Tag: Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Royce Gracie Plain Wrong in His Criticism of Own Family


(We never expected The Godfather of MMA to take sides against the family like this. | Photo by Sherdog.com)

By Elias Cepeda

On Monday I wrote about practitioners of “real” Jiu Jitsu. That is, those who have a background in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and who test those skills in real fights.

Kron Gracie looks to be the next such high-profile example as he sets his sights on a 2014 MMA debut. Royce Gracie is, of course, the first that most of us ever heard of.

Gracie entered the original UFC tournaments as the lightest fighter in open weight contests where the only rules were no biting, eye gouging or fish-hooking, and submitted three and four men in single-night tournaments with the Jiu Jitsu skills that his family developed. As such, Royce’s place in history is more than secure.

As younger family members of his try to carve out their own space in MMA, however, Royce is offering not support but rather rough criticism. Many have criticized fighters like Roger and Rolles Gracie for not being as well-rounded as a few of their best opponents, and take the occasions of their losses to pile on.

Surprisingly, Royce is the latest critic to add some fertilizer onto that pile. Unlike many others, however, Royce says that the reason for his family members’ recent losses is because they are trying to be too well-rounded.

“Jiu-jitsu is enough,” Royce Gracie recently told MMAFighting.com. “I’ve trained boxing in the past to learn the distance, trained wrestling to understand how he would take me down, but I won’t get there to fight my opponent’s game. The [new] guys [from the Gracie] family want to complement their game, like if Jiu-Jitsu was incomplete. I guess they forgot a little about history.

“I do jiu-jitsu my whole life, so why would I try to stand and bang with Mike Tyson?” he went on. “I’m going to learn boxing in six months because my opponent is good in boxing? That makes no sense.”


(We never expected The Godfather of MMA to take sides against the family like this. | Photo by Sherdog.com)

By Elias Cepeda

On Monday I wrote about practitioners of “real” Jiu Jitsu. That is, those who have a background in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and who test those skills in real fights.

Kron Gracie looks to be the next such high-profile example as he sets his sights on a 2014 MMA debut. Royce Gracie is, of course, the first that most of us ever heard of.

Gracie entered the original UFC tournaments as the lightest fighter in open weight contests where the only rules were no biting, eye gouging or fish-hooking, and submitted three and four men in single-night tournaments with the Jiu Jitsu skills that his family developed. As such, Royce’s place in history is more than secure.

As younger family members of his try to carve out their own space in MMA, however, Royce is offering not support but rather rough criticism. Many have criticized fighters like Roger and Rolles Gracie for not being as well-rounded as a few of their best opponents, and take the occasions of their losses to pile on.

Surprisingly, Royce is the latest critic to add some fertilizer onto that pile. Unlike many others, however, Royce says that the reason for his family members’ recent losses is because they are trying to be too well-rounded.

“Jiu-jitsu is enough,” Royce Gracie recently told MMAFighting.com. “I’ve trained boxing in the past to learn the distance, trained wrestling to understand how he would take me down, but I won’t get there to fight my opponent’s game. The [new] guys [from the Gracie] family want to complement their game, like if Jiu-Jitsu was incomplete. I guess they forgot a little about history.

“I do jiu-jitsu my whole life, so why would I try to stand and bang with Mike Tyson?” he went on. ”I’m going to learn boxing in six months because my opponent is good in boxing? That makes no sense.”

I suppose the “history” Royce speaks of is his own, where he was able to dominate many opponents because they had never trained Jiu Jitsu before. Once they did, competition started to level-off and he and everyone else started having more trouble with one another in the ring and cage.

Why Royce is choosing to make self-aggrandizing criticisms of family members who are still physically sore from recent losses is beyond my understanding. It is safe to assume, however, that Royce has no real first-hand knowledge of the type of training and development of cousins like Roger and Rolles, who have trained under the leadership of perhaps the most MMA-accomplished Gracie, Renzo.

That aside, let’s focus on the thrust of what Royce seems to be saying. He’s assuming that his cousins are distracted by the training of too many other things other than “pure” Jiu Jitsu. Things like wrestling (ie. getting the fight to the ground) and striking (ie. not getting knocked out on the feet while you’re there).

To me, Jiu Jitsu has always been more of a philosophy than any particular set of moves or even focus of a portion of fighting (ie. grappling or submissions or ground fighting). That is to say, what makes Brazilian Jiu Jitsu unique is that it always recognized that anything – strikes, clinching, take downs, submissions, ground work – can and usually does happen in a fight. With that understanding, a true Jiu Jitsu practitioner proceeds along a path that he or she believes will best prepare them for anything.

They will ignore no possibility of danger and so will prepare for everything. As Bruce Lee was fond of saying, real fighting is about honestly assessing – through fighting – what works and what doesn’t. If something works, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t.

Something that works well for a great BJJ practitioner is being able to get on top of their opponent where they can better control and finish them. Royce knows this. He did it plenty of times.

When he could, he took down his opponents. When he could not, he worked off of his own back.

