1937 clip from a boxer vs. wrestler match

Yeah, Severn, Ken (rematch), Kimo and even Keith Hackney led to different ways to beat Gracies and similar grapplers.

Severn - Later said that he didn't feel right using GnP on Royce and thought Helio would let Royce get beaten half to death before throwing the towel in...so he didn't do much GnP or any headbutts (legal back then). But it showed how a stronger wrestler could win the position war...too bad Severn didn't know what a triangle choke was.

Kimo - Big strong dude with nothing but high school wrestling and maybe a tiny bit of BJJ (rumor back in the day was that he trained a few times with the Machado brothers) gave Royce fits and kept him from competing the rest of the tourament.. If he cut his hair so Royce couldn't hold it, I really think he could've pounded Royce out.

Hackney - First ever sprawl and brawl attempt. It worked for a whilel, but Hackney was too gunshy to unleash many strikes on Royce.

Beast never had any deadly GNP, he´s reachin´on this one...

The Puerto Rico episode [brawl btw Allan Goes & Tank and his crew] somehow linked Kimo to Allan, and he began to train BJJ with them, Allan & Joe Moreira which became a mini-scandal in the BJJ community, since Kimo had just battled Royce...

See:


kimo moreira.png kimo.png
 
Back to the original topic, these 1930s boxer vs. wrestler were some good finds. In the first fight, the wrestler definitely had a size advantage, though. Even before UFC 1, though, I remember people saying "you just need to take down" guys who were good boxers or knew karate. It even happened to a tall guy with a long reach at my high school. He had no training, but was a pretty tough and natural boxer. One night another guy took him down and just held him a minute or two (didn't GnP him)...just let him know what he could do. So this was pretty common knowledge before UFC...though it was to believe all the crazy fighting and styles you saw in movies could work.
 
Beast never had any deadly GNP, he´s reachin´on this one...

The Puerto Rico episode [brawl btw Allan Goes & Tank and his crew] somehow linked Kimo to Allan, and he began to train BJJ with them, Allan & Joe Moreira which became a mini-scandal in the BJJ community, since Kimo had just battled Royce...

Well, Severn was no Coleman/Kerr, but he made a bloody mess out of Oleg, so he could do some damage. There was a judo/JJ instructor named Mark Tripp on the old NHB boards. His brother Ron is the one who beat Rickson in sambo. Mark trained Severn just after the Gracie fight and taught him about triangle chokes, other submissions from the guard, dealing with gi, etc. They were convinced Severn could win a rematch, but Royce left the UFC and it never happened.
 
Modern MMA skills? You mean how he leans forward face first with no actual striking defense? As for wrestlers with excellent physiques, Royce tapped these guys:

ce8d58977c072e116b8a04716f60ec54.jpg
kimo-leopoldo.jpg



Such as? You mean the giant wrestler who had trouble finishing the small (probably untrained in grappling)boxer? Even Gene Lebell had trouble taking down and tapping Milo Savage in the 60's. Not hating on wrestlers here but there is a blatant lack of striking defence in these early clips.


Nobody had legit MMA skills back then because there was no actual MMA. Maybe some vale tudo guys who did eventually come over but have you ever seen an old vale tudo fight? They're not pretty.

Not trying to shit on the wrestlers parade here,all the clips in this thread are really cool but its pretty clear he has some obvious limitations. I'd wager if he stepped into a time machine and competed in even a modern smaller show he'd likely get smashed.

And I know it's cool to hate on the Gracie's but look at the guys Royce beat in those early UFC's. For every Art Jimmerson(a legit boxer btw), he beat a Severn, Kimo or Shamrock along with all the other best guys of his time and not a single redneck.

Fantastic post! I get so tired of these idiots trying to rewrite history and pretending Royce didn't tap out monsters like Ken Shamrock, Kimo, and Dan Severn. They try to pretend they gave Royce an easy road to the title, he went against Ken in his second fight, that wasn't even the finals!
 
Fantastic post! I get so tired of these idiots trying to rewrite history and pretending Royce didn't tap out monsters like Ken Shamrock, Kimo, and Dan Severn. They try to pretend they gave Royce an easy road to the title, he went against Ken in his second fight, that wasn't even the finals!

Yeah Royce gets too much disrespect around here from people who can't seem to fathom that Royce actually fought some of the worlds best fighters at the time and beat them, despite being half their size.
 
That was awesome and pretty much went how I expected it to go

Just shows you that the early UFCs were full of bums who were mostly hand picked to make the Gracies look good


Also everyone including the ref had an xcellent physique that you just don't see anymore
They didn't lift for fun, they lifted for work. Farmer strength was no joke. Not to minimize African Americans strife and plight, but my family farmed without slaves from the early 1800s to my dad until 18. So you know, they dud the labor AND had to stress about the actual stressful stuff like paying the mortgage and hoping it rained etc.. My grandfather never went to a gym, but my uncle told me he could do 40 pull ups just based on working on a farm his entire life.
 
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