Full transcript: Roger Gracie on London Real
0:26 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. This is Nick Gabriel, and joining us today is Roger Gracie, who’s a mixed martial arts fighter for Strikeforce and also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion. Welcome. Thank you.
0:38 It’s a pleasure being here. Thank you, man. And happy birthday. Thank you. Two days ago.
0:43 Two days, yeah. How old are you? 25. You might want to Google that. No, I’m actually 31.
0:52 31, all right. You know, for our listeners that don’t know, I was wondering if you could just give us a brief history of the Gracie family and it’s jiu-jitsu. Yeah, the Gracie family is a jiu-jitsu martial art that’s a very ancient and it just took its roots to Brazil through a Japanese guy who met my grandfather, Carlos Gracie. And through friendship with his father, then he started teaching him. And he saw, he, you know, he fell in love with the art.
1:21 He felt that he could do something great with it. And then he started dedicating himself full-time to the art, and he had five brothers, and so the whole family started getting involved. And because, you know, it was a full-time, and they wasn’t so big, and they started kind of developing into, shaping it up into a new thing, which is today is known as a Brazilian or Gracie jiu-jitsu. And, you know, you got so popular. They became so good, and the family was so big that, you know, generations after generations, people keep still hearing about the Gracie family.
1:58 It’s, it’s a no-stopping, in the back of your ear for, you know, over 100 years. But, the technique that they, they kind of mix it up, you know, developing it became so strong that suddenly they are the best fighters in the world. They have the best way to defend themselves. And once they start showing everybody, you know, you got really popular. Roger, I wanted to ask you, what’s your first memory of jiu-jitsu?
2:22 Like your very first memory? Like, were you, I’m guessing you were in the gym with your dad or something like that. I guess my first memory is with my dad, you know, at home pretty much. Even before I can put a gi on, you know, before you can, you just barely start walking, suddenly your daddy starts throwing you in the air, you know, making you do like weird stuff. But I think that that’s kind of started, you know.
2:45 I see the same way with my son. Even before he’s 3 years old, you know, I already kind of shaping it up, telling him, you know, pass my guard, in mount, okay, now go to the armlock. You know, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He’s just throwing it because I’m, you know, I’m kind of telling him and showing him to do in the beginning. You kind of manipulating with your own hands, you know, kind of put him in the positions, then suddenly he’s doing on his own.
3:08 Mhm. I think, you know, that’s kind of a most of, most of people in the family, they get introduced to jiu-jitsu, you know, at home, you know, very young. Mhm. And suddenly, you know, he’s 3, he’s 4, he can put a gi on, go to the school, suddenly there’s, you know, cousins and other kids to kind of learn, you know, start becoming a game. And suddenly becomes part of our lives, you know.
3:28 I got to tell you, when, when his son Treston was an infant, like, what, like 6 or 7 months old, I guess, Roger used to bring him in his little baby seat and stick that seat, like, on the corner of the mat, facing in, so that the kid would get, like, subliminally programmed by the guys training on the mat. It was quite funny. We all enjoyed that. There is some kind of subliminal thing, man. Just him being in the gym and seeing you guys, it’s, it’s proved, you know, when, when, when the father starts doing something with the kid, like, you know, you get a chess player.
3:58 And if you start playing chess with a kid from very young, most likely that kid will be a brilliant chess player. If he wants, you know. Just ’cause their brain is… Yeah, it just starts … Yeah, developing in some way when he’s very young.
4:12 When you grow that, you know, that seed that you plant there. What if Treston comes to you one day and says, “I don’t… Dad, I don’t really like jiu-jitsu. I want to be a painter.” Man, I’ll be still going to be, you know, as happy as I will be if he chooses whatever.
4:25 I’d rather be doing something that he would do on his own choice, you know, being happy there doing something of my choice and being unhappy, you know. I think I’ll be even… you be even more depressed if I feel him doing something, because of that’s what I want. That’s what I want. So, you know, I’d rather him choosing whatever he wants to choose. Of course, If he chooses jiu-jitsu, that’s something kind of we can do it together, you know.