That doesn’t seem very different at all than what we have seen guys like Roger and Rolles do in their fights, mostly successfully but sometimes not. But we’ve also seen examples of Jiu Jitsu guys having lapses of judgment in fights and paying for it. Think of Demian Maia trying to throw a high kick against Nate Marquardt, or Vitor Belfort letting Randy Couture walk him backwards into the cage and initiate the grappling. I can’t remember any Gracies making similar mistakes.

So, if we see Gracies try to fight conservatively and to their strengths in competition as Royce always did, what exactly is Royce’s beef? The fact that Roger and Rolles spend time working on their weaknesses in training, evidently. This is where Royce is just flat out wrong.

Back when no one else in MMA trained the indispensable style of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu except for Royce and his family, he could get away with the basic strike-blocking and poor take downs to go along with his excellent durability and Jiu Jitsu skills. Jiu Jitsu fighters these days are faced with an entirely different world – one where everyone trains high-level Jiu Jitsu and uses it along with their own wrestling or striking bases.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu provided the first martial arts style to recognize that grappling and striking could occur along with ground fighting, but that doesn’t mean that BJJ takedowns or strikes are the most effective when facing a good wrestler or striker, all other things being equal. And that’s a big part of it – the submission grappling part of fights is very often equal, even between Gracies and non-Gracie opponents.

The Gracie name isn’t magic. If you train Jiu Jitsu with a real instructor for years, you will get good at it, no matter what your name is. Rolles and Roger fight guys who are very good at Jiu Jitsu, as well as other things, like wrestling and striking.

The fact that they train like professional fighters and not mid-twentieth century part-time martial arts instructors is not something to be criticized. Royce saying that Gracies can neutralize modern striking and wrestling without training striking and wrestling is just about as absurd as the Akido or Tae Kwon Do instructor who says that you don’t need to train grappling because their kicks and punches and footwork will prevent anyone from ever grabbing them.

Yeah, right.

Working on weaknesses is a hallmark of champions. Royce knows this. Maybe it is just hard to admit in public.

If he had better striking, perhaps he would not have gotten beaten up for an hour and a half by Kazushi Sakuraba’s leg kicks before having to throw in the towel. Chances are, however, that Rolles Gracies would not have avoided getting knocked out last Saturday night if he had spent less time working on his boxing in training.

“I believe in pure jiu-jitsu. That’s what I’ve done in the past. You have to go back to your roots and train Gracie jiu-jitsu,” Royce went on to say in his interview.

I couldn’t agree more. The thing is, to me Gracie Jiu Jitsu is about never staying stagnant, constantly evolving and constantly improving to be able to meet new fight challenges.

Royce met the challenges of his day bravely. It would be great if he didn’t now try to sully the efforts of his younger family members who are trying to meet the challenges of their day with bravery, but also with a bit more technique.

On Rank, Resumes, and Arm Bars — The Simple Reason Why Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Still Matters in MMA


(The Gracies proved that BJJ is indispensable — not that it’s invincible. / Photo via Getty)

By Elias Cepeda

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in mixed martial arts has been on my mind a bit more than usual lately. A few weeks ago Benson Henderson walked to the ring wearing a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi with his brand new black belt tied around it at the waist.

Minutes later he walked out, his black belt still in tow but without his UFC lightweight title belt after getting submitted by an arm bar from inside the full guard of Anthony Pettis. At the time, Pettis was ranked as a blue belt — the belt just above white in BJJ.

Not many weeks prior to that, Roger Gracie, the most dominant submission grappling competitor in decades, lost his UFC debut and then was promptly dropped from the organization. This past Saturday, Roger’s cousin Rolles – son of legendary Rolls Gracie – got knocked out in the second round of his WSOF 5 fight with Derrick Mehmen in tragically comic fashion.

Rolles got hit, the punch put him out on his feet and he spun around slowly before falling to the ground. It looked like the slapstick “Flair Flop” move that pro wrestler Ric Flair used to pull off after getting hit to put over his opponent. Three and a half years ago, of course, Rolles humiliated himself against Joey Beltran in his lone UFC fight after appearing to exhaust himself almost immediately.

Both recent Gracie losses brought about public questions of whether or not the Gracie family and Jiu Jitsu itself have become outdated in modern MMA. Henderson’s submission loss to Pettis could have been seen as a triumph of Jiu Jitsu technique but instead, some critics chose to question the validity and use of BJJ belt ranks.

What did Henderson’s black belt mean, exactly, if he could go out and get submitted by someone with a lower BJJ rank, who was more known for high-flying kicks than anything, and with such a basic move? The notions that Gracies losing fights and Henderson getting submitted somehow reflect negatively on Jiu Jitsu itself are, of course, silly.

MMA isn’t about magical styles and secrets solely in the possession of those with certain-colored pieces of clothing or particular surnames. It never has been.


