Royce Gracie recently addressed the rumors surrounding Mike Tyson being among the fighters approached for UFC 1 in 1993.
The inaugural UFC event featured specialists in their form of combat, taking part in a one-night-only no-holds-barred tournament to see which style was the best.
In a recent UFC 1 reunion roundtable that was uploaded to the promotion’s YouTube channel, Gracie confirmed that ‘Iron’ was approached to compete in the tournament.
He said:
“I heard him say yes, but the people around him said no…That’s what I heard.” [15:00 – 15:05]
Fellow tournament competitor Zane Frazier chimed in and noted that he had expressed interest in fighting the former heavyweight boxing champion first. He mentioned he believes that Mike Tyson competing at UFC 1 would have further legitimized the event, saying:
“That was the only guy [Mike Tyson] I said, ‘I want that guy, man.’ Because then I would be able to say now we got all the real tough guys here.” [15:07 – 15:13]
It would have been interesting to see how Mike Tyson would have performed had he competed in the one-night tournament at UFC 1 and if he would have been able to avoid Royce Gracie’s submissions if they fought against each other that night.
Check out the full video:
Ken Shamrock credits his loss to Royce Gracie for motivating him to improve
The UFC 1 competitors had a special reunion, where they had an opportunity to reflect on the inaugural event as the promotion celebrated their 30th anniversary.
During the aforementioned video, former UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock shared his thoughts on his submission loss to eventual tournament winner Royce Gracie and mentioned that it was a humbling experience that motivated him to improve as a fighter.
He said:
“[Royce Gracie] made me better because I knew that you were what I wanted and I wanted to get that fight. And so, that made me work a lot harder, so coming here and getting humbled truly made me work harder and start learning other things cause I had no idea what Gracie Jiu Jitsu was.” [39:49 – 40:04]
