Issue 184

November 2019

The fourth generation Gracie, who’s already closing in on a Bellator record by doing what Gracies normally do best.

You are carrying such a tremendous legacy with your last name and all that it entails. Can you speak about what it means to be a Gracie in today’s Mixed Martial Arts world?

Being a Gracie is awesome. I think the best part of being a Gracie is that I have so many fighters in my family to teach me so many things. I think that is the best part.

You have six submissions to date in your short Bellator career. If you secure one more submission, it will make you the all-time submission leader in Bellator history. How cool is that to think about?

Yeah, that is going to be awesome to be a Bellator champion and the guy with the most submissions. 

You are a fourth-generation Gracie as far as Mixed Martial Arts competition is concerned. Who is the member of your family that you most lean to for advice or technique help, or whatever the case may be?

I think it’s Renzo for sure. Renzo was the guy that was with me since day one, from my very first fight. Renzo is definitely one of my mentors in the sport. It has to be him. 

Although the fight didn’t go your way, you fought at Madison Square Garden, just blocks from your home gym. What did it mean to fight so close to the gym?

It helps a lot fighting at home. I fought here before and it was awesome. I got to sleep in my bed and wake up in my own house. For me, its like another day of training. Going to the gym, I always pass by Madison Square Garden. It’s super close to my gym. Going to the fight is like going to the gym for me. I feel at home there.

MMA tournaments and the Gracie Family go hand in hand. Although it wasn’t a one-day tournament it still has to be great to be a Gracie in such a high-level MMA tournament here in 2019. 

Yeah, representing my family at the highest level of the sport, in a tournament, is a pleasure for me.

You could very well become the first Gracie to capture Bellator gold. What would that feat mean to you and the family?

Oh yeah, that is a big one for the family. I think that would be the cherry on top of the sundae for the family for sure. 

You recently said that the will to win is important but the will to prepare is vital. Can you elaborate on the mindset?

I see a lot of people that want to be winners but most of them don’t put the work in to be winners. A lot of people want the prize but they don’t want to do what you have to do to get there. That is where most of the people fail. I believe that preparation is the most important thing in anything that you look to do in life. A lot of people want to be millionaires but nobody wants to put the work in to get there, that’s why so many people are playing the Powerball here in New York. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in anything easy. One thing that the sport has taught me is to put in the work to see the results. 

Most of us can only imagine what you have seen in the gym over the course of your lifetime. What is the most memorable Gracie gym story you have in mind?

I remember when I was a kid and I was in Brazil and Renzo came to visit. His brother Ryan was there. When they trained it used to be a war. I didn’t know what was going on at the time. I think they had a beef at the time or something. They weren’t happy with one another, that’s for sure. I was just a little kid. I was just there to watch. That day, training almost became a fight. It was crazy. Everybody around was watching. They were throwing each other around the gym. Everybody was getting worried. My grandfather was there and he was just sitting there watching, eating a banana like nothing was happening. We were all like, ‘Grandpa, aren’t you going to break them up?’ He was laughing. ‘Break them apart? It’s just getting interesting.’ That was crazy for me.