(The Gracies proved that BJJ is indispensable — not that it’s invincible. / Photo via Getty)

By Elias Cepeda

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in mixed martial arts has been on my mind a bit more than usual lately. A few weeks ago Benson Henderson walked to the ring wearing a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi with his brand new black belt tied around it at the waist.

Minutes later he walked out, his black belt still in tow but without his UFC lightweight title belt after getting submitted by an arm bar from inside the full guard of Anthony Pettis. At the time, Pettis was ranked as a blue belt — the belt just above white in BJJ.

Not many weeks prior to that, Roger Gracie, the most dominant submission grappling competitor in decades, lost his UFC debut and then was promptly dropped from the organization. This past Saturday, Roger’s cousin Rolles – son of legendary Rolls Gracie – got knocked out in the second round of his WSOF 5 fight with Derrick Mehmen in tragically comic fashion.

Rolles got hit, the punch put him out on his feet and he spun around slowly before falling to the ground. It looked like the slapstick “Flair Flop” move that pro wrestler Ric Flair used to pull off after getting hit to put over his opponent. Three and a half years ago, of course, Rolles humiliated himself against Joey Beltran in his lone UFC fight after appearing to exhaust himself almost immediately.

Both recent Gracie losses brought about public questions of whether or not the Gracie family and Jiu Jitsu itself have become outdated in modern MMA. Henderson’s submission loss to Pettis could have been seen as a triumph of Jiu Jitsu technique but instead, some critics chose to question the validity and use of BJJ belt ranks.

What did Henderson’s black belt mean, exactly, if he could go out and get submitted by someone with a lower BJJ rank, who was more known for high-flying kicks than anything, and with such a basic move? The notions that Gracies losing fights and Henderson getting submitted somehow reflect negatively on Jiu Jitsu itself are, of course, silly.

MMA isn’t about magical styles and secrets solely in the possession of those with certain-colored pieces of clothing or particular surnames. It never has been.

Royce Gracie won the early UFC’s because of his Jiu Jitsu style, true. His style, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu won him his bouts, but not because it was mystical. Quite the opposite, actually.

Jiu Jitsu succeeded simply because it a) calls for real, hard sparring with resistance every day, b) because it was the only style to at least recognize that anything can happen in a fight, and c) because Gracie was the only guy who was practicing Jiu Jitsu in the UFC at the time.

Gracie may have been the smallest and weakest guy in the early UFC tournaments but he was the only one who trained each day against resisting opponents and was ready for people to punch, kick, grab, head butt, and pull hair. So, the most prepared guy won those early UFC’s.

In modern MMA, it’s largely the same thing. The most prepared, well-rounded and conditioned man or woman usually wins.

In that way, not as much has changed since those early days of MMA. The conventional wisdom about what the early UFC’s proved about Gracie Jiu Jitsu is wrong.

Royce Gracie and UFC’s 1-4 did not prove that Jiu Jitsu is dominant but rather that it is indispensable. You could have ancient secrets from Chinese monasteries and do one-finger push ups but you’d better be experienced in real combat.

You could be a game, hard-hitting boxer with great sense of distance and timing but you’d better be ready for someone to grab you and no ref there to save you by breaking up the clinch. You could be an outrageously strong and conditioned wrestler, used to working on the mat and man-handling opponents, but you’d better recognize that in the real world it isn’t illegal for your opponent to choke you or twist on that shoulder lock until you say uncle.

Many fight-styles and disciplines existed for ages but the introduction of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the world is what made Mixed Martial Arts. Royce Gracie showed that you needed to train BJJ to be successful in real fighting.

That’s still true to this day. Every amateur and professional MMA fighter trains Brazilian Jiu Jitsu whether they call it that or catch fighting or submission grappling or what have you.

Proving BJJ necessary in real fighting is the long-ago established success of the Gracie family, much more so than any particular win by Royce or anyone else in their clan.

As for Henderson losing to Pettis, one guy was better that night than the other. That’s it.

Henderson, black belt or not, decided to let his arm hang out in a dangerous position in Pettis’ guard for no apparent reason other than his supreme confidence in his own slipperiness, and he paid for it.

Fighters make mistakes and, sometimes, their opponents make them pay for it.

No one questions whether a boxer who has spent his entire life training is a “real” boxer or whether or not boxing is useful for fighting when he gets hit with a straight right – a “basic” punch. More often than not, it is only the basics – executed with impeccable timing, that work in real fights.

And, only real fights show who is, in fact, better and should be ranked higher. A Jiu Jitsu belt, given to a hard working and accomplished student from a reputable and credible instructor can be a very meaningful and representative thing. But, in the words of Royce, the only thing a belt will do for you when push comes to shove is hold your pants up.

Getting submitted in and of itself doesn’t mean that Henderson shouldn’t feel proud of his black belt. However, submitting Henderson should definitely make Pettis damn proud of his blue belt.

As for Roger and Rolles, they also just lost to better fighters. That’s it.

