Royce Gracie: Do this rubber guard stuff and I’ll punch you in the nose

Mixed martial arts icon Royce Gracie appeared recently on The MMA Hour, and discussed Eddie Bravo.

On March 28 at Metamoris 3, Eddie Bravo dominated Royce’s brother Royler at the submission only Metamoris 3 event. After the bout Royce angrily confronted Bravo for alleged slights against the family.

Bravo has countless times spoken and written with the utmost respect about the Gracie family, so the aggression was unwarranted. In an interview shortly afterwards, also on The MMA Hour, Bravo deflected the issue using verbal Jiu-Jitsu.

“Man, Royce Gracie wants to kick my ass? How cool is that!” quipped Bravo.

Royce later said that the real issue was Bravo’s public stance on the legalization of and advocacy for the use of marijuana. Bravo’s position, which of course applies only to adults, is being adopted by an increasing number of states. Bravo’s stance is well articulated and intelligently expressed; most unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Royce in this case.

Gracie said that although he would not compete with Bravo in a grappling match, an MMA bout still held appeal.

“I haven’t got any offers, but I don’t compete in grappling rules,” said Gracie as transcribed by Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting. “I’m a MMA fighter, man. I’m a MMA fighter, all the way.”

“I’m pretty much done fighting. With Eddie Bravo, it’s personal. … (Does Metamoris) allow punches to the face? Do this rubber guard stuff and I’ll punch you in the nose.”

“You’re gonna send your kids to learn from a guy that tells everybody that it’s okay to do drugs? It’s ok to drink alcohol? Sorry, man. If you wanna do it in private, do it in private. I have no problem with that. But I can never send my kid to someone that praises alcohol and drugs. Is that what you want your kids to learn? It’s okay to smoke pot? ‘Oh, pot is not a drug.’ So walk into a police station with a pound of pot and tell the cops it’s not a drug. Come on.”

“People that don’t know and hear about it, they start to think that all the people that do jiu-jitsu smokes pot, is a drug addict. Here I am fighting for something good, and the guy is fighting for something bad, in my point of view. I can’t agree with that, what he represents. Nothing to do with his jiu-jitsu, his school. If you want to do something like that, do it in private. Keep it to yourself.”

Gracie has not compete in grappling since 1998, when he was quickly rendered unconscious by Wallid Ismail in a gi match. His last fight was a rematch with fellow legend Kazushi Sakuraba in 2007. Royce won via a tainted split decision.

Gracie’s remarks equating marijuana use with drug addiction are all the more unfortunate, as following the Sakuraba rematch, Gracie tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandralone. At age 40, Gracie had put on 13 pounds of muscle over his fight the previous year, when he weighed in at 175 in a failed effort vs. Matt Hughes. While Gracie did the nadralone in private, and kept it to himself, he is never the less an unlikely candidate to be criticizing someone for taking drugs.