If you weren’t gonged out your mind, or were watching UFC 109 with real MMA fans who pay attention to all of the fights, perhaps you caught Saturday’s heavyweight tilt between Rolles Gracie and Joey Beltran. If you didn’t see it, or incase you’ve already forgotten about it (which is completely understandable), the jiu-jitsu star Gracie looked awful in his Octagon debut, demonstrating WTF stand-up skills before gassing completely out (the gas tank was running on fumes as round one ended). Beltran went on to stop the grounded and breathless Gracie early in round two.
Well according to Gracie’s buddy and fellow jiu-jitsu champion Braulio Estima, injuries are the reason why Rolles debut was more disappointing than Terminator Salvation. Estima told Gracie Magazine:
“His performance wasn’t even near what we and he expected. He carried a ton of injuries in training. He hurt his rib and had to stop training for a few weeks (Rolles also injured his foot). But he was excited about fighting and put a lot of pressure on himself,” he says.
As the Gracie story goes on to state, it’s interesting that in an earlier post fight interview with Gracie himself, the heavyweight did not mention any injuries. Huh. One would think that unless Rolles rolls to a win in his next UFC tilt, his Octagon tenure could be a rather short one.