Roger is no disappointment. In Tim Kennedy, he came up against a better, far more experienced and well-rounded fighter who, like all MMA fighters, has been studying Gracie’s family style for years. Overall, Roger has a solid 6-2 record in three weight classes, and has beaten former world champs and UFC and Pride veterans like Kevin Randleman, Yuki Kondo, Trevor Prangley and Keith Jardine.

Rolles is 8-2 in his MMA career in a number of different international organizations and all of his wins were by submission. Of course, Rolles and Roger face increased scrutiny because of their last names and because they are so accomplished in submission grappling competition.

Both Roger and Rolles are wizards in Jiu Jitsu competitions but probably will never become champions in MMA. “See?” one can hear sour critics of Jiu Jitsu taunt. “Winning world titles in submission grappling doesn’t make you the best fighter in the world anymore.”

Of course it doesn’t. The thing is, winning submission grappling world titles doesn’t make them the best BJJ practitioners or representatives, either. These guys are not the best BJJ practitioners any more than great boxers or kick boxers are the best strikers.
The best striker is a fighter who can land those same punches and kicks against people who are not just trying to hit them but also take them down, choke them, etc.

As such, the best grapplers, then, are the ones who do it effectively in MMA – not just win gold at Jiu Jitsu tournaments. There are plenty of examples of that in MMA.

Rolles and Roger have grappled since they were children and accomplished much in the submission grappling world. They don’t deserve derision for not being perfect in MMA, they deserve some respect for being brave enough to fight guys who have been fighting in the sport for much longer.

That said, the current and next generation of MMA champions are all fighters who have trained Jiu Jitsu and just about everything else since they were kids and haven’t wasted too much of their youth and abilities in contests where strikes, slams, etc. are not allowed. On that note, the son of perhaps Jiu Jitsu’s best practitioner ever recently announced plans to make his MMA debut within the year.

Kron Gracie, the youngest son of Rickson Gracie, told Tatame magazine that he’ll fight MMA in 2014. The twenty five year-old has medaled at the ADCC submission grappling world championships but has yet to win a world title since becoming a black belt.
Kron does have an attitude and approach to Jiu Jitsu that should suit him well for MMA. He’s also young enough to make the transition, and has been doing MMA sparring with some of the best fighters in the world for some time now.

Kron is close with Nate and Nick Diaz and has worked with them extensively, as well as their teammates Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez. When I spoke with Kron last May as he prepared to compete in the submission grappling event Metamoris II, his mind was already on MMA.

He was with Nate as he spoke to me about “real” Jiu Jitsu. “Jiu Jitsu is about what works in fighting,” he told me as he explained why, even in submission grappling matches, he never goes for the types of fancy, esoteric moves that so many other Jiu Jitsu competitors favor these days.

Kron told Tatame about fighting in MMA, “It’s a truer fight, there’s no guard… It’s you and another man going to war. It’s truer than jiu-jitsu.”

Here’s what separates guys like Kron, or BJ Penn or Demian Maia from other Jiu Jitsu-based athletes. Since BJJ began to be a big-money pursuit, medal stands have become stacked with great athletes who have dozens of world titles but have never thrown or taken a punch.

They claim that submission grappling tournaments showcase more elegant, technical displays than the stuff we see work in MMA fights. That BJJ matches are somehow more pure demonstrations of Jiu Jitsu.

They’ve got it all wrong. Before there were a million different grappling organizations — all with their claim to being “world championships,” and each with their own volumes of rules and all the moves that are not allowed — Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was developed and used in the real world, in real fights.

Kron Gracie, Penn, Maia and the like all went the submission grappling international tournament route for a time, sure. They’re fun, you can make some money if you’re good, and it’s excellent training.

Ultimately, however, they craved something more. They craved what Jiu Jitsu was developed for – the fight.

Submission grapplers are often referred to as Jiu Jitsu “players,” as if they played basketball or baseball or some other entertaining but ultimately useless sport. Before there were ever Jiu Jitsu players, however, there were only Jiu Jitsu fighters.

Some of them remain. Some, like Kron and his father and grandfather before him, know that if they train Jiu Jitsu, their destiny is to fight in the sport that Jiu Jitsu created.

Royler Gracie on Eddie Bravo Rematch: “Some People Like to Talk, Some People Like to Fight” [VIDEO]

(Video via YouTube.com/CagePotato. Subscribe, dammit!)

At the age of 47, BJJ legend (and retired MMA fighter) Royler Gracie is preparing to return to competition later this year at Metamoris 3 (date/venue TBA), in a grappling rematch with Eddie Bravo. In this interview following the match announcement at Metamoris 2 earlier this month, CagePotato reporter Elias Cepeda recaps the first meeting between Royler and Eddie back in 2003 — which made Eddie Bravo’s name overnight and legitimized his forward-thinking approach to jiu-jitsu — and gets Royler’s take on their second meeting ten years later. As Royler puts it, “I’m not trying to make history, I’m already part of history.”

For more behind-the-scenes videos and MMA interviews, please visit CagePotato’s YouTube channel.


(Video via YouTube.com/CagePotato. Subscribe, dammit!)