4:48 It’s, it’s, my family’s got a whole support. You know, there’s a whole family involved with it. Yeah. So, I guess, you know, he can have a lot more contact with everybody in the family, but that, you know, he’s still going to have that, doing jiu-jitsu or not, but I think, you know, he might not do it maybe as a professional, but he will always train unless, you know, something bad happens, of course, because, you know, it’s, I’m at the academy every day, so it’s a way for us to be together.
5:13 Kind of, you know, yeah. Hanging out and, you know, most likely he will make friends that train and cousins. So he naturally will end up being in the academy more often. Mhm. Yeah.
5:23 On that same note, I mean, looking at your son, I’m wondering what it was like when you were a boy, you know, with your father Mauricio and teaching you those things. Did you go through a point in your young life where you were like, “I like jiu-jitsu. I don’t like jiu-jitsu”? Not that I really remember, especially because of my mom is Gracie. So, it’s, it’s even though that my father, you know, he’s been a black belt since I was born.
5:48 And he’s been involved with jujitsu for forever. But me growing up, he never taught me. He never had a gym in an academy teaching daily that I used to go every day with my father to the school. It was more like I used to go with him, but to one of my cousin’s school or one of my uncles’. And you know, all of the times I was going on my own, because he had his own job.
6:11 So even though they kind of, you know, at home, their only introduction with my father, because you know, he loved jujitsu and he he’s been doing all his life, but he never had his own school with me growing up. You know, when he moved later on in my life, you know, he moved to Japan. He opened a school, then he moved here. That’s when he started involving himself full-time with jujitsu. Then, you know, I kind of had that kind of daily going to the school with my father, you know what I mean?
6:39 More kind of the environment. But me growing up, I think I had that more with other members of my family. You know, with, I think that my first teacher, he was Hanzo Gracie, my uncle Helio Gracie. And then Hanzo, I, you know, I had, I trained with him for a while, then he moved to New York. Okay.
6:59 Then I started training a lot with my uncle Carlos Gracie. And then, you know, I had other members of my family involved, but it was kind of, you know, through, not through my dad much on the early stage. Interesting. It was, ever, were training jujitsu, jujitsu ever not an option for you? Did you ever want to do something else?
7:18 Not really. Like, I’ve never, you know, before you were a kid, you know, 10 years old, you want to be everything. Each day you change your mind. I even thought, you know, being an astronaut or being a surfer, you know. You don’t have a serious view of life, you know.
7:35 You’re just a kid, you want to kind of hang out and play with your friends. But I think, you know, when you start 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 years old, that’s when you start viewing having a different aspect in life, you know? You start seeing life a different way, not just play every day. Not everything about that, games and hanging out with your friends. And I think that’s the moment that I started changing, and suddenly I started getting more involved with jujitsu.
8:00 And then suddenly, you know, I was training every day, twice a day, and putting in my mind, you know, I love this discipline. I’m going to do it forever. So, you know, I’ve never… Apart from when you were a kid, you know, you want to be everything at the same time, you know. I never decided to do something, then change my mind to do jujitsu.
8:17 I think. No. I think as far as I can remember, it was always there. You once said something to me which I found really impressive. I said to you, “What would you do, What would you have done if you couldn’t do jujitsu, or jujitsu wasn’t a choice for you?”
8:33 And you said, “Man, I think I feel I could have done anything.” And I was really impressed with that, because, it showed a great belief in yourself. And I sometimes like to think that if you hadn’t been a jujitsu champion or a jujitsu fighter, whatever career you would have chosen, I think that who you are would have shown through. Like, you could have been the best accountant in the world, or you could have been the best fireman, or the best astronaut, or whatever.
8:57 I think that’s your gift. Like, you have a very,… Whatever you put your mind to, you seem to achieve. Yeah. Yeah, I think I can agree with you in a way, you know, I think you know, you first got to do something that you believe, that, you know, that’s what you want and that’s what makes you happy.
9:15 I think, you know, that’s one of the secrets in life, pretty much, you know, to live a happy life. You cannot be depressed every day for 30 years working in a job that, you know, it’s a it’s really bad. I think a lot of people do that, but, you know, in the end of the day, you have to pay the bills and the family, you know. It’s sometimes not much of a choice. But, you know, in the end of the day, it’s your life.
