against.

He's Royce Gracie for christsake. He invented the modern sport of MMA. It was he that showed everyone out there that they had to come to his world of Gracie JJ or be vanquished.

Hughes is a stud though. Even still I think Gracie has the advantage on the ground.

What a great fight.

Dana White really knows how to run it over there. Always the best and most interesting matchups. They should make him the Czar of boxing and maybe we'd see great fights all the time instead of once a year at best.

He may of showed that a good ground game can likely win you the fight, but as far as incorporating other things with his ground skills royce has been extremely lazy. And not just lazy but not naturally talented in that department AT ALL. In fact I just watched Royce in a video have an unsanctioned MMA fight w/ a kung fu black belt... I've never seen royce throw so many punches w/ the intent of hurting the other guy, he landed a large number of those punches and the guy didn't have to defend any of it, he could take it right on the chin and not be in any danger. Royce hits like a girl and doesn't have a choice in the matter.. I'm sure hughes knows this will allow him to really bloody the balding Gracie up

Vitor belfort had it right when he said he fights the best, Royce and Rickson don't. I think a part of this match is people are realizing Royce and Rickson had alot of people they should of fight and conciously didn't. I mean my god, Frank Shamrock, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson, Don Frye, Kazushi Sakaraba, Tank Abbot, Vitor Belfort, Guy Mezger, Bas Rutten...for the life of me I can't understand why the gracies never met these guys at one point or another.

[kungpow]

I like your analysis of the Gracie/Hughes fight. As far as Franklin versus Louasseau(please overlook my spelling) , I think that could go either way. If I had to bet I'd bet on Franklin. He is unusually strong even among well trained atheletes. While the crow has gotten in and out of trouble with lesser fighters, he cannot afford mistakes with Franklin.

[kungpow]

Well just for the record , whover decides on "relevance" should note that I correctly predicted the outcome of the Franklin/"Crow" fight. Further , the fight clearly showcased the extreme state of Franklin's physical conditioning which I said would determine the outcome.

[Mr.B]

Not sure I completely agree with you... Franklin showed up in great condition and ready for a battle. Loiseau looked like a deer in the headlights though. I don't know if he was overwhelmed by the pressure or if he just paniced when Franklin started beating him but Loiseau was not his usual, explosive, aggressive self. I kept asking myself why he didn't just throw caution to the wind and take his shot... better to go for it and and get KO'd than spend the whole night avoiding and backing up and lose a unanimous decision.

[kungpow]

Spelling forgiven. I am glad the "Crow" has a nice , simple nickname. Back to my analysis ; Maybe Franklin had a better night or less jitters. But here is what they brought to the fight. The Crow had great kicks , great punches , and scary elbows. He fights with the look of someone who has spent a lot of years sparring. I believe he has more sparring experience than Franklin. Franklin brought an entirely different package to the fight. Because of his endurance and weight training he brings just about as much muscle as you can for the weight limit. He is huge for the weight. Jeremy Horn has spoken about how important strength is in mixed martial arts when he was discussing Randleman. And I think strength was a factor in Horn's loss to Liddell. Good strikers who are strong enough to resist the take down are becoming more and more common. They may come to dominate the sport.