Rolles Gracie wants to fight his way back to the UFC
Third degree black belt in BJJ Rolles Gracie has royal lineage in the art. He is the eldest son of the…
Third degree black belt in BJJ Rolles Gracie has royal lineage in the art. He is the eldest son of the legendary Rolls Gracie, and grandson of founder Carlos Gracie. In 2007 he took Silver at ADCC, and then entered MMA, where he earned three first round wins, all by submission. Then he stepped up to the UFC.
When visa issues forced planned opponent Mostapha Al Turk off the card, Joey Beltran stepped in, and in the second round stopped the man many believe represents the Gracie family’s best chance to once again find glory in the Octagon. Coach Renzo Gracie spoke about the loss post fight:
“It was embarrassing. I can tell you he wasn’t in that bad of shape. Fact is the nerves drained him of his energy. His stand up and ground work looked bad, nothing at all like he was doing in training leading up to the fight, and it was if he couldn’t hear what I was telling him. I think the pressure he put on himself overwhelmed him. He’ll learn and be back.”
Rolles is back, fightiing this weekend against Braden Bice, in New Jersey’s Urban Conflict Championship. Below he discusses past, present, and future.
For my other three fights, my other three wins, I probably didn’t learn anything, Gracie told MMAWeekly.com. The number one thing I know, it’s hard to be 100-percent on the day of the fight. You always come with minor injuries, but I wouldn’t fight again with a big injury like I had. And also maybe I underestimated my opponent. I thought I was going to be able to beat him even with the injury on my foot. At the time I didn’t know it was broken, I only found out it was broken after the fight, I just thought it was a bad sprain.
In the beginning, maybe if I was playing around a little bit using the clock more on my favor. Maybe I wouldn’t go in there and try to get a submission in the first round in the early stages of the fight.
I signed with Shine. They kept saying they were going to have shows, they’re going to have shows, nothing was happening. I was waiting, waiting, waiting, then the CEO quit and the matchmaker quit, and if I was still waiting for them, I wouldn’t be fighting this weekend.”
I want to fight as many times as I can. After this fight, I want to see if I can get another fight before July because I’m going to have another baby in July, so the month of July and maybe early August it’s going to be hard for me to fight.
I just want to fight. I do this because I love it, I think I was born to do this, and I just think it will be a consequence.
If I’m doing good, it’s just a matter of time for my manager to receive another phone call from them.