Heating Up For Pride 21:it’s Party Time For Renzo
Heating up for PRIDE 21: It’s party time for Renzo Respected by everyone in the fight game, Renzo Gracie is truly one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life, both as a person and as a fighter. Known for not picking opponents, Renzo truly loves what he does and his passion for fighting translates into his behavior, his fighting-style and even his students. After testing himself against some of the best fighters in the world, and suffering some bumps in the road — like against Sakuraba and Dan Henderson — Gracie has not looked back, he continues to improve and train harder and harder to compete again, just for the sake of competing and fighting! How many fighters in Renzo’s position would be testing themselves so often against some of the best, even though he is out-weighed by most, if not all, of his opponents? Probably not many, but he simply doesn’t care about reputations or living off of past accomplishments. Renzo Gracie just wants to be himself and do what he loves the most, and finally after several months waiting he will be back in the ring in Japan! On June 23rd, it will be party time for Renzo, as he will face Japanese fighter, KOTC and PRIDE veteran Shungo Oyama. In a conversation just two days before he left for Japan, Renzo stopped his class in New York to speak with us about his next fight, his training and his views on the fight game as FCF is feeling the heat for PRIDE 21! FCF: You were always one of the most active fighters, not only from the Gracie family, but from Jiu-Jitsu in NHB as well. You’re finally returning to fight in PRIDE for the first time since PRIDE 17. How was it for you to wait all this time to fight again? FCF: In the past you had some problems gaining weight because of your tough schedule! You train, teach classes, take care of your family and your students. How do you manage to reconcile the life of a professional fighter with all those other responsibilities? FCF: You are known for not picking opponents and always wanting to face top-level competition, like Maurice Smith, Dan Henderson, Sakuraba and Kikuta, among others. Do you get somehow frustrated when the event opts to put you against a supposedly less competitive athlete? FCF: Do you think that because of the name you established in NHB, and because you’re a Gracie, you now will have to face almost only Japanese fighters in PRIDE? Click here to continue the interview |
From Josh Hedges/Zuffa: A Message to the Fans from UFC President Dana White Hey everyone, I want to thank all of you for your patience and support while we put this FOX show together. I know there are a million questions why we did this and why we did that. For me to explain the law BS and the politics of television would take forever. What is important right now is we are here!!! The sport will be on free TV for the first time!! In the last year we have got back on PPV, legal in Nevada and many other key states, played Mandalay Bay and MGM, on TV in many other countries, getting mainstream newspapers and news play and now free TV. Our sport is coming out. Over the last year my team and I have killed ourselves (literally) and worked very hard to get the UFC where it is now, and you the fans have been huge in helping!!!! Selling out Mandalay Bay two weeks after Sept 11th, coming back a month later and selling 8500 seats at MGM, selling out 10,000 seats at Mohegan, etc, etc. But right now is a critical time for the sport. We need to show these TV people just how many fans there are. I need all of you that read this forum every day to go to FOX’s website reader board and post about how happy you are that we are on free TV!! Even if you can’t get the BDSSP at your home, still let them know you’re pumped that the sport is getting its dues. Then, everyone needs to tune in the day of the show and tell all your buddies to watch. This is it guys, what we have all been waiting for!!! Thanks for your support. See you Saturday. Dana White Links to Fox websites: |