Six Degrees to Royce Gracie. How fast can you do it?

[JohnGalt2341]

I was thinking about the Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon game and I was wondering if you could do it for MMA fighters as well. The birth of "mainstream" MMA has to be UFC 1 back in 1993. So let's see how long it takes to go from a current fighter back to Royce Gracie, the UFC 1 Champion.

Let me try first with what I hope will be a fairly easy one. One of the all time greats and current Light Heavyweight UFC Champ Jon Jones age 33.

Here we go:

Jones Jones fought:
1. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson who fought
2. Fedor Emeiianenko who fought
3. Matt Mitrione who fought
4. Kimbo Slice who fought
5. Ken Shamrock who fought
6. Royce Gracie

Feel free to add your own! The younger the fighter you start with the more impressive... you must start with a current fighter.

[Hugo de Naranja]

Fun idea!

Jin Soo Son (age 27) fought:
1. Petr Yan who fought
2. Jose Aldo who fought
3. Frankie Edgar who fought
4. B.J. Penn who fought
5. Matt Hughes who fought
6. Royce Gracie

[JohnGalt2341]

I'm stealing from post #2 a bit here... this fighter is a few months older than post #2 but the path is quicker.

Yair Rodriguez 13-2 Current UFC Featherweight Rank #5
age 27 fought:

1. BJ Penn who fought
2. Matt Hughes who fought
3. Royce Gracie

[Hugo de Naranja]

Lots of young guys making their name off of B.J. Penn these days