Would Benny Urquidez have had a chance against Rorion?

[galain]

For those who may not be aware, there was supposedly a fight in the offing between between Benny the Jet and Rorion Gracie in the days of the original (in the US) Gracie Challenge.

Most of us old farts know what a beast the Jet was. To hear him tell it, he started seriously training with Gene Lebell and Bill Wallace ( collegiate wrestler as well as kickboxing champion) and he was getting himself in very good shape.

There seemed to be some dispute about money and the fight never eventuated. I also have read here and there that they actually DID fight (but earlier than when this was all supposed to go down) and Benny lost. I'm not sure if that's true or not.

For those of you familiar with the Jet, would he have been submitted as easily as any other kickboxer the Gracies faced back then, or could he have put up a good showing?

[GraniteCityDon]

Benny's striking would have killed Rorion - we all know this to be true. However even training with Gene etc i dont see how a pure striker like him could adapt to the ground game in enough time to be competitive in the clinch or on the ground. If Rorion got him down i believe he would have pulled his limbs off at will.

1-0 Gracie

[galain]

I tend to agree. A few months intensive ground work isn't going to match up well when your opponent has grown up on the mats.

Still though, if anyone had a shot at taking a Gracie out back then it would have been Benny. According to him (IIRC), when Rorian got word he was training seriously with Lebell and co, he tried changing it to an exhibition bout. Guess we'll never really know what went down.

[Migs]

agreed