Rolles Gracie Signs With UFC, Debuts Against Mustapha Al-Turk in February
Undefeated heavyweight prospect Rolles Gracie has signed with the UFC and is expected to make his Octagon debut against Mustapha Al-Turk at UFC 109 on February 6 in Las Vegas, according to MMA Weekly.
Gracie (3-0), a 2nd degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt from the legendary Gracie family, is a one-time IFL fighter who’s improved to 3-0 in 2009 with back-to-back wins in Art of War in China, including a first-round submission of Peter Graham last month.
Al-Turk (6-5), a former Cage Rage heavyweight title-holder, has lost both of his UFC bouts, suffering first-round knockouts at the hands of Cheick Kongo in December and Mirko “Cro Cop” in June, though his latest loss was marred by a accidental eye poke that went unnoticed and setup the finish.
UFC 109 is expected to include Matt Hughes and Matt Serra squaring off against opponents to-be-determined, with the pay-per-view event also likely to feature Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller.
For the latest UFC 109 rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.
Tags: Mustapha al Turk, Rolles Gracie
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Looks like the UFC wants Al-turk to go 0-3 before giving him the pink slip
I was just thinking the same thing
Al Turk’s had it quite tough in his last two fights I reckon…compared to the cans Carwin & Velasquez fought when they first joined up. Shame too.
Wellisch, Wain, and Gonzaga are “cans”? Really? Because those are Carwin’s UFC opponents. Also keep in mind, Carwin wasn’t a title holder when he was signed, so perhaps expectations weren’t as high.
Cage Rage wasn’t an unknown promotion. I don’t think it wrong to think their title holder might be expected to go up against a middle of the road striker….
Very good Dbiz! I was thinking the same thing.
You were also thinking that Niel Wain isn’t a can and that the former Cage Rage champ had higher expectations than Carwin?
Probably closer to the idea that Wellisch and Gonzaga aren’t cans, and that yes a heavyweight champ from another org ought to fight some tougher fights. The way that Al-Turk hasn’t been able to handle a mediocre all-around fighter in Kongo or a washed-up Cro Cop more than justifies feeding him a UFC rookie then cutting him after the loss.
I would say the only reason he wasn’t cut after the CroCop loss is because of the eye-poke.
“dbiz” I was hoping you would come to your senses but apparently not. I’ll put it this way then. There were zero expectations for Al-Turk he was strictly signed for fodder to give guys they want to promote like Kongo a relatively easy win then he was Cro Cops welcome back opponent and the only reason he’s fighting a 3rd time in the UFC is because of the eye poke that ended his last fight.
Carwin on the other hand was undefeated, a mountain of a man and had finished every opponent he fought in two minutes or less.
You think he had lower expectations from the UFC than Al Turk? Really?
Says the man with Kimbo for an avatar. Yeah, I’m going to take lectures from you.
Just to cut things off at the pass, make sure we keep things civil guys.
No problem but you know someone’s been caught with their foot in their mouth when they have to resort to taking a jab at someone’s avatar.
Not at all, I’m just not going to waste my breaks at work on you, or anyone else who thinks Al-Turk has been “set up” by the UFC. The guy’s not good, no matter who you put him against.
Look back over my body of work here and you’ll see. I put more thought into my posts than most people do their entire work days.
Al-turk is a can. The guy is terrible at everything….be realistic.
I have to agree with Justin, the only reason al turk is still around is because cro cop “bj penned him” lol j/k
It’s only fair to give the guy another shot since his last loss is somewhat questionable.
Anyone know how good rolls is? i know he’s 3-0 but i don’t know anything about the dude.
I hope serra vs trigg happens. I wonder who matt hughes will get though because pretty much every ww is booked.
Short story:
If Al-Turk loses the fight, he loses his job.
Somewhat longer story:
This is the second time in like 3 days I’ve seen someone try to mix it up with dbiz, and once again I’m wondering, “WTF were you thinking?”
dbiz is one of this site’s best posters, and the guy completely knows his MMA sh!t, and demonstrates that on a frequent and regular basis.
Maybe we should try and create some sort of guideline wherein if you’re going to engage dbiz in a battle of wits, you should have AT LEAST some level of frenZy cred before you do so…
Awesome addition to the fast improving Heavyweight division.
You have to obviously give Rolles the advantage on the ground.
However, if this fight doesnt go to the ground, I see Al-Turk scoring a TKO. I think he is a pretty good fighter, with good striking. He has just had a tough road in the UFC so far and he has faced two of the best strikers in the world (Kongo, Cro-Cop).
Al-Turk via tko
His striking is good? I guess if you like aggressive, no-talent, wild barroom striking, then yes his striking is decent.
Gotta love how the headline is about Gracie signing and yet the post becomes an Al-turk love/hate fest.
I’m interested to see how this signing works and to see how far along he really is striking wise.
Good pick up that I feel was done moreso to prevent him going anywhere else.
I think you could be right about this pick up being more about getting him off the market.
Really?
Is Rolles Gracie THAT big a fish to land?
I’m not saying your off-base, chrisl, mostly because I think you’re spot-on here, but I’m just wondering if this is in fact a case of talent stashing, where does it end?
If this is simply a result of his last name being Gracie, then its understandable on some level, but would it really matter if he were fighting in DREAM or Kingdom MMA or even Strikeforce?
I guess my point is that I would like to see other MMA orgs flourish, and thats going to be tough with Dana stockpiling talent like panicked suburbanites stock up on milk, bread, and eggs before a dose of bad weather…
Well Rolles is an absolutely sick grappler, his dad was amazing too, AND he trains with Jackson in addition to being with Renzo. So at least he has an MMA camp in addition to a phenomenal BJJ camp. So you know Dana probably talked to Jackson and his boys to see if he had talent. Once you hear a guy could be really good, why let him escape. With so many of the true submission techs in the HWT class starting to get on their last legs why not snatch up a talent that you could market his name in addition to his talent.
Everyone wants to see other orgs do well as long as you aren’t a UFC shareholder.
When did the UFC (or even Zuffa) become a publicly traded company?
It’s not I was referring to the owners of Zuffa, Fertitta’s, and Mr White. I am in between classes on a phone so I type a lil quick. I know Dana says they have no intention to taking the company public, so my bad for the wrong terminology.
Al-Turk only won the cage Rage title because the rest of the fighters are jobbing pro’s. He is woeful and even from a Brit perspective it didn’t do wonders for Cage Rage’s credibility. I’m thinking sub or TKO within a round and bang goes his 15 mins, he was only ever there to boost the rosters anyway.