9:35 You blink, your life is gone. You know, you pretty much can choose which path you’re going to take, you know. Sometimes the easy one, sometimes the hardest one, but the beginning, I think every anything is hard, you know, but later on in life, you can, you can change things, and, I think your own, my view in a… I pretty much believe that, you know, I think, you know, people would, they ask me all the time, you know, what, what, what are you going to do if you didn’t do jiu-jitsu?
10:02 I mean, of course I cannot choose any other thing now, and I couldn’t choose before, because you know, that’s my life, that’s what I chose, you know. I, it was just, it was what I chose to do in life, and I don’t see myself doing anything else. But, if I wasn’t born in the family, you know, if I wasn’t, doing what I do, you know, I guess I’ll be probably as happy as I am today doing something else, you know, I think, I don’t know. Wow. What’s your cousin Renzo Gracie like?
10:33 Yeah, he’s a… We all saw his recent Twitter craziness. What’s he like? I mean, he’s a character. He’s a really funny guy, you know.
10:42 And, yeah, he loves to tell, stories, you know. He’s, one of the best guys I know that’s in one of the funniest, for sure. And man, I’ve never seen anyone who likes to tell a story so much. Yeah, he’s a character, man. One thing I caught him, you know, many times, everybody sees that.
11:01 You tell him a story of yourself, so this, you know, it’s a funny story or something that happened to you, and then you tell everybody, laughing, then suddenly a couple months later, you, you know, you’re in a circle, you hear him telling the story about having to him. You say, “What the hell are you doing?” He was like, “Oh, you put myself on, it’s funnier when I say it.” That’s crazy. Yeah.
11:25 Hey, Roger, I wanted to ask you a question. I’ve had this on my mind for a long time. Do you enjoy MMA? Yes and no. I think there’s the, there’s a good part, and then the bad part, and, I think the MMA I do it because that’s what I always believed, that I would have to do it, you know?
11:47 It’s kind of a something that I had to, because, you know, I’m a Gracie. Everybody in my family, you know, that’s the natural path for all the fighters. They dedicate to jiu-jitsu. Once they’re ready, then they start, you know, you’re proving that jiu-jitsu through MMA, and going through that path. So, I always knew, you know, it’s even even before I was a black belt, I knew that I would have to do it, you know, I would like I would do it when I’m ready, you know, when I’m a good black belt, I have a good technique.
12:17 Okay, now I can, do well in MMA. So, it wasn’t much of a choice to say, “Okay, now I’m going to do MMA because I need the money, or, you know, I want to fight MMA.” I think it’s it was a natural path for me. I think that’s kind of more of an obligation than Much of a choice that I really enjoy it, you know? I mean, I I sometimes, I go and train MMA with Roger, and like, “Jesus Christ, dude.
12:46 Like I’m just so happy I don’t have to do that as a living.” I always leave with a headache or busted up arms and legs. And you know, in my life sometimes, when like, let’s say in any other aspect, like I’m working with you and you and I, there’s tension between us, or if I’m doing a personal training session or something, and it’s hard, I always think you know, like Roger doesn’t complain when some dude’s kneeing him in the face in training. Do you know what I mean?
13:10 Like, and it, I always use that as a reference experience for me. So, Yeah, what’s the difference between you, say, training for an MMA fight? What’s the difference between you training for an MMA fight and for a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fight? I think it’s it’s, you… It’s pretty much the same.
13:26 It’s just the style of what you do changes, you know. So, instead of training with the gi, then you going to, you know, train with a boxing glove and, you know, simulating an MMA fight. And, but, you know, the physique is just as hard, that they know, the that you, the mentality, you know, it’s pretty much the same. I think in a, you know, it changes. Instead of you concentrating on sweeping and, you know, getting points and passing the guard, you know, you worry about punching in the face, kneeling in the stomach, and, you know, taking down, you know.
14:00 And isn’t MMA harder, cuz you’re getting punched in the head and you’re getting kicked in the legs? Physically, it’s it’s harder because you have the striking. You know, it’s not fun to get punched in the face every day, you know. But, it’s, you know, you just got to be smart how you train, you know. You don’t want to hurt yourself, training-wise, you know.
