What do you guys think about what Royce is saying?

[ScottRay]

I agree, stick to your A-game. A Gracie trying to strike is like a fish trying to climb a tree. Roger gracie also tried to make 185? At like 7 feet tall? Wtf? Fights in jits tournaments his whole life at over 200, then decides to change his body to try to make 185.

[ScottRay]

Any video clips of the Dan Severn vs Royce Gracie fight?

[David Rosado]

What I don't agree with. Jiu jitsu alone is enough. Maybe against an untrained assailant/opponent. Maybe in low tier ammy MMA. Not for professional MMA. In fact, he kind of contradicts himself when he states that he learned boxing and wrestling. If jiu jitsu was enough, you wouldn't need to know any of that.

What I do agree with: You shouldn't learn boxing to try and box with someone who's a better boxer. You learn boxing to figure out THEIR game so you can avoid it. IMO, that's what Randy Couture excelled at. He understood boxing well enough to avoid his opponent's game so he could employ his own game. I do agree that guys should focus on their A game. Demian Maia 1.0 was finishing mf'ers left and right with like 4 sub of the night bonuses...then he goes to face Marquardt, decides, to become k-1 Maia, gets KO'd, and goes on to lose like 3 straight. Now, Maia 2.0 goes back to his BJJ self and dominates guys that are usually the dominators. Go figure.

Eat the meat spit out the bones. I think BJJ based fighters should take heed to the relevant parts of his opinion.

[David Rosado]

Royce, in his prime, wouldn't even make it into the UFC today

Word.

[David Rosado]

Ya but its like Eddie always says everybody at the highest level is hard to take down and if they are not working on there wrestling or becoming a serious threat with there hands to force a take down... And the kind of "gracie jiu jitsu" Royce is talking about is the kind that gets a stand up. Royce played a kind of wait and bait game. Every body in the ufc regardless of there jiu jitsu has pretty high level defense and they can't wait ware them down frustrate them and force a mistake because it will get a stand up. I don't think Royce could put away anybody in the ufc off his back even a blue belt.

Not necessarily. I think he's just talking about BJJ in general. BJJ can adapt to the rules and be effective. Like I've mentioned too many times already (Bit of a Maia Fanboy), I really feel like Maia has shown a great game plan for how to adapt BJJ to MMA. Just because guys are getting harder to take down doesn't mean you can't grapple. Grappling doesn't just occur when you're on the mat. What needs to be done is:

a. Learn how to safely close the distance
b. Develop a strong cage clinch game
c. Wear them down with strong clinch/ground strikes

Once you engage in the clinch, it's grapple time. Right there you're scoring points in the judges eyes. Plus, if you score the TD from there, you're in your world.....if they take YOU down....you're still in your world. That's why that cage clinch should be part of the BJJ evolution for MMA. What Maia's been doing that's genius to me is faking for the takedown and going to the back. It's a thing of beauty. And he has a killer back control.

Also, my opinion of the guard game in MMA: don't play it for longer than 2 minutes. If you're not subbing them in that time frame, you're losing points. Fight back to your feet or sweep.

A BJJ oriented fighter CAN use BJJ to win fights. They just need to know how to use it in the context of MMA rules.

/rant

[Stewart Landry]

Ok fine ... but do you truly believe Damien doesnt work his wrestling and boxing etc ... he does do what hes meant to do and push his beautiful Jits style ... but at the end of the day he doesn focus on just jits in his training ... Its a presumption but ...

Not necessarily. I think he's just talking about BJJ in general. BJJ can adapt to the rules and be effective. Like I've mentioned too many times already (Bit of a Maia Fanboy), I really feel like Maia has shown a great game plan for how to adapt BJJ to MMA. Just because guys are getting harder to take down doesn't mean you can't grapple. Grappling doesn't just occur when you're on the mat. What needs to be done is:

a. Learn how to safely close the distance
b. Develop a strong cage clinch game
c. Wear them down with strong clinch/ground strikes

Once you engage in the clinch, it's grapple time. Right there you're scoring points in the judges eyes. Plus, if you score the TD from there, you're in your world.....if they take YOU down....you're still in your world. That's why that cage clinch should be part of the BJJ evolution for MMA. What Maia's been doing that's genius to me is faking for the takedown and going to the back. It's a thing of beauty. And he has a killer back control.

Also, my opinion of the guard game in MMA: don't play it for longer than 2 minutes. If you're not subbing them in that time frame, you're losing points. Fight back to your feet or sweep.

A BJJ oriented fighter CAN use BJJ to win fights. They just need to know how to use it in the context of MMA rules.

/rant

[Mike Nall]

Royce is delusional

[David Rosado]

Stewart, no way do I think Maia isn't crosstraining. I know Demian works all of it. But he's doing what Royce describes. He's not training boxing to go out there and box. He's not training wrestling to go out there and hit double legs. He's training it to know how to deal with it. And if you watch his recent game, it's like 90% straight up no gi BJJ.

[George Katechis]

Not necessarily. I think he's just talking about BJJ in general. BJJ can adapt to the rules and be effective. Like I've mentioned too many times already (Bit of a Maia Fanboy), I really feel like Maia has shown a great game plan for how to adapt BJJ to MMA. Just because guys are getting harder to take down doesn't mean you can't grapple. Grappling doesn't just occur when you're on the mat. What needs to be done is:

a. Learn how to safely close the distance
b. Develop a strong cage clinch game
c. Wear them down with strong clinch/ground strikes

Once you engage in the clinch, it's grapple time. Right there you're scoring points in the judges eyes. Plus, if you score the TD from there, you're in your world.....if they take YOU down....you're still in your world. That's why that cage clinch should be part of the BJJ evolution for MMA. What Maia's been doing that's genius to me is faking for the takedown and going to the back. It's a thing of beauty. And he has a killer back control.

Also, my opinion of the guard game in MMA: don't play it for longer than 2 minutes. If you're not subbing them in that time frame, you're losing points. Fight back to your feet or sweep.

A BJJ oriented fighter CAN use BJJ to win fights. They just need to know how to use it in the context of MMA rules.

/rant

except for that one year straight where Damien thought he was fucking Muhammad Ali. Royce is old, and his family's legendary name is fading, he's retarded if he thinks someone can be a pure Jiu-Jitsu fighter and win in the UFC at that level. Vinny Mag is probably the best jiujitsu fighter to be in the UFC, if he could've gotten phil davis down, i believe he woulda tapped him in under a minute, but he couldn't. you gotta be good at everything, and spectacular at one thing in particular. at least that's what i think.

[Jesse Briggs]

Maia out wrestled Fitch