Renzo Gracie insulted Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, after being fed up with criticism on the Amazon fires.
The relationship between French and Brazilian presidents has taken a turn for the worse ever since the Amazon fires started to gather attention around the world.
A recent Facebook post compared both men’s wives, implying that Emmanuel Macron is jealous of Jair Bolsonaro because his partner, Briggite Macron, is not as beautiful as Michelle Bolsonaro. It achieved viral status when Jair’s official Facebook profile commented on the picture.
The post’s caption also read “Now do you understand why Macron goes after Bolsonaro?” After a man commented that Macron was definitely jealous of Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president’s official profile replied to the comment by saying: “Don’t humiliate them, man,” which was followed by laughter. Jair’s comment was later erased from the post.
On August 15, former MMA fighter Renzo Gracie was named Embassador of International Tourism under Embratur, a branch of Brazil’s Ministery of Tourism, and he quickly jumped in on the beef between Bolsonaro and Macron, naturally taking his country’s side. On a controversial video shared by Brazilian news outlet UOL, Renzo threatened to choke out Macron if he keeps talking about the Amazon fires.
Nomeado “embaixador do turismo”, Renzo Gracie tem se reunido com empresários e autoridades do EUA pra atrair turistas ao Brasil. Em viagem a Miami, ele gravou esse vídeo no qual chama o pres da França de franga e diz que vai pegá-lo pelo gogó pic.twitter.com/LGE1WYJNnH
— Adriano Wilkson (@adrianowilkson) August 31, 2019
“Macron, I’m sorry, Micron. Micron, man, you’re talking trash about my country. The only fire going on is the fire inside Brazilian hearts and our president’s heart, you clown. Come over here you’ll be caught by the neck, that chicken neck. You don’t fool me.”
After the video went online, UOL’s reporter Adriano Wilkson decided to give Renzo a call to further understand his motivation to record the footage. In the interview, Gracie claimed to be fed up with criticisms towards the fires and continued to take jabs at Macron.
“I was with some people from American Airlines, a guy was checking how many passengers were going to Brazil and noticed a massive decline, lots of people cancelling their trips due to this false fire,” Renzo said, claiming he offered to show Bolsonaro satellite pictures that prove that Amazon fires are at a normal level.
“All those clowns only open their mouths to speak ill of our country.” Grace continued. “Of course a bunch of people will be scared, they’ll think I called him chicken because I was questioning his manhood, but I’ve seen plenty of gay men who are more manly than this idiot.”
Furthermore, when asked about the posts joking about Macron’s wife and Bolsonaro’s official profile’s comment, Renzo stood behind the president’s post, calling Brigitte a “dragon”, which is a Brazilian slang for very unnatractive women.
“I’ll ask you a question. Is she ugly or pretty? Would you hook up with her? If you’re going to talk trash about our country, you better be ready to listen to some trash back, and about your relatives, too. The fact that he sleeps with a dragon doesn’t make him a fire expert. She’s ugly, man.”
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt of the legendary Gracie family, Renzo made a career in MMA in the 90’s and 00’s, defeating notable names of the sport such as Pat Miletich, Carlos Newton and Frank Shamrock. In his last outing, a return bout back July 2018, he scored a submission win over fellow veteran Yuki Kondo, at ONE Championship: Reign of Kings.