.
.

Roger Gracie: ‘I’ve Been Offered to Fight Rodolfo, Buchecha & Keenan in Metamoris’

Roger Gracie: ‘I’ve Been Offered to Fight Rodolfo, Buchecha & Keenan in Metamoris’

 

 

Hungarian website ellenfelem.hu spoke with 10x world champion Roger Gracie, and he gave some news regarding his future plans including plans to compete once again in Metamoris:

ellenfelem.hu: – Hello Roger. Thanks for accepting the interview. Let’s jump right into it. Do you have anything on the horizon right now, anything set with OneFC?

Roger Gracie: – We have a contract signed for a few fights and actually they want me to fight at their December 5 event which will take place in Manila. I already have the name but they’ve asked me not to mention it yet as there will be an official announcement soon.

e: – How does a training week look like for example? Do you train in a gi even when preparing for a fight?

RG: – I try to train twice a day, sometimes three times. I train wrestling and boxing three times a week, Muay Thai once and bjj twice, a bit of conditioning. I run twice a week and mostly do sprints. Also I do Olympic lifting. Usually in the last 6 weeks I almost completely stop training with the Gi. I still use it here and there but just to add some more to the training and not for preparing for the fight. So if you add it up it pretty much fills up the whole week.

e: – Gi vs NoGi is a topic that always comes up but what’s you take on it?

RG: – If you really want to be good in jiu-jitsu you have to train in the Gi. NoGi is a very slippery game. You get used to escapes and such where things work because of this slipperiness but not in a Gi. It won’t work there and you’ll have to find other ways and be more technical about situations where you could just pull out without a Gi on. With a Gi you become a lot more technical. If you don’t train with a Gi you’ll never have an efficient guard from the bottom. I can see immediately from someone’s guard and especially from the bottom whether they’ve trained in the Gi or not.

e: – Do you have plans regarding getting back one day or you don’t look any further right now and focus on OneFC?

RG: – I’m focusing on OneFC. I’m 33 years old and as an athlete I don’t think I have many years left in front of me. I think I’ve achieved pretty much everything I could in jiu-jitsu. If I would start fighting in the Gi again it would be just for the fun of it and to stay active. But that’s something I can go back to. I was thinking about retirement but I think I’d really regret it. After around 40 you may be able to still be around for a few years but your fighting career is pretty much over. There’s no way back. I love to fight, I love to compete. I don’t fight to prove anything just to improve my skills, to stay active and to do something I really love to do. MMA is a big challenge for me and there’s still a lot to be achieved. This challenge what keeps me going and makes me want to fight in MMA.

e: – Would you still take a fun match in bjj if something would be offered?

RG: – Actually I talked to Ralek as they want me to have some superfight at Metamoris. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s a one time only thing so I wouldn’t need to take much time off from training MMA. I think it will happen for sure.

e: – Did they throw some names at you maybe already?

RG: – Well everybody pretty much wants me to fight Buchecha again. There’s no way hiding that. Rodolfo Vieira could be a great match. Also I was offered to fight Keenan Cornelius in London early next year. It’s not a done deal but we’ll see.

Read the entire interview