14:20 It’s, training is the preparation for the fight. So, you know, I don’t get, I don’t keep getting punched in the face, and, you know, I don’t get Hurt when I train, you know, you use a full protection. You don’t try to kill each other. It’s more to over technical side, so it’s not as hard, you know. It can be hard, though.
14:37 You try to kill me all the time, you know. And if you, if your last fight, you went out to LA and, and trained at Black House, right? With The team is big. It’s Lyoto Machida, Nogueira brothers, Anderson Silva trains out there. What was that like?
14:53 It was good, man. It was a, it was a great experience, especially because, you know, here I don’t have a lot of people to train with. Even though they have a few guys, but none of them are professional fighters. You know, see, some of my students, you know, some of, I got, like, a guy that does boxing, and, you know, gets pissed and bits, but, you know, they have their own life. They, they are just because I’m asking them to go and train with me, but once you go, once I’m in LA, everybody there is a professional MMA fighter.
15:17 So, that’s what they do for living, you know. So, the the, the, the training is, is, is much more intense and better in a way. You, you improve more because you train with much better guys. You know, they, they good in what they do. Especially training, you know, with a with Lyoto Machida, he was, you know, it was a great experience.
15:36 He’s a, he’s a great guy. And, you know, like his stand-up is, is really good. And, you know, we kind of got to a, to an exchange a lot, you know what I mean? I was trying to, to teach him a lot on the ground which is a, he’s too good, but, you know, it’s not, is a weaker point if you can, put it on the scale. And at the same time, he was helping me a lot on the stand-up, which is his, specialty.
15:58 And, you know, it was, I, it was great. I’ve learned a lot. And I think he’s, I’m hoping he learns a lot, too, so. You know, I just have quite a difficult question for you. if we look at MMA, the initially, the, the Gracies when MMA first started, when they originated Vale Tudo in Brazil, like you guys dominated.
16:18 But if we look at the last 10, 10 years, the Gracie family hasn’t been on top of the world when it comes to MMA. And I mean, I know you’re doing well now. You’re one of the, the few Gracies who actually looks to, to set to go to the top. But do you think that could be because you guys were so committed to jiu-jitsu that you didn’t focus enough energy on learning the striking aspect of the game, or the actual mixed martial arts aspect of the game? I think it was the opposite.
16:46 I think, on the beginning, we were the only one who knew jiu-jitsu. And, you know, now suddenly everybody’s a jiu-jitsu black belt. So, and, you know, you put the before, it’s, you know, used to be who’s the best fighter. So, all the rules were to, to kind of, you know, directly to see who the best fighter would be. Mhm.
17:06 You know, not the, the most technical fighter or not the most, best strategy guy, cuz, you know, there’s, there’s no limit. Mhm. So, you can put the best of your techniques to try to beat someone, your opponent, which is, today is you know, it’s not to see who’s the best fighter is. You have a whole bunch of rules, you know, you have 5-minute rounds, and, you know, the judge is standing you up all the time if the fight is not much action, you know, he can, take a point out of you.
17:35 So, it’s a lot more entertaining in a way, but, you know, it’s more stories kind of a more of a sport now than it is, you know what I mean? Like, the best fighter in the world because of, you know, all the rules and And in a way, you know, everybody’s an athlete now, especially with those rules, you know, 5-minute rounds. Got to be explosive, right? It has to be very explosive and, you know, very slippery. People now, they jump like a popcorn, you know, to people down when, you know, before you think they’re already on their feet.
18:04 Yeah. So, you know, it’s a much harder sport today than what it used to be, you know. Oh, so. Yeah, it’s tough. You know, in Strikeforce, I think it was this year, earlier this year, you had your first loss to King Mo Lawal, and I was just wondering how that was, and how you dealt with that.
18:20 Yeah, I think it’s a, you know, it’s an unforgiving sport. You know, you fight with a… suddenly you fight in a very high level. You know, you made a mistake, you know, you get knocked out. I think that was what happened to me. You know, it was, you know, it wasn’t my day.
18:36 I wasn’t my strategy was wrong. You know, I wasn’t able to perform as I was training. And you know, you go in with a wrong mentality, you know, you blink, you get knocked out. Yeah. King Mo was a very strong opponent, and you know, it was, you know, of course nobody likes to lose, but you just got to take the best out of it, of, that fight, you know, you can, You know, put your head down and cry for the rest of your life.
