Legendary grappler and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pioneer Royce Gracie was not impressed by the performance of Roger Gracie, who "forgot about history" in his unanimous decision loss to fellow middleweight Tim Kennedy at the UFC 168 event back in July.
That critique (read it) didn't sit very well with cousin Renzo.
That's because Royce does nothing to help the next generation of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters and therefore has no right to pass judgment, according to comments Gracie made on this week's edition of The MMA Hour.
"In order to make a negative comment about the Gracie family, you have to help the Gracie family. You have to actually be producing new champions, putting your time to build new champions. I don't remember Royce doing that. Each man chooses their path. How can I judge someone if I don't walk on their shoes? It's their comfort zones. Unfortunately, I cannot just sit and watch. Don't judge others with harsh word on situations that you didn't try to improve them. This is the portrait of life. People will claim that we forgot who we are, that we forgot jiu-jitsu. ... We didn't forget shit, man. We are 100 percent what we are. We live, eat and breathe what we do. Come train them, and then you're going to be able to evaluate the reality. Sometimes people move away from reality and start dreaming, and they start living in the dreamland, judging others by their dreams or believing what people tell them... If you're comfortable laying your head in the pillow thinking that what you're doing is the right thing you do it, but don't judge the others. Don't come pointing fingers. I can talk bad about people because when they need me I'm there... I know how hard they work."
There's only one way to settle this!
Ironically, both Royce and Renzo ended their UFC careers with a technical knockout loss to retired Hall-of-Famer Matt Hughes. While the former has called it a career, the latter is still contemplating a return to the cage and could be back in action as early as January.
And since Royce won't be training him, he has no right to criticize if Renzo forgets to "go back to his roots."
Get the latest gear
