May 30th, 2006 by Jimmy Bones
Legend Gets Destroyed
The much anticipated UFC battle between the past and the present turned out to be a slaughter, as current UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes destoyed the legendary Royce Gracie.
Gracie, the 1st face of Mixed Martial Arts in North America, was returning to the UFC after a lengthy absense. In the early days of the UFC, Gracie amazed by beating much bigger men in convincing fashion. Over the years however, the sport has evolved from one dimensional fighters focusing on fighting style into featuring true mixed martial artists. Gracie’s style hasn’t kept up this evolution as Hughes proved Saturday night.
Hughes was too much for Gracie. He was the better striker and wrestler, which lead to an obvious mismatch and the subsequent pummeling. Hughes controlled the entire fight, 1st with a devasting arm bar then by raining down unanswered punches to the back of the legend’s head. Ref John McCarthy had no choice but to stop the assault at 4:39 of the 1st round.
Hughes moves on to defend his title against Canadian sensation George St. Pierre at a future UFC, while Gracie’s future is less certain. While he has stated a desire to keep fighting, he is not under contract to any fighting organization. The Gracie name is still big in Japan, so a return to PRIDE or another Japanese organization isn’t out of the question but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the UFC try to set up an old school super fight between Gracie and Ken Shamrock to try to ring up some big pay-per-view dollars.
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