Kron Gracie recently opened up about his relationship with his father, Rickson Gracie, and how it was impacted following his loss to Cub Swanson.

Once considered one of MMA’s top prospects, Kron transitioned to the sport after already establishing himself as an elite grappler, including an ADCC world title.
He started his MMA career strong, winning his first four fights by submission before entering the UFC.

However, things began to shift after his loss to Swanson, where his father’s advice played a major role in how he approached the fight:

He was trying to tell me to not box. I started boxing with Nate [Diaz] and stuff and he’s like: “Don’t box. Don’t box.”

Kron explained that Rickson pushed for a more traditional, jiu-jitsu-heavy style, even during a modern MMA fight:

He’s like: “You got to do the front kick like it’s 1995 and clinch…”
I go to do the front kick. He steps back, kicks my leg. It’s not working.

At a certain point I was like: “Dude, he’s tripping and I got to box or else I’m going to get really messed up.”

The disconnect between father and son ultimately led to tension after the fight:

I was boxing him the whole fight and I didn’t try to take him down. My dad didn’t talk to me for a couple years for that.
He’s stuck in an age where he can’t get over the fact that it’s MMA.

So yeah, he’s stuck with that. You have your father-son relationship, and then it gets complicated because you both love this thing so much.
But it also creates tension. A lot of tension.

It’s an ultimatum with him. If you do boxing, we don’t have to talk.
It’s like you’re challenging the ways of the force that he built.

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