At the age of 47, BJJ legend (and retired MMA fighter) Royler Gracie is preparing to return to competition later this year at Metamoris 3 (date/venue TBA), in a grappling rematch with Eddie Bravo. In this interview following the match announcement at Metamoris 2 earlier this month, CagePotato reporter Elias Cepeda recaps the first meeting between Royler and Eddie back in 2003 — which made Eddie Bravo’s name overnight and legitimized his forward-thinking approach to jiu-jitsu — and gets Royler’s take on their second meeting ten years later. As Royler puts it, “I’m not trying to make history, I’m already part of history.”

For more behind-the-scenes videos and MMA interviews, please visit CagePotato’s YouTube channel.

[EXCLUSIVE] UFC Heavyweight Brendan Schaub Takes on New Challenge at Metamoris II

Brendan Schaub UFC 134

By Elias Cepeda

There are two high-level and well known international MMA fighters competing on the June 9th Metamoris II card. One is Shinya Aoki, who takes on Kron Gracie in the main event.

Metamoris is a unique submission grappling event filled entirely with super-fights. No points are counted, the matches are twice as long as usual grappling competitions, and the only way to win is by submitting your opponent. Aoki, largely known as one of the most dangerous ground specialists in MMA, is a perfectly logical cross-over guy to bring in to Metamoris.

The other famous MMA fighter on the card is TUF 10 runner-up Brendan Schaub, and his placement doesn’t make nearly as much sense at first glance. Because of his success in the UFC, Schaub is surely one of the most well-known competitors on the card, however, none of the former college and professional football player’s MMA wins have come via submission. He’s young in the sport and is certainly not considered to be one of the best grapplers in the heavyweight division, let alone the UFC.

No, most of Schaub’s success has been achieved in the standup department, by knocking his opponents out silly, not by relying on “the gentle art.” But to the former TUF finalist, competing at Metamoris II against top Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling champion Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu no less makes all the sense in the world.

“A lot of people don’t know this,” Schaub tells CagePotato. “But, Jiu Jitsu is my passion. It was the first real thing I did in martial arts. For me, competing at Metamoris is a way for me to give back to Jiu Jitsu for all it’s done for me. Jiu Jitsu has changed my life.”

Brendan Schaub UFC 134

By Elias Cepeda

There are two high-level and well known international MMA fighters competing on the June 9th Metamoris II card. One is Shinya Aoki, who takes on Kron Gracie in the main event.

Metamoris is a unique submission grappling event filled entirely with super-fights. No points are counted, the matches are twice as long as usual grappling competitions, and the only way to win is by submitting your opponent. Aoki, largely known as one of the most dangerous ground specialists in MMA, is a perfectly logical cross-over guy to bring in to Metamoris.

The other famous MMA fighter on the card is TUF 10 runner-up Brendan Schaub, and his placement doesn’t make nearly as much sense at first glance. Because of his success in the UFC, Schaub is surely one of the most well-known competitors on the card, however, none of the former college and professional football player’s MMA wins have come via submission. He’s young in the sport and is certainly not considered to be one of the best grapplers in the heavyweight division, let alone the UFC.

No, most of Schaub’s success has been achieved in the standup department, by knocking his opponents out silly, not by relying on “the gentle art.” But to the former TUF finalist, competing at Metamoris II against top Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling champion Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu no less makes all the sense in the world.

“A lot of people don’t know this,” Schaub tells CagePotato. “But, Jiu Jitsu is my passion. It was the first real thing I did in martial arts. For me, competing at Metamoris is a way for me to give back to Jiu Jitsu for all it’s done for me. Jiu Jitsu has changed my life.”

The Colorado native moved to Los Angeles a year ago, where he’s been training with Metamoris I competitor and the brother of the promotion’s founder, Ryron Gracie, extensively. Schaub went and watched his instructor compete against Andre Galvao last year at Metamoris I and was inspired to give it a go himself, should the opportunity arise.

“A lot of guys in MMA say they are a purple belt, or brown belt or black belt. Really? What have you done? Have you ever gone against the top level of grappler? Have you ever competed against a true black belt?” he asks.

“The Hybrid” knew that if he got the chance, he’d jump at competing on the next Metamoris card, in order to challenge himself in such a way and to also just stay active. However, he didn’t think his UFC boss, Dana White, would let him.

“I didn’t think there was a chance in the world Dana would let me,” Schaub laughs. “[But] he said, ‘you know what, you can do it, just don’t get hurt.’ So, I’ve been training hard, I have no injuries and this is an incredible challenge for me.”

Schaub has been “training hard” because, in little more than a month after his Metamoris match against “Cyborg,” he has a schedule UFC bout with Matt Mitrione. That’s a bit nuts, if you think about it. The UFC is where Schaub makes his big money, so to risk injury and a muddled training camp by competing in a sport with different rules seems pretty…audacious, especially given his opponent at UFC on FOX 8. But fret not, for the fighter says his priorities and ego are all in check. And better yet, his lifestyle makes him well suited for this type of situation.

