Kyra Gracie leaves door open for MMA

Kyra Gracie, three-time ADCC gold medalist and five-time Mundial champion, appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour.

Gracie had been training boxing under the tutelage of Cláudio Coelho, owner of Nobre Arte gym in the Morro do Cantagalo area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with an eye towards beginning MMA. However, Gracie had a child and hosts a new series, “The Third Degree with Kyra Gracie” on UFC FIGHT PASS. However, Gracie left the door open for fighting in mixed martial arts

“It’s always hard for me, especially because I’ve been competing my whole life in jiu-jitsu, and I’m a big fan of MMA,” said Gracie, as transcribed by Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. “But it’s hard for me to say ‘oh, I’m never doing MMA’. It’s always something I wanna try. But my life is kind of busy now, I have the show, my baby, a lot of things going on. I can’t say I’ll never fight.”

Gracie also predicted that the Rousey vs. Cyborg superfight will never come to pass

“I think it’s really hard for Cris to drop the weight,” said Gracie. “She has already a hard time dropping to her division, so… I don’t think this fight is going to happen. I think it’s going to be like the Anderson Silva-Georges St-Pierre fight. We always wanted to see, but we never saw it.”

However, Gracie expressed great respect for the UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

“The way (Ronda Rousey) fights, she goes there to finish the fight,” said the Brazilian.

She has a very good ground game and I admire her a lot. All of her victories before MMA, in judo and everything, and I think she opened the door for the new generation of girls that want to join MMA and the girls that are enjoying the sport.”

Gracie has not competed in a grappling organization since 2012, but says she could be ready on short notice.

“I’m always training, so a grappling match, I’m ready,” said Gracie. “I think (I would need) six weeks (to prepare), something like that.”

But in the meantime, her time is given over the her baby daughter Ayra, and traveling the world for The Third Degree.”

“I’m very happy about the show,” she said. “It’s a dream for me to travel all over the world to search for the essence of each martial art. We already did Brazilian jiu-jitsu here in Rio de Janeiro, we did boxing in Mexico, and we’re going to search deep inside the essence of all martial arts that make MMA. It’s been a pleasure, and I’m learning a lot.”