19:02 You just got to try to learn with your mistakes. Everyone loses sooner or later, right? I always like to watch the guys in the UFC and in Strikeforce and see how they deal with a loss, cuz you can tell a lot about a guy’s character, and I still kind of want to see how Jon Jones deals with the loss and whether it’ll crush him or whether he’ll come back. That’s what Ice-T said, you told me. It’s not about the come up, it’s about the comeback.
19:22 Comeback, yeah. But I guess I mean, I guess that’s all part of fighting, isn’t it? Yeah. Because, I mean, you know, like your cousin Rickson Gracie, he claims to have a record of 400 and 0, and you know, someone I read somewhere said it’s impossible because there’s too many variables in fighting, like, if over long enough time frame, someone is going to, you have to lose. You know, you’re going to catch an unlucky punch, or you’re going to slip during a takedown and get a knee, or you’re going to lose.
19:49 So I mean, everyone loses, even Roger, like, who’s a 10-time jiu-jitsu world champion. MMA is just too predictable for anyone to have an unblemished record for too long, right? What are your thoughts? No, I think so, you know, definitely. Is MMA something you want to continue to do?
20:04 Is the UFC in your future, or is that not of a big concern for you? You know, I don’t really care much. I think, is a, you know, MMA is going to be my new goal now. That’s what I’m focusing on the most. And you know, yeah, you know, being a fighter, you want to fight against the best guys and in the best event, you know, and especially since UFC bought Strikeforce.
20:32 Which, before, you know, Strikeforce, they were trying to be as big as UFC, so there was a whole team trying to get there. But since UFC bought it, you know, they don’t want an event as big as them. You know, they’re happy to kind of stay the same. So you kind of lose the shine of it in the event. I kind of felt that since they bought it.
20:52 So, you know, I don’t know what will happen in the future. We’ll see. Of course, the UFC has a big history with the Gracies. The Gracies invented it, and then a lot of champions there. You’ve, I mean, for people that don’t know, you’ve pretty much beaten everybody in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, right?
21:09 I was just wondering if MMA keeps you interested in the sport, or would you just be just as interested if you were just training jiu-jitsu? I think it’s a more interesting way, that you, you know, there’s a, you branch out a lot in MMA now, because there’s a lot of new things out there that I have to, you know, learn, and the training and the preparation, which is a jiu-jitsu, you know. I’ve been fighting for so long. You know, I fight regularly since I’m 16 years old.
21:38 Which, you know, I’m now, I’m 30, 31, so, you know, 15 years fighting. You know, I fought all the fighters out there now. I fought them more than a few times. Right. I was looking at your record, and it was like, it’s a bunch of…
21:49 Yeah, so, you know, I’m happy to fight. I love jiu-jitsu. You know, I mean, the challenge I think is a pure art, especially because there’s no striking. You know, it’s a pure technique without the brutality. And, you know, I’m very happy.
22:02 That’s one of my passions. I love fighting in jiu-jitsu, which I’m now fighting soon, October 14th, against Abu Shisha, so I’m really happy about that fight, especially because he’s a new coming fighter. You know, he just won the world championship in his weight division, the open, so, you know, he’s pretty good, and I haven’t fought him before. It’s submission only, right? It’s submission only, no 20 minutes, there’s no points.
22:25 Oh, that’s okay. Yeah, so we kind of, you know, so it’ll be a good challenge for me. I’m happy to do it. Get excited for something like that, kind of a new guy. Yeah, yeah, should be good.
22:33 That’s really, really cool. I’m wondering did you ever get a chance to train with Anderson Silva? No, not yet. Was he down in Brazil at the time? He was doing, here, his camp in Brazil when he fought Chael Sonnen, and that was when I was in LA training.
22:46 Okay. After his fight, after my fight, I stayed there for a few more weeks. I saw him at the academy training doing his side training, but, you know, something very light. He wasn’t training for any fight or anything like that, so he would, there, kind of exercising. You know, he’s a nice guy.
