Portillo, I've seen that fight before, but it doesn't really apply to anything I said. Those are Royce's rules.. Royce is a BJJ black belt with a Vale Tudo/NHB/MMA background. He's fighting a sumo wrestler in that video whose objective in his sport of choice is entirely different than BJJ or MMA matches. In sumo, you win for pushing your opponent outside of a circle. In MMA, you get disqualified for pushing your opponent outside of the ring or cage. The sumo guy's biggest skill doesn't apply in the match he fought in. If it was his goal to throw Royce out of the ring, could he win? Good chance of it. Could he win by kneebar or armbar? No way.
Weight definitely matters in any situation. It doesn't take a decade of martial arts training to acquire eye gouging or biting skills. If you're willing to take it to that level with someone who outweighs you by a large amount, you better pray you have some good defense and reversal skills.
Pound-for-pound discussions exist for a reason. They're impossible to resolve but universally accepted that weight will always be the different between greats. Floyd Mayweather, De La Hoya, or Chavez could never beat Tyson or Lewis no matter how fast or technical they are.
The 'my martial arts beats big guys because of technique' theme is getting outdated on top of that. Yea, small guys could beat the big guys when some of these martial arts were unknown. The UFC was where BJJ gained its fame.. now that pretty much every martial artist you come across if a BJJ purple belt, the weight differences make a big difference now. Everybody knows what triangles, omoplatas. gogoplatas, sweeps and armbars are now. In 1993, they didn't. The sumo guy royce fought lost every MMA match he competed in if I remember correctly.
Weight is the ultimate difference in a fight of similarly skilled people. The sumo wrestler Royce fought isnt similarly skilled. In his life long trained sport, you don't train to submit or knock out opponents.. Royce did. Also, sumo wrestlers are famous in Japan and that's the only reason he was ever competing in MMA. That was a money fight..that wasn't a fight relative to MMA at all. Boxers and Muay Thai guys have the same objectives in the ring, one just has more tools in their arsenal.
Under controlled environments and unified rules, it comes down to how you train. On the street? If you can tuck your chin, circle away from your opponents power hand, keep your hands up and know a sprawl with a basic submissiond efense, you'll probably win most encounters. Eye gouging and biting doesn't require too much training.
