Sak vs Gracie and Cesar vs Shamrock

[CKD]

I just wondered what people think would happen if a Gracie had a rematch with Sakuraba and what will happen with the Cesar vs Shamrock fight. With the Sakuraba fight I think it will be interesting and I think a Gracie could pull of a win depending who went in. If it was Rickson he would dominate him But I think Royler is getting a rematch because of the unfair call on his match and I think he could win. Royce would be very interesting. He only dropped out because of his foot last match but his skill has improved immensely. Look how hard Silva tried to put Yoshida away and check out how Royce did against him. His skill has defenitely increased and I think with this new skill he has a good chance of beating Sakuraba. The Shamrock fight will be interesting. Shamrock seems to be afraid to make a deal with Cesar even though he has never fought professionaly. What I think will make this fight particuraly interesting is the trash Shamrock has talked. When the Gracies and Royce were not competing everyone made comments that they could not keep up with the "new generation" of mma fighters. Then they started competing again, and they started beating all these new generation fighters like Smith, Yoshida, and others. After all that people shut up but Shamrock persisted. Not sure how this fight will go but Cesar has a very strong team and I think he could provide problems.

[shadowkiller]

With the sak gracie fights. Rickson has a good chance but in all the sak gracie fights sak dominates the entire exchange. He played with royce the entire fight. Royce couldnt even hurt him. The gracies have improved but doesnt that stand to reason that sak would too.

Sak is still king in my books, if he doesnt have to fight a good striker that is.

[CKD]

Wouldn't say he played with Royce. Most of that was just to intimidate him and to rile him up emotionally which Royce said worked. But I remember in one of Saks interviews he said that was one of his hardest fights ever. As you could tell by his fight with Igor next round.

[aseepish]

I think grappling with Sak is not the best strategy to take. The better road to take is the Feodor/Silva approach: go for the KO. Of course this tends to work only if you are someone like Feodor or Silva.

[shadowkiller]

There is the way to go. If he gets thrown into a real good striker he ends up turtling and not putting up any defence. Sak is one of the best ground people there is. If only he could train more in striking, he could probably throw a good strike if he trained it more.

Though I am not really sure as to what striking he has. What he trained I mean.

[CKD]

I am positive Sak would get schooled by Rickson. But the Gracies have defenitely improved so I think they would have a chance to win a re-match. But what do you think about Cesar vs Shamrock?

[gracilva]

i.m.o,i dont think ANYONE! who rolls will Rickson could win.
It would be a completly different story if Sak and Royce fought again.
Royce seems to be getting better, while Sak seems to be losing it.
That's coming from a Sak fan.
Hands up anyone who has beaten Rickson....... (crickets chirping), ok then.

[CKD]

Yes Rickson is great I would not be too suprised if he could take on Silva. I do not think Sak has gotten worse, but Royce has gotten better. If you look how hard it took Silva to beat Yoshida than Royce you can see the improvement. I hope there is a rematch between them.

[TylerDurden]

If Royce had NOT worn that stupid gi he would have taken Sak. It took a loss to Yoshida before he finally figured out that jacket is only helping his opponent. And if Royce can make you go 90 minutes, Rickson will bury you.

[shadowkiller]

If Royce had NOT worn that stupid gi he would have taken Sak. It took a loss to Yoshida before he finally figured out that jacket is only helping his opponent. And if Royce can make you go 90 minutes, Rickson will bury you.

Which fight were you watching? The entire match he sat there taking shots from royce and playing games with him. Pulling his gi out and laughing to the crowd. These are all regulars for Sak but he did it quite a lot that one match. Royce couldnt even get a takedown on him. He was outclassed pure and simple.

Would be a rather interesting match to see again though and a rickson fight would be great.

[CKD]

I would not say Royce was outclassed by Sak. Sak has said that was one of his hardest fights ever and the tricks were to get Royce riled up and makehim think he was outclassed. But I seriously think could have a shot at beating Sak in a rematch. But I think Royler has to get his re-match first.

[TylerDurden]

Yeah, Royce was so outclassed it took Sak 90 minutes and he still never tapped or knocked Royce out. Sak was just playing, for an hour and a half. Because he was so much better than Royce. I don't care what kind of funny faces Sak made, there is NO way he wanted to go that long. That match guaranteed he would not go any further in the tournament.

[shadowkiller]

for 90 minutes then royce threw in the towel lol. If he didnt know he was beat then why that?

but wait a sec.... 90 mins.... I have never seen a MMA match last close to that. An hour and a half.....

[TylerDurden]

Exhaustion, dehydration. Have you ever grappled for 20 minutes straight? Now imagine doing it for over 4 times that long. Sak just wore Royce down. I have the match on DVD, it's actually pretty boring. Sak hugging the ropes, doing very little. He nearly knee bar's Royce at one point, but Royce almost catches him a few times as well. The point being if Royce was so outclassed why didn't Sak finish it quicker? Instead he was so exhausted he was putting himself out of the tournament with no chance to win.

[CKD]

Yes Royce was defenitely not outclassed, he put up a hard fight. He threw in the towel, because the foot he was having problems with broke during the match. But Royce gave Sak a run for his life then and Royces skill level has risen tremendously so I think he has a chance of beating Sakuraba. But Royler was suppossed to get his rematch first because of the unfair call.