James, I have to disagree strongly about the level of competition in those early UFC's. Some of the guys were very tough but none really understood the game they were involved in.

Dan Severn was a very good wrestler but had no knowledge whatsoever about submission or striking at that time. In fact it's a well known story that as he was leaving the octagon an old shootfighting coach asked him why he hadn't at least attempted one of the many triangle escapes? Dan, who has a very good sense of humor replied, "hell I hadn't even heard of a triangle choke until I was in one."

Kimo was a pure brawler at the time with no real training of any kind at all. This according to him. He has since become fairly skilled both on the ground and on the feet but knew next to nothing when he fought Royce, which is just the way Royce and Rorion wanted it.

Pat Smith had a fake won loss record and no ground skills. He wasn't even a world class striker as claimed. He was a decent striker but not world class by any standard. He knew a few standing submissions but nothing else.

Keith Hackney was, is and forever will be a joke. Yet he landed some decent shots on Royce. This isn't a testament to his striking skills but to Royce's total lack of takedown knowledge.

Ken Shamrock was the nearest thing to a real fighter he faced and even he wasn't use to these rules. Something alot of people don't know is that the vast majority of Ken's fights in Japan were works (fake). Ken had been trained by people who had been trained by Karl "Gotch" Istaz for a "hard worked" style of pro wrestling. Not real fighting.

The early days of the UFC were a sham when looked at closely. Rorion hand picked every fighter and there are numerous stories of him turning away fighters he feared could beat Royce.

This is actually the way the Gracies have operated for decades. They claimed to have been unbeaten for 50+ years when in fact Helio lost several times. Once to a totally untrainer fighter. Then there was the awfull spanking he took form Kimura the Japanese Judo legend. A good bit of video footage of that match still exists. It ain't pretty, up to and including Kimura breaking Helio's arm after passing his guard like he was a 7 year old.

Wladek Zybyszko an aging B level pro wrestler from the early days of wrestling when most could wrestle for real went a 15 minute draw with Helio. The point being that all the trully great wrestlers of Zybyszko's era had soundly beaten him when it came to a shoot (real match).