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I have watched this fight 4 times now, the first 3 times on grainy VHS. Last night I borrowed the Grand Prix DVD set from a friend. Here are my thoughts:
1) Royce looked TOTALLY inneffective throughout the fight. His takedowns were weak and his strikes weak. It was funny to hear Rutten and Smith joke about Royce's punches, Rutten said Royce would be better off saving his energy.
2) I was struck at Royce's lack of gameplan. He figured out early that he couldn't take Sak down, yet did he change his tactics? NO. Instead he kept wasting his energy struggling with Sak to get him to the canvas. When he did pull Sak down by hanging on flopping to the floor, Sak sat in the guard and defended so well Royce looked impotent.
3) This one is for Hawk- Sak was clearly fooling around when he made the fake taps. But just to be clear, the rules say THREE taps constitutes a tap out, not TWO. In the same sequence Sak was comfortable enough in the headlock to pull Royce's pants down.
4) Two things finished Royce- his inability to defend a classic low roundhouse kick to the leading leg and his stamina. Although the former undoubtedly contributed to the demise of the latter. My read on the situation was Royce was too pigheaded to defend the legkick because he wanted to give the impression the kicks did not hurt.
On a positive note I do give props to Royce for fighting and sticking it out to the end. But IMHO opinion this fight was the watershed between old and new MMA. Royce was schooled by a lighter man fighting Royce's rules. It was pathetic to see the once great champ cry uncle and quit, especially after saying he would never give up in a fight. Machismo defeated Royce.
1) Royce looked TOTALLY inneffective throughout the fight. His takedowns were weak and his strikes weak. It was funny to hear Rutten and Smith joke about Royce's punches, Rutten said Royce would be better off saving his energy.
2) I was struck at Royce's lack of gameplan. He figured out early that he couldn't take Sak down, yet did he change his tactics? NO. Instead he kept wasting his energy struggling with Sak to get him to the canvas. When he did pull Sak down by hanging on flopping to the floor, Sak sat in the guard and defended so well Royce looked impotent.
3) This one is for Hawk- Sak was clearly fooling around when he made the fake taps. But just to be clear, the rules say THREE taps constitutes a tap out, not TWO. In the same sequence Sak was comfortable enough in the headlock to pull Royce's pants down.
4) Two things finished Royce- his inability to defend a classic low roundhouse kick to the leading leg and his stamina. Although the former undoubtedly contributed to the demise of the latter. My read on the situation was Royce was too pigheaded to defend the legkick because he wanted to give the impression the kicks did not hurt.
On a positive note I do give props to Royce for fighting and sticking it out to the end. But IMHO opinion this fight was the watershed between old and new MMA. Royce was schooled by a lighter man fighting Royce's rules. It was pathetic to see the once great champ cry uncle and quit, especially after saying he would never give up in a fight. Machismo defeated Royce.
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