“The UFC number is my number one priority,” he insists. “And, there is no such thing as a ‘training camp’ for me. There is no such thing as focus on Matt Mitrione or ‘Cyborg’ Abreu. I train all year round. I’m in shape right now. I’d fight Matt Mitrione on two hour’s notice. Fighting is my lifestyle.”

That said, Schaub has benefited from additional attention and help from expert submission grapplers as he prepares, first, for Metamoris II and Abreu. In addition to Ryron Gracie, his brother Rener, and their cousin Kron spending time with Schaub, he says that world champions Dean Lister and Xande Ribeiro have been working with him as well.

“I’ve gotten world class champs reaching out to me, wanting to help,” he says.

The UFC heavyweight still gets his boxing and wrestling work in, though, as well as sparring his usual twice a week in MMA. As for the threat of injury against Abreu, Schaub just isn’t concerned.

“No, not really,” he maintains.

“My ego isn’t to the point where if ‘Cyborg’ were to catch me in a foot lock or some sort of arm manipulation where I’d let him break my arm before tapping. Fighting in the UFC is still my dream and being in the UFC is the only reason I got an invitation to Metamoris. I owe it all to the UFC. I wouldn’t do that to them or myself.”

That said, Schaub most certainly isn’t showing up Sunday to get his opponent’s autograph and then go home. He’ll be there to win.

“Something that people say that really bugs me is, ‘Oh, this is a win-win for Brendan. Abreu does BJJ for a living and Brendan splits his time because he’s a fighter.’ Listen man,” Schaub says, seriously.

“If I didn’t think I could beat this guy, I wouldn’t have taken the match. I don’t sign up for win-wins. A loss would sting. I’m here to fight for a win.”

Legendary Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Instructor Robert Drysdale Signs With UFC, Debuts at UFC 163

Huge news out of Las Vegas today, as it has been announced that legendary BJJ instructor turned MMA fighter Robert Drysdale has signed with the UFC and will make his promotional debut against Ednaldo Oliveira at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis.

A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who holds over 90 tournament titles to his credit — including an ADCC Absolute Division championship in 2007, video here — Drysdale has tutored such UFC veterans as Forrest Griffin and Dan Hardy in the art of ground fighting (or as Bob Arum calls it “homosexual skinhead rolling-about“). Since making the transition from the mat to the cage in 2010, Drysdale has submitted six straight opponents, such as TUF 3‘s Mike Nickels and Bellator vet D.J. Linderman (a.k.a the guy who Anthony Johnson planked at WSOF 1), inside the first round.

For his big debut, Drysdale will face Brazilian slugger Ednaldo Oliveira, who hasn’t competed in the UFC since being strangled out in Gabriel Gonzaga’s first post-unretirement UFC bout at UFC 142. Prior to his own debut, however, “Lula Molusco” — which if my Portuguese is correct means “Lady Mollusk” — was also undefeated, collecting 8 TKO’s in 12 contests.

Featuring a light heavyweight sure-to-be…uh…barnraiser? (lunker?) between Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis as well as the return of Thales Leites (please, CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT), UFC 163 goes down on August 3rd at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

–J. Jones

Huge news out of Las Vegas today, as it has been announced that legendary BJJ instructor turned MMA fighter Robert Drysdale has signed with the UFC and will make his promotional debut against Ednaldo Oliveira at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis.

A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who holds over 90 tournament titles to his credit — including an ADCC Absolute Division championship in 2007, video here – Drysdale has tutored such UFC veterans as Forrest Griffin and Dan Hardy in the art of ground fighting (or as Bob Arum calls it “homosexual skinhead rolling-about“). Since making the transition from the mat to the cage in 2010, Drysdale has submitted six straight opponents, such as TUF 3‘s Mike Nickels and Bellator vet D.J. Linderman (a.k.a the guy who Anthony Johnson planked at WSOF 1), inside the first round.

For his big debut, Drysdale will face Brazilian slugger Ednaldo Oliveira, who hasn’t competed in the UFC since being strangled out in Gabriel Gonzaga’s first post-unretirement UFC bout at UFC 142. Prior to his own debut, however, “Lula Molusco” — which if my Portuguese is correct means “Lady Mollusk” — was also undefeated, collecting 8 TKO’s in 12 contests.

Featuring a light heavyweight sure-to-be…uh…barnraiser? (lunker?) between Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis as well as the return of Thales Leites (please, CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT), UFC 163 goes down on August 3rd at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

–J. Jones

[EXCLUSIVE] Metamoris II Headliner Kron Gracie Carries on Family Legacy


(Kron & Rickson Gracie | Photo via Moskova)

By Elias Cepeda

How do you ask a grown man to talk about a time you saw him cry? It can’t be easy, and maybe it’s not even polite. Surely an interviewer can think of other questions to ask someone — especially a fighter.

Unfortunately, in the day or so before speaking with Kron Gracie, that was the main thing I could think to ask, and to ask first. To be clear, I saw Kron cry when he was still a child, and then only from a distance.

