Royce gracie V Hidehiko Yoshida

It is now confirmed,Royce gracie will take on Hidehiko Yoshida in pride shockwave in tokyo japan,Aug 28,2002.

Yoshida is a judo olympic gold medalist in the 92 barcelona games
and a 99 world judo champion.The japaneese are expecting 100,000 people to show up for this martial arts extravaganza in an open air stadium,many great fights are on this card.

This is going to be a classic Judo v Bjj.

RULES
BOTH COMPETITORS WILL WEAR A GI.
2 TEN MINUTE ROUNDS.
WIN BY SUBMISSION OR KO ONLY.
NO PUNCHING ON THE GROUND OR IN THE FACE EVER.
STRIKING ONLY WHILE STANDING.
NO POINT SYSTEM,IF THE MATCH GOES THE DISTANCE,IT WILL BE DECLARED A DRAW.

Hector Gomez

Royce will more than likely win because of his experience in MMA and his amazing expertise in newaza. Yoshida is skilled in the world of judo and is a champion, but that doesn't mean he has the skills to compete in MMA especially with someone that is use to fighting people of varying styles and sizes who has done so most of his life. This fight comes on the eve of the Kimura vs Helio match 50 yrs ago, but Yoshida is definitely no Kimura that's for sure. The japanese MMA organization called Pride is offering this match under special rules since Yoshida has only been training specifically for MMA since April putting him at a huge disadvantage over his more experienced counterpart. In order to be competive and win Yoshida would have to train with some great newaza and striking specialists; although the striking wouldn't be as important due to the special rules, even with good training the best I could see is that it goes to both rounds. Although, I would hope Yoshida wins, but I don't really see that happening in all honest.

[MarkF]

Well, as Gene LeBell has pointed out: "When in doubt, choke him out."




Mark

"WIN BY SUBMISSION OR KO ONLY.
NO PUNCHING ON THE GROUND OR IN THE FACE EVER."

so your supposed to KO someone by just doing body shots while standing?


I believe the rules favor Royce too much. I'm not a huge MMA freak, but anyone knows what Royce is going to to, he's going to pull guard. And with no striking on the ground, I believe Royce has the advantage. Of course none of us really know how great Yoshida is on the ground, but I wouldn't count on him submitting Royce.

Only if the mats in the ring were concrete

But Royce is what, 40 now? And hasn't fought competitively in a while. The rules do favour him, but ya never know - a younger, hungrier competitor in front of his home crowd...

(plus, this is Pride - an organisation rumoured to have 'worked' a few matches...)

FWIW, I like the rules (except for the no punching the head - that should be allowed from standing at least). Watching the UFC this past weekend made me realise how bored I am of ground'n'pound. Prohibiting strikes on the ground would open up more technical grappling, which I *much* prefer*.

Yoshida needs to stay standing and get all 'Olympic Judo' on Royce if he's going to stand a chance.

Cheers,

Mike

*Anyone else watch the UFC from the Albert Hall? Genki Sudo's fight was amazing - a nearly succesful flying triangle, a beautiful throw, and the sweetest mount-sidemount-rear naked choke maneuver to finish. THAT'S what I like watching.

By the looks of it, even if the judo man throws Royce down 50 times during the match it will not count for much.

It is obvious the rules favor Royce.

My friends,

This fight I believe is going to be a draw but like they say anything
can happen,on the ground it favors royce.

If I was Yoshida ,I would ask for hard tatamis,slam him as often as I
can and also work for a submission on the transition of the throw.

I expect yoshida to be on top the whole fight,except towards the end
when conditioning takes over and it might get dangerous for him and end up giving his back.

If one wants to see blood,this is not the fight to watch as there will
be other (N.H.B)fights on the card for that,this is for the gi enthusiast who enjoys the technical strategies of gi grappling.

The gracies have always claimed how superior their old style judo is
compared to olympic judo,the the gracies have way to much to lose and ofcourse japan wants to restore their honor.

