It was officially announced at a press conference inside Kazushi Sakuraba’s Laughter7 gym this past Monday that the famed “Gracie Hunter” is to resume his MMA feud against the legendary Gracie family against none other than Rorion’s son Ralek at Dream 14 on May 29, 2010.
It has been 11 years since Sakuraba defeated Royler Gracie via kimura at Pride 8. Since then, he’s bested Ryan, Royce (twice), and even broke the arm of the fearless Renzo Gracie. Will Ralek (2-0), from the next generation of the famed fighting family, finally avenge the Gracie family honor against Mr. Sakuraba (26-11-1)? We shall see May 29th on HDNet.
In the meantime, catch the following video of Kazushi Sakuraba donning a BJJ black belt and training in the gi!
Last year we posted an article about improving balance using stabillity balls as demostrated by Andre Galvao. Today, Fightworks Podcast on Twitter pointed out another cool demonstration for stability ball training byAbmar Barbosa. For those of you that are not familiar with Abmar, he is a BJJ black belt student of Robert Drysdale. Ambar is fresh off a resounding performance in the 2010 Pan-Ams, beating Kron Gracie 11-0 and also submitting Lucas Leite en route to the finals!
Guys, if you do anything this week, I would suggest heading over to Fightworks Podcast to check out the war of words between Renzo and Relson Gracie through their recent interviews with Caleb and Dan.
The war of words started out during Relson’s interview, where he vehemently speaks out about his feelings on what real BJJ is and goes on to speak about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, discounting the various open guard (x-guard, spider guard, etc.) techniques along the way. he also had this to say about world champion Roger Gracie, who Relson claims is the only one on the Gracie Barra team using true “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu” in competition:
Roger is the only one that keeps the Gracie style. He closes the guard, attacks the neck, sweeps, gets a good mount, and he submits everybody from the mounted position. You donât see many Gracie Barra guys doing that. Only Roger.
More recently, the guys over at Fightworks Podcast had a chance to interview Renzo Gracie as well. The interview starts with Caleb asking Renzo about Relson’s comments and Renzo saying the following:
Now its funny, now that you mention, I had a very strange experience this past week. One of my students, he actually went to California, and he ask me where he should train. I say, âthe Gracie Academy,â because that was the closest place to where he was going. I sent him to Rorionâs Academy, the one in Torrance. He goes in, and they told him that he shouldnât train there, because that place was the âreal jiu jitsu place.â It was like they were saying he doesnât know jiu jitsu, and is learning from a source that doesnât know how to teach.
(Continued…. and a little later, after a lot of words from Renzo….)
A lot of times, people only respect the hammer, so let me be honest: I am tired of being the nice guy. I have the fucking hammer in my hand! These people keep talking nonsense and insulting others. So they better be ready to step in there and stand up for their beliefs, because Iâm ready to get in there and stand up for everything I believe. I also have a beautiful pair of brass balls to do it.
You can only presume where it goes from there but I guarantee you Renzo does not mince his words. Seriously, go read the interview now and it will shed all kinds of light as to how Renzo feel about “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.”
When you’re done with the interviews, come back here and let us know how you feel about this controversial debate.
Interesting article out of GRACIEMag.com today, as they report that ex-UFC champ and catch wrestler Josh Barnett aka “The Baby-Faces Assassin” invaded his 2nd Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament in as many months. Coming off a division Gold at the No-Gi Worlds, Barnett showed up at the California BJJ Classic this past weekend thinking it was also a No-Gi event.
Simultaneously, Romulo Barral and Otavio Sousa heard there was money in the event so they decided to have a go at it as well. And apparently, upon getting to the Riverside tourney location, they ran right smack into Barnett – who proceeded to ask for a gi.
Well, after Romulo got past Joao Asssi of Check Mat and Barnett submitted the aforementioned Sousa on the other side of the bracket – what resulted was an epic final of Romulo Barral versus Josh Barnett in a battle of one of BJJ’s best at 195ibs. versus one of the most feared heavyweight grapplers in MMA.
Catch the article and the video of the action-packed tournament finale at GRACIEMag.com here.