Maybe I was mistaken and he wasn’t even truly crying.

Yeah, maybe that’s how you ask a man to talk about it — tepidly and with plenty of qualification. Probably not, but that’s how I broached the subject with the man.

It was the summer of 2000. Rickson Gracie, the champion of his family, was hosting an international Jiu Jitsu invitational. There were tournaments for every experience and ability level, as well as famous champions competing in super matches as well as milling around the arena as a part of the crowd.

And then there was little Kron Gracie. He had to have been just eleven or twelve.

Kron presumably could have chosen to enjoy the whole event as a child — that is, running around with family and friends, playing. Instead, he was in a gi and on the mats.

Kron’s older sisters were pretty and did fun demonstrations with their father. Kron’s older brother, Rockson, walked around the tournament with his head shaved, tattooed and an air of seriousness, the obvious heir apparent to Rickson Gracie’s fighting legacy.

Whatever pressures his siblings surely felt, Kron was the one on the mats that day, competing.

Kron competed that day and, when I saw him, he had just lost.

It couldn’t have been easy, and Rickson’s youngest child was visibly upset. Losing is never fun but when everyone is watching you because your dad is the best fighter in fighting’s first family, it has to be miserable. Rickson, walked over to Kron, put his arms around him and consoled his young son.


(Kron & Rickson Gracie | Photo via Moskova)

By Elias Cepeda

How do you ask a grown man to talk about a time you saw him cry? It can’t be easy, and maybe it’s not even polite. Surely an interviewer can think of other questions to ask someone — especially a fighter.

Unfortunately, in the day or so before speaking with Kron Gracie, that was the main thing I could think to ask, and to ask first. To be clear, I saw Kron cry when he was still a child, and then only from a distance.

Maybe I was mistaken and he wasn’t even truly crying.

Yeah, maybe that’s how you ask a man to talk about it — tepidly and with plenty of qualification. Probably not, but that’s how I broached the subject with the man.

It was the summer of 2000. Rickson Gracie, the champion of his family, was hosting an international Jiu Jitsu invitational. There were tournaments for every experience and ability level, as well as famous champions competing in super matches as well as milling around the arena as a part of the crowd.

And then there was little Kron Gracie. He had to have been just eleven or twelve.

Kron presumably could have chosen to enjoy the whole event as a child — that is, running around with family and friends, playing. Instead, he was in a gi and on the mats.

Kron’s older sisters were pretty and did fun demonstrations with their father. Kron’s older brother, Rockson, walked around the tournament with his head shaved, tattooed and an air of seriousness, the obvious heir apparent to Rickson Gracie’s fighting legacy.

Whatever pressures his siblings surely felt, Kron was the one on the mats that day, competing.

Kron competed that day and, when I saw him, he had just lost.

It couldn’t have been easy, and Rickson’s youngest child was visibly upset. Losing is never fun but when everyone is watching you because your dad is the best fighter in fighting’s first family, it has to be miserable. Rickson, walked over to Kron, put his arms around him and consoled his young son.

These days, Kron Gracie is a black belt international competitor — recognized as one of the best middleweights in the submission grappling world. I ask if he remembers that one match, an eternity ago and surely insignificant by now in the grand scheme of his career.

He does.

“I remember every moment of that match,” Kron tells CagePotato.

“I remember training for it, I remember everything he tried, everything I tried, and I remember losing.”

Kron had competed for years but says that his dad’s tournament was the first time he had trained with real focus. The let-down was rough.

“I felt pressure to do well. All eyes were on me,” Kron details.

If the young Gracie remembers vividly the hollow feeling of defeat, the memory of his father comforting him is equally as strong. “I remember every word he told me,” he says. “He just told me that it was alright and that I’d be ok.”

How Kron got from there to today, where he makes a living teaching and competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is respected as having one of the best pure styles in all of submission grappling is no doubt complex and layered. Having his father’s unconditional support and guidance must have been a big part.

It also seems possible that Kron learned to convert pressure and pain into hard work and excellence. Though he remembers every detail of that loss at his father’s tournament in 2000, one can only imagine how small that pain was in comparison to what he and his family went through later that same year.

Rickson’s oldest child Rockson died in December of 2000. Rickson never fought professionally again and has cited that moment as the lowest of his life.

“Deep down, you see a reason to shoot yourself in the head, to stop doing the right thing, to stop being a happy person. You may want to fools yourself, thinking ‘it’s bad, but I can take it,’ and that’s the kind of lack of honesty that will never cure the wound. I hit rock bottom and decided, deep down, whether I would come back to the surface or not,” Rickson told GracieMag in a 2010 interview.

Rickson clearly did go forward and, to this day, trains and teaches. Kron doesn’t talk to us about his brother’s death specifically but does say that shortly after the summer 2000 tournament, he began to see life and Jiu Jitsu a bit differently.

“I was raised around winning and championships so it was kind of always expected,” Kron says.

“Not long after that tournament, I began to take it more seriously and see myself having a future in Jiu Jitsu, in making it my career. Things happen in life and you decide it is time to step up and become a man.”

