Royce Gracie anybody?

[DUCE]

One of the most well known figures in MMA and founding father of UFC is doing alot recently. He kind of went into hiding in the late nineties with all the challenges coming his way. He lost that infamous jiu jitsu match with Wallid Ishmail( der? Squallid Oatmeal) and starting coming back to the spotlight strong and practicly made Pride what it is today by fighting that epicly humorus and dull hour plus scrap with Sak. Then It was semi downhill until beating Yoshida's head in to the sound of a draw that got him back on track with a solid K-1 contract. That last comical battle with Akibono has kind of set Royce's fan base straight in Japan( video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4754358887413654428&q=royce ). Now he has a fight against a 143 pound on new years eve. His opponett Katsuhiko Nagata has dropped out of the fight to face a different challenge Remigijus Morkevicius. Now he is confirmed to fight Tokoro(see below) who has defeated Remigijus Morkevicius. I believe they are setting up a Genki Sudo or Yamaoto match for either Tokoro or Royce.

Name Hideo Tokoro
Record 13 - 8 - 0 (Win - Loss - Draw)
Height 5'7 (170cm)
Weight 143lbs (65kg)
Birth Date 08/22/1977
He is three and two this year.

[ryanm2k4]

As much as I respect Royce for all he has done to build UFC and MMA, but I am putting on the janitor's uniform and rooting for the rags-to-riches story of 2005 in Hideo Tokoro. I don't think Tokoro will win, and I presume under Royce's special rules, but he is good enough to get a draw.

[DUCE]

The fight will be at 180 pounds and under special rules of two 10 minute rounds.

Tokoro weights in at 155 pounds...

[DUCE]

The following article is courtesy of Gracie Magazine:


Royce Gracie, the precursor
More than 10 years after convincing the world to fight on the floor, Royce Gracie divides his time between a quiet private life and voyages around the planet

By Luca Atalla


"What time are you traveling tomorrow?" Nono asks in English with a slight French accent. "I don't know, haven't checked the ticket yet," answers Royce Gracie, while he wraps adhesive plaster around his finger and expects a student for a private lesson, sitting on the mat of the hapkido academy of his friend, disciple and professor Nono, in Hermosa Beach, California.

On Tuesday Royce arrived in Japan, where he watched his cousins fighting in the PRIDE Bushido. On Friday he's already leaving. Heading to Guatemala, where he's giving a seminar. This October 2003 week is a good sample of the routine of the fighter who on November 12th, 1993, entered a sort of cage assembled in Denver, Colorado, to present both Jiu-Jitsu and MMA to the world, in the event known as Ultimate Fighting Championship. Ten years and many chokes and armlocks later, and, after an hour rolling with his pupil, Royce leaves the kimono on. He gets into the car and heads home in Torrance. On the way, he sums up his life nowadays, "I spend half the weekends traveling. When I must set up my schedule, I sit down with my wife and mark the Sundays I want to stay home. Then I give my agent the calendar and he fills up the vacant spots with seminars."

Today's routine is like that of a traveling salesman, but it used to be like a soldier's. Two years ago, Royce decided to take a road different from his brother Rorion's and found it better not to set up his own academy. "In the old days I'd come back from a seminar and go straight to the academy, like a soldier who returns from war and goes right to the military quarters, no vacation," he compares, pointing out the high incidence of divorce among military men.

In order to preserve his family, Royce then decided to leave his time in California free, except for a few private lessons. Among his selective group of students are celebrities such as Nicolas Cage, Ed O'Neil, Jim Carrey, and Madonna's husband Guy Ritchie. "I only call them when I stay in town for at least two weeks. When I'm on the run, I like to spend all the time I've got with my family", says the fighter, minutes before arriving home and being welcomed by wife Marianne and 1-and-a-half-year-old son Kheidon.

Worried about arranging a funnelvine on the backyard tree is Khor, 5 years old, the couple's middle child. Royce runs to help him and, while improvising a knot, points out that he doesn't have a proper place to teach, "I don't know what it's like in Brazil, but here parents leave their children with nannies and go to work. Afterwards they're to blame for the kids' education. That's not fair. I want to have that responsibility myself; that's why, when I'm not traveling, I spend the whole day with them – I don't leave them with nannies."

An empty fridge and miles

During lunch Marianne recollects her first days with Royce, even before the first UFC, when they met in Philadelphia, in March 1993. Months later Royce would leave Rorion's place to share an apartment with pupil Jon Burke, in a sort of preparation for living with his future wife. Mari remembers it as if it was yesterday, "We started buying the furniture but I didn't move to California at once. One day I went to his place and opened the refrigerator. There was nothing but a box with the leftovers of a pizza from Domino's."

The wedding would happen in July 1995. Khonry, the first offspring, would appear in April 1997, when Royce had already parted from the octagon. The fame Gracie had built in his 13 fights from 1993 to 1995 would yield him work for a long time to come. "There's a big demand for seminars, but I know it won't last forever. So I take advantage while I can. Besides, Mari and I did the math and I showed her I spend more time at home in this seminar routine than I would if I were running an academy," he guarantees.

That may be. But to say the choice of seminars is just a matter of schedule isn't all that convincing. Besides, it's not only the bucks that count. After all, Royce gives lessons both in rich countries like the USA, England, Sweden, and Norway, and in others that, according to him, he does almost as charity, such as Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Ecuador.

