Royce Gracie Vs. Matt Hughes - Thoughts and Predictions

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It’s been many months of anticipation for the much hyped about fight between Royce Gracie and Matt Hughes at UFC 60, and tonight, we’re going to find out who the better man is.

Personally, I don’t think Gracie stands much of a chance.

Matt Hughes is way too strong, is a more well-rounded fighter, and has more experience in MMA than Royce Gracie.

Hughes is a farm boy who hauls around haystacks all day long.  He could probably suplex a horse if he wanted to.

Royce looks malnourished.  If I didn’t know he was a fighter and saw him on TV, I probably would think that it was a show about starving people of a third world country, and I would be inclined to pull out my credit card to get ready to donate money to him for food.

Even though Gracie is coming into this fight billed as the “old man” and “MMA Legend”, if you compare their professional mixed martial arts record, you’ll see that Hughes has over twice as many fights as Gracie.

Chronologically, Royce is older, but based on fight experience, I would say Matt Hughes is over 2 times older than Gracie!

The caliber of fighters Matt Hughes has fought is much higher than the people Royce Gracie fought too.  The last few of wins for Hughes was against Joe Riggs, Frank Trigg and George St. Pierre.  As for Gracie, he beat Chad Rowan (AKA Akebono), Nobuhiko Takada, and Dan Severn (which happened in 1994 at UFC 4!).

For the fight itself, I think it’s going to end in one of 3 ways:

1.    Matt Hughes knocking Royce Gracie out on the feet in the first round
2.    Matt Hughes beating Royce Gracie to a pulp via ground and pound so his corner will throw in the towel, or
3.    Matt Hughes winning via unanimous decision over a long, drawn out and boring fight where Gracie’s only offence is holding onto Hughes in Gracie’s guard, and heel strikes to the kidneys.

Of course there’s always an outside chance for any underdog to win a fight, so Royce might pull out a fluke submission out of nowhere…but again, it’s an outside chance.

My money’s on “old man” Matt Hughes.