That is heady stuff for a kid to take on but Kron did — training and competing constantly. He dominated the ranks all the way through the brown belt class, before his father awarded him his black belt in 2008.

Thus far, he has yet to win a major world championship at black belt but has managed to stand out nonetheless. At the first Metamoris competition, last fall, Kron submitted the reigning middleweight Jiu Jitsu world champion, Otavio Sousa.

Ordinarily, matches are ten minutes long and points are scored to decide a winner if no one can finish with a submission. At Metamoris matches, there are no points and if you want to assure a win, you need to get a submission during the twenty minute matches.

Kron’s style fits the Metamoris format well because of the finality it requires for victory. Kron hardly ever uses a move that a first year Brazilian Jiu Jitsu student wouldn’t begin to learn.

He’s all substance and aggression, with no flash. The idea, his father’s idea that Kron has adopted, is to do the simple things right — with proper leverage and weight distribution applied to your opponent.

“If we spend doing techniques in Jiu Jitsu competition that wouldn’t work in a real fight, what is the point?” Kron asks.

That approach to Jiu Jitsu — to learn it as a fighting art, not just a pretty looking exercise without purpose or consequence, is all Rickson Gracie. Over the course of his career, Kron’s father fought in gis on the mats, speedos on the beach, shorts in packed arenas and in whatever he happened to be wearing when business needed to be settled on the street.


(Kron has been training MMA with Nate (left) and Nick (right) Diaz | Photo via GracieMag)

Kron seems in the midst of trying to prove he can become the best in the non-striking submission grappling world. Yet, the philosophy he’s adopted from his father and grandfather Helio Gracie that Jiu Jitsu is for fighting and fighting effectively, begs the question of whether he’d consider carrying on their fighting legacy himself.

I ask Kron if he thinks he will ever fight in MMA and his answer is to the point. “Yes,” he says, without doubt. “I will absolutely fight.”

At the Metamoris II Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational on June 9th, Kron will take on one of the best Jiu Jitsu representatives in MMA, Shinya Aoki. Kron’s desire to fight MMA and his pairing with Aoki is no coincidence.

“Totally,” he says when asked if he expects grappling against Aoki to give him a taste of how he might fare against top MMA grapplers.

“That’s why I wanted this match up with Aoki. I have so much respect for his Jiu Jitsu game in MMA. He has submitted so many people at the top levels of MMA. I want to see what he feels like. I want to see how my Jiu Jitsu matches up against his. I believe in my Jiu Jitsu and that it will work in MMA, but I am not looking past Aoki at all. I think this match will give me an idea of what some of these guys feel like.”

Kron already has a decent idea of what it feels like to lock horns with some top MMA fighters. As he talks with CagePotato, Nate Diaz sits nearby. Diaz is helping Kron train for Metamoris II.

Kron says he’s been working with both Nate and brother Nick Diaz frequently, and not just on submission grappling. Kron was in Nick Diaz’ corner when he faced Georges St. Pierre earlier this year, in fact.

“Nate is here helping me prepare for Aoki,” Kron says. “I’ve gotten to work with him and Nick a lot now and it’s great.”

Kron says that he gets in MMA work with the Diaz brothers as well as grappling. “Oh yeah, for sure,” he says, sounding as if getting to spar MMA with elite fighters is much of the point of his training with the Diaz brothers.

“We do a lot of work and all types.”

Kron’s intensity leading up to matches is certainly that of someone who takes winning and losing seriously. However, the reckless abandon with which he competes suggests someone who doesn’t fear loss.

Many high level grapplers have unbearably boring matches when pitted against one another. Wary of making even the tiniest mistake which their opponent can seize on, many black belt matches are cautious, careful and horrible to watch.

Turn on a Kron Gracie match, any one, and you’ll see the furthest thing from that type of match. He drives, scrambles, pivots and spins, all in constant search of a submission win. Kron grapples with the sense of urgency of a man fighting for his life — which, he might say, is kind of the point.

Kron speaks as someone who not only carries the pressure of being the son of the greatest Jiu Jitsu fighter of all time, but also as one who possesses the confidence from a lifetime of personal instruction from that same master.

Beat me, if you can. And if you do, watch your back because I’ll get better and come back for you.

“It isn’t that I don’t care about losing,” Kron explains. “But all you can do is train the right way leading up to a fight, and then let go and go hard in the fight. The point of a fight is to see who the better guy is. I hate losing. But if I go out there, give it everything I have and lose, then the guy is better than me. If I don’t let it all out on the mat, I won’t ever know who truly was the better man that day.”

You’re born with pressure to be great when you’re born a Gracie. At the same time, putting that yolk around your neck and facing conflict and tests head-on is modeled for you.

Maybe that’s part of why Kron Gracie decided at an early age to run right into the fire, perhaps not unaffected or unafraid, but at least unflinching. And, if over time, Kron becomes one of the great ones, that decision will probably be why and how he got there.