I love this matchup it's helio and kimura all over again,I know I know
yoshida is no kimura but he is a judo world champion and olympic judo champion,who is not currently training for judo competitions,therefore
he is able to compete in this kind of match.



Hector Gomez

ps. Genki sudo is the man

[CEB]

What are the rules concerning kensetsu waza? A flying armbar would be nice.

Ed,

Anytype of armbar is legal,standing,flying or armbar on the ground.Rules of the strikes allowed if they decide to use any(I doubt it)can be similar to a kyokushin full contact karate match.

Hector Gomez

[Jeff Cook]

I predict Gracie will take him out with a joint lock. He will play with him for about five minutes, during which the judoka will be extremely energetic. He will then wear out, and Gracie will go to work (Gracie cannot afford a draw in this match). Expect leg kicks from Gracie.

If the judoka is smart, he will play very defensive. Best he can hope for is a draw.

However, I would like to see Gracie get his butt kicked!

Jeff Cook
Wabujitsu

[MarkF]

Think of a chess game. What's the most likely strategy to make the opponent go crazy: Play for the draw, in fact, offer the draw right off.

This is a work so it won't matter anyway what the outcome, but sometimes less is more.


Mark


PS: Jeff, I'd love to see Gracie get his head handed to him, though. I'll probably never see it though, but I did catch the first k-1 match I'd ever seen. Man, what crap. It was a world championship from Tokyo from March 2001. Every one complains about passivity penalties in IJF judo, but these guys were warned a couple of times each for not fighting, and it went a 4th tie-break round. I could hardly contain myself with that much excitement. Some guy named Filio lost to a repechages winner named Steve Smith from New Zealand. Is Filio from the Filipines? That name seems familiar somehow.

Basically, I agree with Jae.

Filio, he is a kyokushin champ from Brazil.

Mark,

Give it another chance ,remember this is not like dating,it does not
have to be love at first sight.I agree,everyonce in a while there is some real stinkers, it happens in boxing,wrestling and yes even judo.


K1 fighters are some of the best strikers in the world but it is like
boxing you are not guaranteed a great fight everytime out,I disscuss this all the time with my co-workers ,you see,they only like to watch
boxing when a big event goes on like a tyson or a delayoha fight etc.

They don't realize that fights are not made,they just sometimes happen
out of nowhere(gatti V ward )usually the bigtime build up fights hardly ever deliver the goods,so the general public always comes away
talking bad about boxing.


Rings sports are so different than other sports like baseball,football
or even basketball ,the slump does not exist,having a bad day does not exist either,you sign a contract to fight on a certain day and you
better be 100% ready that day,because the public will not accept anything less.

In baseball if you have a bad day"no big deal"you come back the very
next day and redeem yourself,not so in the ring you have a fighter on
top of the world and the sports media one day,he might be 42-0,if he losses one fight, all of the sudden the whole world is calling him a joke and asking him about retirement,and no one wants to hear any excuses about him not feeling good that day.


Mark ,if I am not mistaken I have heard you mention the great fighters of the golden era of boxing in the past, and I do agree with you those were great fighters back then,I wish they could
go back to that era when a fighter was allowed to lose more than one
fight and still be considered a great fighter,but then again boxing had some intelligent media men back then.



Mark please give k1 another chance,anyway getting back to royce I hope this fight turns out to be exciting like the sakuraba fight but it can also be a bore just like the takada fight nothing is etched in stone in the fight game,let's pray for the best.


Hector Gomez

[shinbushi]

Hector,
I love Pride and King of the Cage (It is a local event) and have watched most of the DVD's. Which K-1 would you recommend that has a good number of fights.

I am wondering how yoshida's right arm is? As you guys can recalled, the last olympic, he got his right arm completely severed at the elbow by a Cuban fighter! I don't know if one can be effective after a bad injury like that. I would like to hear from anyone that knew and experienced such injury and remained competitive.

Johnathan Nguyen