Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Seeing as nobody in boxing really cared for MMA, especially in those early days, I doubt it's because they were scared, but probably out of ignorance of the art.
Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the Gracies anyway. Arrogant family with delusions of invincibility. UFC was started with rules that favored BJJ in order to better promote it.
I wouldn't say nobody knew about it or cared for it, all of the top guys were very much enjoying mma from day one. I believe it was de la Hoya that was a fan on pancreas before the UFC even started.
Money is the clear reason nobody accepted the challenge.
Now I'm no Gracie fan, as has been documented all over this board, BUT what rules would you be speaking of when talking about rules to favor jiu jitsu? Is it the no eye gouging? Or the fish hooking? Because our side of those pretty much everything else was fair game. Was there an advantage when Dan Severn had no power in his punches and couldn't hurt Royce all the way till 170 lb Royce (one of the smallest helio Gracie sons) submitted the 250+ lb Severn with a triangle choke? How about the soccer kick to the grounded Tull by gordeau knocking his teeth into the front 3 rows?
Now the Gracie's have long been said to be rule changers, and I'll give you they are arrogant but the 1st UFC events were as raw, rule free as you could get. I especially love their "helio Gracie modified the technique to work with his smaller frame this inventing Gracie jiu jitsu", BULL! Hell helio is documented in saying he learned the triangle from Rolls Gracie who was documented as saying he saw it in a JUDO BOOK.
I love make Tyson and think he is a great ambassador to the sport (though he is not fighting MMA). He's one of the best and most famous people, in and outside of boxing. If you don't know who Mike Tyson is, you're either living under a rock or a little kid born in the late 90's or early 2000's. With that said he's been an MMA fan for years and you could always spot him at various MMA events in the U.S., Canada and Japan.
Now that he's close friends with Dana White and the Fertitta's, it's great to see how respected he is from the MMA community and how respectful he is to the MMA community. Last night was a great indication as several fighters paid him respect after their fights (JDS, Glover Texeira and someone else I'm forgetting). It's good to see one of the best and most famous boxers ever at these MMA shows because it'll just open up more eyes to MMA and it's good to see a veteran boxer not be so delusional about the growing popularity and success of MMA and embrace the sport.
I've always been an Iron Mike fan and I'm always happy to see him at MMA events and supporting it!
The best form of defence is a straight right hand and the thought of a mike tyson straight right is what bad dreams are made of,i 'am sure m.t would have held his own in a cage ......it is unfortunate how his boxing days ended ,i don't think he was ever the same after the buster douglas fight.....but he is in my opinion one of the boxing greats perhaps the last
I think a prime Tyson could knock Royce out before Royce could take it to the ground. But he would have to familiarize himself with at least some defense against a takedown.
I think Tyson pretty much said it: *if* he caught Royce with a punch...and that's a big if. Gracie actually did face a top ten ranked cruiserweight in Art Jimmerson. Granted, there's no question that there's a big difference between Jimmerson and Tyson, but in Jimmerson's own words, he basically said that he had no idea how to get out of the mounted position, which is something that Brazilian 'JiuJitsu' (actually jujutsu in Japanese, meaning 'soft' art, or the art of non-striking 'soft' combat) practitioners practice every day in a Gracie gym. If Gracie could have ducked a Tyson punch and just gone for the shoot, it would be/have been over.
The stuff of Gracie Jiujitsu is legendary. Fights regularly go on for as long as 60 minutes. There's no way a boxing guy's prepared to do an hour of ground fighting - absolutely no way. The Gracie way is to get your opponent on the ground, relax, and wait for your opponent to tire out. It's just a different form of fighting.
In no way is that to diminish what Tyson and other boxers accomplished - they're still all bad ass to the core. Boxers are probably better at knowing how to withstand physical punishment and fight when hurt than a BJJ artist, but there ain't gonna be a fight if a guy executes a triangle choke or snaps some dude's arm into pieces. My money would have been on Royce, but I'd both literally and figuratively give Tyson a 'puncher's chance.'
Seeing as nobody in boxing really cared for MMA, especially in those early days, I doubt it's because they were scared, but probably out of ignorance of the art.
Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the Gracies anyway. Arrogant family with delusions of invincibility. UFC was started with rules that favored BJJ in order to better promote it.
Trust me, it wasn't that boxers didn't care; it was probably that promoters like Don King cared too much. Think about it: if a promoter like Arum or King sends the very best boxing guy out to face a no-name Brazilian in a bar-room brawl kind of event, what would that say about boxing? The whole premise of watching a guy like Tyson destroy hapless opponents in 100 seconds is the assumption that fans are watching *the* baddest dude on the face of the earth. But...what if he really wasn't the baddest dude on the face of the earth, and what if some no-name Brazilian guy came out of nowhere and made "Iron" Mike tap out in 2 minutes?
The only equivalent I can think of is, what would happen if a team from the Japanese or Cuban league agreed to take on the World Series champion from MLB and swept them in 4 games in a true world championship? Would people really believe that the World Series is really the 'World' series, or would they think it's just the champion of an American professional baseball league? I think that's why Don King and Bob Arum weren't interested in having this kind of freak show. I bet Royce Gracie or any truly skilled MMA fighter would have jumped at the opportunity - for the obvious reasons.
And I don't buy that UFC rules favored BJJ. It only favored BJJ in that it was the single style that was most effective. To be real here, the rules changes disallowing certain kinds of strikes would actually help a BJJ guy on the ground. The concept of rounds actually benefited non-BJJ fighters, such as boxers or kickboxers. BJJ artists are used to training without breaks.
The best form of defence is a straight right hand and the thought of a mike tyson straight right is what bad dreams are made of,i 'am sure m.t would have held his own in a cage ......it is unfortunate how his boxing days ended ,i don't think he was ever the same after the buster douglas fight.....but he is in my opinion one of the boxing greats perhaps the last
Tyson was a lost fighter before Douglas, which is why he lost that fight. He shoulda beaten Douglas that night, but he had lost his trademark discipline that had been instilled him by his meticulous handlers (D'Amato, Cayton, Jacobs, Rooney, etc.). By that point, Tyson had an entourage of 'Yes men', and that took a good three or four years off his career.
That being said, I think that, no mistake about it, he would have been stifled by a great boxer. The Holyfield fights were not flukes; Holyfield was the real deal. Lewis was the same. Earlier in Tyson's career, at age 22 or 23? Yeah, maybe Tyson takes that one.
As for MMA, Tyson would have to be able to grapple. Just throwing leather wouldn't get it done. Not then, not now.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
