Rickson gracie vs bj penn? grapplers only.?

Question

Who would win in a BJJ match..rickson gracie or bj penn? I say rickson. My friends say penn.

Answer 1

I would have to say BJ Penn, only because he is  20 years younger than Rickson.

Answer 2

While BJ Penn is undoubtedly a superb fighter and BJJ exponent, Rickson is in a different league. He has trained BJJ since before he could walk and has lived it 24/7. He had training with the best ever BJJ stylists not only his father but probably the greatest BJJ fighter ever, Rolls Gracie.

Unlike his brother and cousins, Rickson hasn't spent as much time marketing himself. And so just got on with training himself.

I visited his academy in LA once and was amazed by him. His BJJ is effortless and intuitive. While I was there I saw him tap out one of his brown belts with his hands tucked in his belt. All the Gracies are brilliant at BJJ (naturally) but Rickson is a step beyond this.

Rickson without doubt while in his prime.

Edit:

Miranda M.

Wow...so both Bruce Lee and Rickson Gracie are blown out of proportion? To my understanding, Bruce never boasted about how many fights he had. His fights tended to be recorded by those who were there such as Jesse Glover, James Demille, James Lee and his wife. Even then you'd be hard pressed to talk about more than 10. Bruce's status is about what he brought into the headlights of the martial arts world not who or how many he fought. As for Rickson, try reading up on what some of the greatest BJJ masters and fighters say about him, Renzo, Royce, Royler, Carlson, Jacare, Jean Jaques Machado, Behring, etc. The beach fight you mention was against one of the top fighters in Brazil, Hugo Duarte who I believe fought in both the UFC 17 and Pride 4 plus many other events.

Perhaps one of the greatest accolades though was the fact that Gene LeBell said that Rickson was one of the most talented fighters he had ever seen.

Answer 3

Rickson Gracie, just like other Gracie brothers are master of marketing.

His record of 400-0 (according to him, but there is one loss in 1993 against American Ron Tripp in a Sambo match, although he dispute the loss by saying he wasn't well informed about the rules) is hard to verify with big majority of the fights as nothing more than a match against local toughmen on Rio beach or in their dojo against some unskilled opponents.

That's why his record was even disputed by his own father the 'really esteemed Gracie' Helio Gracie (The Gracie way - Helio Gracie Commentary video) with Helio basically saying that if he counts all the fights he had in the dojo and against unskilled opponent, Helio will have impressive record number too.

Unlike Rickson, Helio actually fought legendary fighters like Kimura where Rickson never put himself in a situation where he has to fight someone with world class skill.

When Kazushi "Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba started smacking all the Gracies one by one in 2000, Rickson was still fighting, but not once he tried to step in the ring and try to defeat the guy that has beaten all of his family members.

Rickson actual MMA record of 11-0 can easily be scrutinized and found that all the opponents he defeated were all second rate fighters.

In short, Rickson is just like Bruce Lee, someone with decent skill and talent but with the need to inflate their record and ego to achieve this legendary status, with enough marketing power, they basically have done just that.

With enough research, people can basically lift the blanket and seen what's inside.

B.J Penn can easily be seen as very arrogant. But his skill and talent is proven, his early career shown that he is very talented but lazy and still manage to reach that level, he said that he has focus himself to train and be a real legend, and so far he is doing exactly that.

Fantasy fight with BJ and Rickson on the same weight class and age, I'd say BJ will win.

Real fight right now, while Rickson is heavier, BJ is much younger, so I'd still go with BJ.

Answer 4

I believe Rickson would still win if he trained for it. Also keep in mind Rickson is larger and stronger. BJ has sick skill, but I will always believe Rickson was the better fighter. BJ has lost a lot more than Rickson (try zero losses).

Respect to BJ, but Rickson is a Gracie and he is, and always will be, the man.

Answer 5

Bj Penn is considered a wizard on the ground, and Rickson a living legend.

Considering they are of equal skill, it'd come to size, Rickson is MUCH bigger.

Edge: Rickson.