‘Royce will be dangerous on the feet vs Shamrock’
Royce Gracie is and always will be a jiu-jitsu player. However, don’t be surprised to see him commit to some strikes when he meets Ken Shamrock at Bellator 149.
It will be cool and weird to see Royce Gracie with kickboxing skills. Can’t wait to see them utilized when he faces Ken Shamrock next month.
That doesn’t mean Gracie (14-2-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will be headhunting for a knockout, but the Brazilian has teamed up with veteran kickboxing champion Joe Schilling in order to assure he’s sharp on the feet when he clashes with Shamrock (28-16-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) on Feb. 19 at Houston’s Toyota Center.
He’s dangerous on his feet; he has skills there, Schilling told MMAjunkie of working with Gracie. Obviously, he’s Royce Gracie and we’re not going to try to change his style of Gracie jiu-jitsu, but I think he’s learning a lot of things and has a lot of potential.
We’ve done a lot of training, but for the most part, we’re just focusing a lot on him and his stand up. He has a great work ethic and he doesn’t have any – he comes in like a regular student and works hard and is focused and pays attention. It’s really nice.
Although Gracie made his MMA debut at UFC 1 in 1993, he hasn’t recorded a single victory in his career stemming from strikes. That’s no surprise considering his world-renowned grappling acumen, but Schilling said he wants to, at least, give Gracie the tools to change that.
The 49-year-old last competed in June 2007 when he earned a unanimous decision win over Kazushi Sakuraba. He may be significantly older than the last time he fought, but Schilling said Gracie is hungry and eager to learn. Because of that, he said viewers should expect a version of Gracie that’s more complete than ever before.