Royce Gracie back in the UFC? Worst idea ever!

Columns, Top Story

One of the great things about UFC going to Rio this fall is that there’s a certain part of MMA history that gets to be celebrated.  The Gracie Clan, which invented the sport, will get their just do and the plethora of great Brazilian fighters on the roster will be able to have a UFC PPV in their country.  With the sheer amount of Brazilian fighters in the UFC, this makes sense and could be an epic night of fights.  But one thing is quite bothersome.

Royce Gracie will be fighting on the card.

“It would be the perfect place to do my last fight. I never fought in Rio de Janeiro and I couldn’t be more psyched. We are negotiating [the fight deal], but we should have it finalized in two weeks. We only had an initial contact and I don’t even have an opponent yet, but we should have that finalized soon” he has been quoted as saying, albeit translated from Portuguese.  But it reeks of one thing and one thing only: a freak show pandering to a country’s native son & hero.

Royce deserves his just due from the UFC, having been one of its original stars, but this is not it.  He is a member of the UFC Hall of Fame and is referenced with adoration by everyone involved.  He deserves a video package and an award, or some sort of special recognition, for everything he’s done.  Royce deserves to be honored for a moment like all great champions.  If anyone deserves the grand ceremony and words in front of his countrymen it’s Royce, without whom none of it would be possible.

But no one wants to see him struggle through one last fight like Muhammad Ali and any number of aged boxers did in the past.

A farewell fight is going to be one of two things and neither will end well.  The end result is going to take away from what the UFC is trying to establish with the UFC Rio card.  And we all know exactly what they will be:

1. An epic beat-down

You put Royce in the cage with a current contender in the welterweight division and the result will be like what Chael Sonnen told audience members before his battle with Anderson Silva.  It’s going to be a one sided beating and someone is going to be swinging the hammer on the lithe Gracie.  Matt Hughes destroyed him five years ago and that same result is going to happen to anyone currently with a name big enough to be on the other side of Royce in a cage.

Imagine if someone like Martin Kampmann is in the cage with him.   Kampmann will keep this standing and blister him with strikes for as long as Gracie can stay standing.  It won’t be pretty and it won’t end quickly, either.  Royce isn’t good enough to hang with anyone in the modern era of MMA, that was proven five years ago, and the game has kept charging forward since.

Boxing is a good parallel here.  Too many top level boxers don’t go away when it’s clear they don’t have it anymore, instead getting exposed by a younger generation far more than they should have.

2. A freak show fight

The one thing everyone complained about James Toney lacing up smaller gloves to take on Randy Couture was that it was a freak show fight.  Dana White even admitted it.  And anyone who Royce could beat is going to be in that category.

If he brought in someone like Ken Shamrock, or any number of the active members of the old guard, we’re getting a nostalgia match that will be more of a curiosity than a contest.  A one sided beating is hard to watch but watching the men upon whom the sport was founded embarrass themselves is even harder.

Another boxing parallel comes to mind.  Watching a former top guy getting exposed is one thing, watching two over the hill boxers go at it is embarrassing too.

Royce Gracie fighting in the UFC seems like a tremendous idea on paper.  One of the all-time greatest fighters coming back for one last fight in the UFC’s return to Brazil sounds like something you’d see in a film.  But this isn’t the grand arena, he isn’t the plucky hero and there won’t be the ride off into the sunset victorious for Royce Gracie.