Royce Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba

UFC Dynamite!! USA
Royce Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Saturday June 2, 2007
Sakuraba
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This Saturday is a mixed martial arts fans dream come true. Royce Gracie will fight Kazushi Sakuraba in a rematch to their 2000 MMA fight which has gone down in history as probably the greatest match in MMA history. To give a comparison to non MMA diehard this is like North Carolina and Duke playing for the Final Four, the Montreal Canadiens playing the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Stanley Cup, the NY Yankees playing the Boston Red Sox for the World Series or the La Lakers versus the NY Knicks in basketball. This is a fight I have been waiting for almost 7 years now and another milestone in MMA fighting.

Seven years ago 2 legends of the MMA world fought for over 90 minutes. Royce Gracie fought Kazushi Sakuraba at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 - Finals in 2000. Sakuraba already beat Royce brother Royler by submission (kimura). Having someone beat a Gracie by submission was unheard of back then and Royce wanted to avenge his family name. The Gracie family insisted that the match have no time limits. This, a no-time-limit match, was scheduled for 15 minute rounds until a winner was decided by submission or knock out. The match lasted for 90 minutes (6 rounds at 15 minutes each). In Brazil jujitsu matches have no time limit so the Gracie family thought this would be to their advantage. Of course this actually backfired as Sakuraba pummeled Gracie until in the 6th round when the Gracie family had to throw in the towel. After beating Royce and Royler Gracie, Kazushi Sakuraba has beat every Renzo Gracie by breaking his arm with a Kimura and Ryan Gracie in an epic stand up battle.

This Saturday the two will fight in a rematch LA Coliseum. Sakuraba is a legend in MMA and since fighting Royce has fought steadily against some of the toughest fighters in the world. Since the lose to Sakuraba, Gracie has only fought only 4 times in seven years while Sakuraba has fought 21 times against some of the baddest people on the planet like Ikuhisa Minowa, Ken Shamrock, Ricardo Arona, Antonio Schembri, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Wanderlei Silva 3 times, Mirko Filipovic Quinton Jackson, Igor Vovchanchyn and Vitor Belfort. Gracie was dominated by Matt Hughes and he has not adapted to the world of MMA like most fighters who now cross train in multiple disciplines. Sakuraba will win the stand up battle with Royce and be able to muscle, control and manipulate Gracie on the ground. Royce is too old to fight and doesn’t have the well-rounded skill set to compete with not only Sakuraba but most MMA fighters today.

Bottom Line: Sakuraba is fresher and more up to date in his fighting style and again will man handle Gracie in a 3 round unanimous decision. Royce does not have the stand up skills to fight Sakuraba and Sakuraba is just a good as Royce on the ground. If you watch the video below you can see how bad Royce's stand up skills are. Age will definitely play a factor as Royce is 40 years old and looks every bit of it. Kazushi Sakuraba has never backed away from anyone and he has fought the cream of the crop in MMA while many of the Gracie's are stuck in the old UFC days of just doing one style of fighting. Royce Grace created and started the sport of MMA to what it is today but Sakuraba has evolved and adapted to it and that's the major difference come this Saturday.

They don't call Sakuraba the Gracie Hunter for nothing

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