The UFC debut of previously-unbeaten heavyweight Rolles Gracie on Saturday at UFC 109, a second-round TKO to late-replacement Joey Beltran, has been called one of the worst in recent memory, and was only magnified by his family’s legendary name.
Rolles’ cousin, Renzo Gracie, who makes his own UFC debut in April against Matt Hughes, called his performance “embarrassing” in a quote posted on GracieFighter:
“It was embarrassing. I can tell you he wasn’t in that bad of shape. Fact is the nerves drained him of his energy. His stand up and ground work looked bad, nothing at all like he was doing in training leading up to the fight and it was if he couldn’t hear what I was telling him. I think the pressure he put on himself overwhelmed him. He’ll learn and be back.”
Meanwhile, ADCC champ Braulio Estima, who recently signed with Shine Fights, told MMAjunkie that Rolles was injured and unable to train:
“His performance was nowhere near what we expected and what he expected. He had a lot of injuries in training. He hurt his rib and that stopped him training for a while. But he was very excited to do it and he put a lot of pressure on himself. It wasn’t the best decision to fight.”
For the latest UFC news, UFC rumors, and UFC quotes stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Rolles Gracie
Latest
Did anyone else think he looked just like Frankenstein when he fought. Maybe his trainers should have pumped a little more electricity into the monster before the fight because that sucker ran outta juice.
If only Arlovski was still in the UFC…we could set up Frankenstein vs Dracula…
I’m not the biggest Renzo Gracie fan, although I hold He11a respect for what he and his family have done for BJJ and MMA.
That being said, I have to sort of agree with Renzo, even though it seems like he’s publicly cheap-shotting his own cousin.
When you consider the weight the Gracie name carries within both BJJ and MMA, its imperative that a fighter bearing their name makes a respectable accounting of himself either on the mat or in the cage.
Rolles embarrassed himself, and several people in attendance commented that the guy looked “stoned”, “confused as He11″, “just plain scared”, “out of his league”, and so on.
Lets face it.
It isn’t like Joey Beltran is BigNog or anything, so Rolles was soft pitched his first MMA up, if you follow.
No one could reasonably expect every Gracie to win every BJJ tournament and MMA fight they sign for, but fellow members of their family SHOULD reasonably expect for one of their own not to make a spectacle of himself on whats becoming the largest combat sport stage in the world…
Jcohl is exactly right. No one can expect every one with the name Gracie win everything MMA or BJJ related, but with that name you have a certain expectation to live up to. And Joey Beltran is exactly the top-tier of the UFC so hopefully something was wrong and
he comes back ALOT better.
By the way, HI GUYS!! Im one of those people that Fr referred to as “lurkers” the other day. Ive been checking out this site and forums for about 6-8 months, and never really contributed just saw what other people were saying.
Justin, you run a great great site here, by far the best ive been on and i look forward to having some good discussions with you fellows!!!
Edit – Or Kris or whoever is at the top of the chain, does a great job, reguardless. Great site.
Kris owns and runs the site, but FR and myself handle nearly all comment moderation duties, and I contribute on writing articles.
Thanks!
@ Toby – thinking I’m “exactly right” is a great way for you to start posting at the frenZy!
;)
Just kidding, dude, roughly about half the people here think I’m on-point, and the other half think I’m on meth when it comes to MMA, but I wouldn’t trade the frenZy for any other site on the Web.
As a former “lurker” from way back in the ufcdaily days, all I can say is welcome!
Yea i thought it might be a good way to start. Except, i am going to have to side with Gun on any discussion about Maynard, haha.
Hopefully, i can become a regular on poster on here, because i am sure as He!! not going back to Sherpup, no way. One question though is what all do i need to do to subscribe to updates and have an AV?
Ohhh, i see the subscribe tab now.
Don’t get me wrong.
I think Gray Maynard is a great 155er with a world of potential.
I just differ from my boys carls and Gunslinger when it comes to thinking that Maynard walks on water on his way to the cage…
;)
There’s two ways to have an Avatar.
The first is to Sign Up with MMAFrenzy, which will then allow you to add an avatar as part of the profile creation process, and also allow you to post in the forums.
The second is to go to gravatar.com and create an account there, this will create an avatar you can use here and on other sites. If you follow the first option, you will still need to create a gravatar for your icon in the forums.
Welcome to the frenZy Toby!
I don’t doubt tht the nerves might have got to him. He didn’t look like tht in his other fights. But for renzo to say tht bout one of his own might have been a jinx. Mat hughes definetly isn’t gonna take it easy on renzo. Although I do believe it will be a great fight I say hughes will win the fight.
He needs to be cut after leaving that skid mark on the floor of the octagon.
hahahahahahaha now thats funny!
Octagon shock gets to everyone.
poor dude… why fight if your not up to par, that doesnt make you any better