The truth, which he can't hide, is that he loves traveling. And he laments not having gone yet to Africa and Eastern Europe, "Once I had the chance of giving a seminar in Poland. But I'd have to cancel a profitable appointment in Germany, so I gave it up. Maybe next time."

In the luggage, as often as possible, Royce brings a relic. His weapon collection, exhibited in an office at the back, contains exotic pieces, like the medieval sword you must be a Highlander to hold, and an original Arabic shield made out of a hippopotamus hoof, dating from 1883.

It's time to leave the toys aside. After all - Mari warns - Khonry's class ends in a few minutes. Royce then climbs up the hill on foot, towards Seaside, an elementary school less than 500 yards from home. Wearing a long shirt and trendy glasses from his sponsor, he would easily pass for a surfer dad, if it weren't for the logotype on his pants showing his real profession.

Khonry hugs his father with a smile on his face and is warned: in two hours he and Khor are going to have a martial arts lesson at Nono's academy. "Teaching one's own child is very difficult", explains Royce, who prefers leaving the first steps in someone else's hands. "Since in this age the recreation is more important than the technique, I let Nono take care of them. In a few years I'll take over."

By the end of the day, the Halloween lights hanging on the branches of the Japanese elms that decorate Royce's street light up, bringing up the subject of spectacle. What about the possible comeback to the octagon? "The Ultimate has contacted me to negotiate a comeback, but the conditions are not nearly satisfying. I'm not fighting for now", he tells us.

To close up, at a Gracie home with three small kids, wasn't there supposed to be a dog? "No way. I am enough dogs. If there was another one, there'd probably be a quarrel." Which wouldn't be a problem to someone who conquered the world by fighting.

BEYOND UFC

Royce's last UFC fight took place in April 1995. After that, he made an appearance in Brazil in December 1998, when he lost a Jiu-Jitsu fight to Wallid Ismail. He went back to Japan in 2000, for the PRIDE Grand Prix, where he beat, in the first phase, Nobuhiko Takada in January. In May, he faced Kazushi Sakuraba in a historical confrontation that took one and a half hours. Seeing his brother worn out and injured, Rorion threw the towel during the intermission between the sixth and seventh rounds. In August 2002, Royce would go back to the ring yet another time, before 100,000 people in the Dynamite event, for a fight against Olympic judo fighter Hidehiko Yoshida. In a controversial decision the judge interrupted the battle on the first round, stating that the Brazilian had blacked out.

THE NEW ROYCE

Royce's displays at the UFC were marked by the use of pure Jiu-Jitsu, without any influence from other martial arts. But today's reality is a bit defferent, as Royce has shown on Japanese soil. In the bus coming back from the Tokyo Dome, in April 2000, soon after the huge combat against Sakuraba at the PRIDE Grand Prix, striking specialist Bas Rutten complimented, "Impressive how well Royce is punching and kicking." According to Gracie, this is owed to former Foreign Legion member Nono, who introduced Royce to the techniques of karate and muay thai. Formerly Royce's pupil, the Frenchman turned into teacher when he convinced the Brazilian to punch and use his flexibility to kick with both legs above his head. Royce, of course, hasn't become a Chute Boxe specialist, but his game is more aggressive and prepared for these days.

OCTAGON STORIES

Probably no other Jiu-Jitsu fighter would be able to impress the world as much as Royce did between November 1993 and April 1995. With a flat musculature and not much of an athlete's attitude, Royce beat several opponents in the first five UFC editions, most of them at least 30 pounds heavier. Some of these fights are considered real MMA classics.

Royce vs. Kimo Leopoldo
UFC 3, September 1994

Against the tattooed man who bore a cross on his way to the ring, for the first time the Jiu-Jitsu master went through a hard time during a fight. Kimo achieved good positions and Royce even showed some tiredness. But in the end the technique prevailed: holding his adversary's ponytail with one hand and making an armlock with both legs and the other hand, Gracie put an end to the battle. He wasn't able, however, to fight the next opponent, and lost the title.

Royce vs. Dab Severn
UFC 4, December 1994

Losing the UFC 3 title did not shake Royce's confidence. A few months later he would submit three adversaries, among which wrestler Dan Severn, the first to ever take part in an UFC. Severn nullified Royce's attacks for 14 minutes, but ended up caught in a triangle. Many people, nonetheless, didn't see the finale, since the time reserved for pay-per-view had ended before the submission. The longest fight in Ultimate Fighting history so far was responsible for the setting up of time limits for the combats, which would make Royce abandon the event months later.

Royce vs. Ken Shamrock
UFC 5, April 1995

Despite having been quickly submitted by Royce in UFC 1, Shamrock's Japanese Pancrase experience made him Gracie's best groundfighting opponent in the first UFC's. Selected for a superfight against Royce in the event's fifth edition, this time Ken entered the octagon intent on stalling the combat. The fight - later to be known as Royce's last UFC presentation - ended as a draw after 30 minutes plus a five-minute extra-time, and pretty much saw nothing but the American all crumpled up in Gracie's guard, blocking Royce's hips to avoid any dangerous locks.

[DUCE]

With all due respect for everybody else I honest think its an honor for Tokoro to fight Royce even with the bogus rules. Old Royce is a legend. He made UFC in the beginning with Rorion setting the tournments in his favor in the back. I've got alot of respect for Royce.