Last week, after announcing retirement from MMA and return to Jiu-Jitsu competition, Roger Gracie changed his mind and announces his return to….MMA!
In an interview with LANCE website the best fighter in the history of Jiu Jitsu announced that he is very close to signing with a MMA event, but did not disclose the name nor which country where this would be.
– I’m in a practically final negotiations and in the coming days I will announce my return. I’ll fight again this year. Soon everyone will know in which event I will fight in. I was retired from MMA and did not know if I would just compete in jiu-jtsu. But now I’ve received this proposal, which was very good, and I reconsidered my retirement.
In the same interview, Gracie harshly criticized the UFC, accusing them of being a monopoly:
– I’m older now, and I’ve accomplished all that I ever wanted. Anything else would be a bonus. In MMA, the UFC monopolizes everything, but there are other events. The problem is that as the UFC is the biggest, and they control how much the fighters are paid and in fact they do not pay that well. I have my BJJ academy and do not need the money from MMA to pay my bills.
It now appears that the MMA promotion that Roger Gracie was referring to is Singapore based MMA powerhouse One FC. One FC’s light heavyweight division currently has no champion.
One FC event in Singapore
Accoording to MMAFighting.com Sources close to the situation confirmed that Gracie is close to signing a deal with One FC:
Sources close to the situation confirmed to MMAFighting.com that the jiu-jitsu specialist is close to signing a deal with One FC.
The Strikeforce and UFC veteran, who competed in the middleweight division in his past three bouts, will return to 205 pounds for his next MMA fights. Gracie competed only once in Asia, when he scored a first-round submission victory over Yuki Kondo.
The ten-time jiu-jitsu world champion started his career in MMA as a heavyweight and later dropped to light heavyweight, where he submitted Kevin Randleman and Trevor Prangley.
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