(royce gracie and dan severn)
created by rorion gracie and art deavie, the UFC was an eight-man MMA tournament with very few rules that would award $50,000 to the winner. the idea was to find out how well different styles of martial arts would do against each other. Art davie put adverts in martial arts magazines and sent letters to anyone in any martial arts directory he could find to recruit competitors for the event. Among the fighters were kickboxer patrick smith , wrestler ken shamrock , and savate world champion gerard gordeau.
Art davie thought that royces older brother rickson , who was stronger and more skilled than royce, should represent jujitsu , rorion gracie chose Royce to represent the family style instead. At 175 pounds, and with a build much smaller than his opponents, the Gracie family felt that royce would be the perfect fighter to demonstrate the claims that jujitsu techniques could be used to overcome a larger opponent.
In his first match, royce defeated boxer Art Jimmerson. He tackled him to the ground using a double-leg takedown and obtained the mounted position, also pinning Jimmerson's left arm around the boxer's own neck. Mounted and with only one free arm Jimmerson quickly tapped. Jimmerson earned $20,000 for the fight.
In the semi-finals , royce took on 220-pound Ken Shamrock, who showed excellent grappling skills in his win over Patrick Smith. Royce immediately rushed Shamrock, who sprawled effectively and got on top of royce. Shamrock then grabbed royces ankle and sat back to attempt the same finishing hold he used to finish his first match, but royce rolled on top of him and secured a rear choke that forced Shamrock to tap the mat in submission. Shamrock has later stated that Gracie used his gi as a tool to perform the submission.
In the finals, Royce was again outweighed by 40 pounds, but defeated Savate World Champion Gerard Gordeau (who broke his hand in the first round of the tournament against Teila Tuli), taking his opponent to the ground and securing a rear choke.
sinse then royce has won UFC2 , UFC4 , and drew in the final against ken shamrock in UFC5
royce also lost to matt hughes in UFC65 due to a ground and pound
