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Relson Gracie on Rickson’s 400-0 Record & Not Speaking to Rolls for 5 Years

Relson Gracie on Rickson’s 400-0 Record & Not Speaking to Rolls for 5 Years

The second eldest son of Helio Gracie, the red belt Relson Gracie reigned during his time, having had according to him, 140 Vale Tudo fights and remained unbeaten for decades. But those who think that the relationship between father and son was easy, is wrong. Helio did not like Relson surfing, because he said it was a bum sport.

A rebellious teenager, Relson Gracie did not like to study and inherited the nickname ‘Champion’, from his Surfer friends, because even when attending social events, he was always first on the podium. Relson also had a big rivalry with his brothers.

The red belt recalled in an interview with Brazilian website 100kg, why he didn’t speak to his cousin/adopted brother Rolls for 5 years:

Transcribed from Portuguese:

“ I didn’t speak with Rolls for a long time. He punched me once. I was since 13 years old until 18 without speaking with him.
I started speaking with him again because he bought me once a new Surf Board

He beat me up because in some moment I said a bad word inside home near our female cousin.
We were a group of ten kids and he called me in a corner to make me apologize to her.
Apologize to her!
Apologize to her! (said Rolls)
And than I told her to get out of room!
And from that moment he was determined to teach me a lesson.
He call me inside a bathroom, then he locked the door and punched me there.

Few guys forced the door open but in that moment I had already received few punches in the face.
I was pissed and than I come in drawer to pic up a switchblade.

My brothers took the blade from me by twisting my arm and my father, Helio Gracie when he discovered what happened, said:

“ – Both fighting its ok, but why take a knife?

So then he punished me for one month to be locked at home.
Everyone was going to play outside and I couldn’t.
And Rolls was always laughing about it.
I was beaten, they make fun of me. I lost everything.

So I decided not to speak with him anymore but it was hard because we had the same taste for everything. Loved the same stuff, same colours and our Birthday is on the same day. With two years of difference but same day. So even the same sign we have!

I started surfing and he, after while, started also but didn’t have time for that.
Once he bought himself a nice surfboard and I was just looking.
Until one moment when I decided take his surfboard that he had hidden.
Than he realized how much I liked surfing and and he gave me the surfboard.

“So the the surfboard and Surf as sport reunited you?

– RELSON: Yes. The Surf reconciled both of us together again.

 

He was asked a few years ago by Tatame magazine what he thought about his brother Rickson’s controversial 400-0 fight record.

It’s not that I think it isn’t true. Rickson had these fights without a doubt. He had fights in gyms, challenges. We know he’s got some 13 fights in Japan Vale Tudo and two with Zulu. The Hugo Duarte one was a fight, but he has 400 street fights. He included the fights of Sambo, included training in the academy, championship, which they call a fight, but they are not fighting, they are training. Fights were 14 or 15 in Japan Vale Tudo, and a couple more in Brazil. He made two with Zulu and a 14 in Japan that were considered fights in the arena. The rest is all practice. It’s what my father said. I’m not saying that Rickson did not have the 400 fights, he had the 400, but in this kind of fight, my father had 5000. My father had a much larger market to prove. My father did more tests than Rickson did!

Helio Gracie also disputed Rickson’s claim to have had over 400 fights. According to Hélio, Rickson has only competed in fights that are commonly known and reported: the two against Rei Zulu and those that took place in Japan. Helio Gracie alleged that Rickson uses practice and amateur bouts to obtain a number over 400, and that if he counted his fights like Rickson does, he would have in excess of one million.

Read the original article in Portuguese