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Royce Gracie makes the media rounds at UFC 100
By Zach Arnold | July 15, 2009
He did a couple of interviews, so I decided to transribe what he said and give you a summary of what interviewers asked him.
First, he was interviewed on ESPN.com’s MMA Live show.
Could you imagine that MMA would blow up like it has when UFC 1 happened in Denver? “I knew it was going to get that big. Man, it’s an honor for my family to see this thing grow, not just in the United States but all over the world now.”
“I don’t have a chance to watch all the events, but I try to follow as much as I can. After all, I’m still in the business, c’mon man.”
What are you up to right now? “I’m just traveling a lot, I spend about six months on the road traveling, doing seminars, and then six months home with the family.”
What’s it like to make such an impact on so many fighters? “I mean, it’s a pleasure for our family, that was the goal to teach the world, it’s not just to keep it inside the family but to teach everybody what fighting is all about, we grew up doing this thing, but my father my uncles they all did that back in Brazil so now it’s a world type of business, it’s awesome.”
The motivation behind the creation of UFC? “Any given chance, that’s the whole idea, give a chance to us little guys to be able to defend and not to fight but to defend ourselves against somebody bigger and stronger.”
So who’s the best newcomer in the Gracie family? “Man, I’ll say my daughter. She wraps me around, she gets anything out of me.”
Thoughts on women’s MMA and if you would allow your daughter into MMA? “Oh yes, not a problem. I have a lot of students that want to compete, a lot of female students, and I tell them the time is now. About three, four years from now, the market’s going to be very crowded, it’s going to be harder. So right now is the time for the girls to get into this.”
Then Royce did an interview for the Versus web site.
Did you think UFC would grow this much? “Oh, I knew it’s going to make it this far man. That’s a easy one, people like fighting, everybody like the fights and everybody likes this kind of sport.”
Are you in fighting shape? “Man, I’m always in shape, I walk around 180 and I fight at 180.”
Did you want to fight at UFC 100? “I don’t look at it that way, I don’t look at the number to come back or to fight again, it’s whenever the body feels good, the body says ‘let’s do it’ I’ll do it.”
Is there still an itch to fight? “I know where the itch lives, I just… not feeling right now. I know where it lives, I have the itch’s address, whenever/if the right time comes I will knock on the itch’s door and take it out for a date.”
“I still got it, I still got it man.”
Want to repair your image (given what happened against Sakuraba at K-1 and the failed drug test)? “I have nothing to hide, man, not because of that, no. No, if I come back it’s not because of that.”
What’s your best UFC memory? “Man, fighting four fights in one night, it’s unreal.”
Could the new breed of fighters hang with the older MMA stars under the NHB rule set? “There’s only one way to find out, that’s why we create the fight show.”
“Man, on the street you don’t pick opponents, you don’t pick size and the weight, you don’t pick how many fights you’re going to have to fight, so today’s more like a sport. Back then, it was raw, you had to fight and come back and fight again and come back and no gloves, no time limit, no weight division.”
What’s it like to be recognized all over the world? “Oh yes, everywhere man, they heard about it, they’ve seen it, they practice and I travel all over the world teaching.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
how mixed of martial arts do you think the Gracies’ initial intentions were? were these fights not just a promo for Gracie Jiu Jitsu?
Royce got absolutely no fan reaction at UFC 100 on the PPV.
A lot of people have heard of him, but that was 15 years ago…. The sport, and it’s fans, have really passed him by.
Exactly. UFC 1-5 were like early Gracie Jiu-Jitsu promos. However, the amusing thing is that UFC 3 and 5 didn’t work out so well for the Gracies. At UFC 3, Gracie got injured fighting a much bigger, stronger man (Kimo) and he couldn’t continue against Harold Howard. While Royce did beat Kimo, this is the first indication that size and strength does matter. And then at UFC 5, while Royce-Shamrock was technically a draw, Shamrock had the edge in that fight. Royce got humiliated and the mystique of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu got destroyed so he took his ball and went home after that. BJJ is excellent but all the BJJ in the world isn’t going to save you against a much bigger man. It’s not some super martial art. No one martial art is.
They should’ve honored Steve Jennum @ UFC 100.
My favorite part of the past Dana White video blogs was seeing Royce holding back Rampage during Rampage and Rashads silly shoving match.
I’d like to see Royce vs Lesnar.
Under the old rules. No gloves, knees to grounded opponent and headbutts allowed.
Why? What do you have against Royce?
The justice system at work (again): Multi-time drunk driving offender Josh Neer leads police on a chase at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour, while drunk, and ultimately gets a suspended sentence with zero actual jail time: http://mmajunkie.com/news/15515/ufcs-josh-neer-gets-suspended-seven-year-sentence-for-january-arrest-travel-not-restricted.mma
I know I’m being a bit of a devil’s advocate, Ivan, but do you think life and the world would be a better place if Neer had gotten jail time?
How many times has Neer been nailed for drunk driving?
Yes, the world would be a better place if leading police on a high-speed chase that exceeded speeds of 100 miles per hour, while you’re driving drunk, actually resulted in something more than “zero actual prison time.”