The Shamrock/Gracie fights

[Sephiroth]

Surprising you don''t hear more about MMA's first real feud. Probably because Shamrock has largely wrecked his own legacy and the Gracie's have had little involvement in UFC or other MMA promotions since it made it back to the mainstream. The fact that it wasn't even really a feud in the sense we think of it today is also probably a factor; Shamrock and Royce Gracie only had a couple of fights, neither of which was very dramatic. They did not hate each other guts and have been on cordial terms ever since. It was really more about Shamrock's hunt for a rematch with Gracie after he won their first fight. Any thoughts or insight?

[B.A.]

It's like you said, it wasn't really a feud, just shamrock trying to earn back his loss. The superfight settled who would win when both fighters are at their peak (Shamrock would if there was more rules in place). Only thing I recall is Shamrock thinking the first fight shouldn't have been a loss because of the Gi controversy

[Sephiroth]

Aug 14, 2013 21:40:11 GMT -5 B.A. said:

It's like you said, it wasn't really a feud, just shamrock trying to earn back his loss. The superfight settled who would win when both fighters are at their peak (Shamrock would if there was more rules in place). Only thing I recall is Shamrock thinking the first fight shouldn't have been a loss because of the Gi controversy

I was actually unaware of any controversy. There were no rules against a gi at the time. What I had heard was that Shamrock has always admit he legit tapped out when Gracie applied a choke on him, but he felt that maybe if Gracie weren't wearing a gi he wouldn't have been able to apply it-which honestly sounds like an excuse to me. Shamrock just plain underestimated Gracie in that first right and thought he would overpower him easy. He technically never beat Gracie either, the second fight was a draw, but Gracie definitely came out on the worse end of it.