Tag: Royce Gracie

At UFC Gym, Art ‘One Glove’ Jimmerson Finds an Unexpected Home

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveIf you ask Art Jimmerson now, he’ll admit that he never thought the UFC would still be around nearly two decades from the night he stepped into the Octagon for the first and last time. He certainly never thought that…

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If you ask Art Jimmerson now, he’ll admit that he never thought the UFC would still be around nearly two decades from the night he stepped into the Octagon for the first and last time. He certainly never thought that, seventeen years after his short, but memorable bout with Royce Gracie at UFC 1, he’d be teaching boxing at a UFC gym in Rosemead, Calif.

And yet here he is, now 47 years old and retired from boxing, sitting on some heavy bags next to a cage not so unlike the one he saw for the first time, along with the American public, in November of 1993.

“I remember my manager told me, ‘Man this thing ain’t going anywhere. It’s too far out there.’ That’s how it seemed at the time, but now look at it,” he says and gestures at the expansive gym around him. “Who knew, right?”

Not Jimmerson. Not back then. He was a former Golden Gloves champion riding a 15-fight win streak. He’d had nearly 30 fights as a pro, and his career seemed like it was finally on the verge of taking off. Fighting a bunch of karate teachers and toughmen in front of a couple thousand people in Denver sounded like a relatively easy night of work.

Werdum’s Victory Was Throwback to Sport’s Roots

Filed under: StrikeforceEvery once in a while, we need a reminder of where we came from. In the modern mixed martial arts family tree, the deepest roots are those of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the art that spawned the original Ultimate Fighting Championship …

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Every once in a while, we need a reminder of where we came from. In the modern mixed martial arts family tree, the deepest roots are those of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the art that spawned the original Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament back on Nov. 12, 1993, that art that was essentially showcased on that night.

Unbeknowst to most of us at the time, the tournament was essentially designed as an infomercial. So confident were the Gracies that BJJ would reign supreme, they chose the smallest of the fighting family, Royce, as their representative. It took him five minutes to win three matches that night. His striking was, shall we say, rudimentary, as he tapped out all three opponents with submissions.

Fabricio Werdum‘s win over Fedor Emelianenko may not have the far-lasting historical ramifications of Gracie conquering of the tournament field — that remains to be seen — but it’s in many ways an homage to the sport’s roots in this: Werdum beat the man most consider the sport’s greatest all-time heavyweight without landing a single strike.