22:59 You know, I saw him a couple times. Is it tricky when you take, when you train with Machida, and you’re watching a guy that’s been training on his feet for his whole life, and he’s probably thinking about you, I can never be as good as Roger Gracie on the ground? And are you ever thinking, I can train for years and I’m never going to be as good as Machida on the feet? I mean, do you look at some of the stuff he does, and you’re like? Yeah, you know, you know, you cannot delude yourself, thinking, you know what I mean, man, I’m going to be better than him.
23:26 Cuz, you know, he’s a whole life dedication. And you know, of course he’s, I don’t think he expects him to be better than me on the ground, and I don’t expect to be better than him on the, on standing up, but I think it’s just you try to learn as much as you can to kind of adapt your game, because when you’re fighting, you do have to be on your feet, and, you know, you do have to be on your back. So, you just trying to be a better fighter, you know, with the more tools you have, the better fighter you become.
23:51 I think that’s kind of, I think it’s the, it’s the mutual Yeah, thought between us, you know, he’s, the more he learns on the floor, the better fighter he’ll be once the fight has to be there. And the same thing for me, you know, every fight starts on the feet, so the more comfortable I am, the better. The more I can be prepared to take the fight down, and, you know, what I mean, take my opponent to what I want them to be. And if the fight be on the feet, you know, I’m still quite happy.
24:16 I’m safe there, you know. Yeah, you spend a lot of time on your feet. It’s good to see. I mean, you spent rounds and rounds in Strikeforce on your feet. Yeah, yeah.
24:24 Man, what is, the fight every jiu-jitsu guy wants to see. You’ve dropped onto middleweight in Strikeforce. Not everyone wants to see you fight Jacare. Do you think that’s ever going to happen? You know, I think, probably not.
24:37 It’s, cuz they want to kind of revive, you know, the old rivalry that me and Jacare had when we were fighting jiu-jitsu, especially cuz we fought so many times, and there was always a great match, you know. What is the rivalry for people who don’t know? Yeah. Yeah. You know, Jacare is a very strong jiu-jitsu fighter, and yeah, he’s kind of the same time, you know, I’ve been competing, he’s been competing jiu-jitsu with me, and you know, we kind of always meet in the final.
25:02 So I think we fought, you know, I don’t know, maybe six, seven times or something like that. Roger broke his arm in one of the finals, and the guy didn’t tap, and he was ahead on points, and he ran away for the rest of the match. I mean, that was just, that was probably the best jiu-jitsu match of all time, right? Yeah, I think that’s right. Come on, dude, fight him in Strikeforce, it’ll be amazing.
25:24 Everyone wants to see that. Yeah. I think there’s more interesting fights I think for both of us out there, than you know me fighting against each other. I think, you know, there, there is a possibility because we’re both in the same weight division, but I think it will happen more if it’s like a title shot, you know, and, you know, if I want to fight for the title and he has, or the other way around, you probably happen. It’s before then, you know.
25:50 I wouldn’t think so, but, you know, it’s hard to say. You know, you dropped down to middleweight, as I said, which is 184, right? And you walk around now at what, 98 kilos? 98 kilos, okay. That’s a lot of weight to lose, and I know you really struggled with the weight cut.
26:05 What was the one… I have two questions. What was the one thing you were missing the most during the weight cut? The one food thing, and then as soon as you had weighed yourself in for the fight, what was the first thing you went and ate? Yeah, the one thing that, that I had to cut, you know, for a while is carbohydrate.
26:26 You know, you’re eating vegetables and fish and chicken, all day long. You know, like egg white in the morning, you know, God. Those disgusting things that nobody wants to eat. And, in, but after the fight is different, because you cannot just, after the weigh-in, you cannot just start eating like crazy, because, no, no, no, because your stomach is very sensitive, because you haven’t ate, you know, a lot of these things. You’ve been on diet, you know, you cut out salt and carbohydrates.
26:54 So, you have to very slowly eat some specific things. Mhm. Yeah, for your body to start adapting, because, you know, you don’t want to have an upset stomach. Mhm. The day before your fight, you know.
27:04 Mhm. So, you have to hold that till after the fight. And then after the fight, the first thing you ate, like a, the victory meal, what was it? There was nothing to eat. I think I had a pizza afterwards.
27:17 Yeah, everything was closed. The only food that I could eat is a pizza back in the hotel. That’s a common… Yeah, I had this vision of him, like, at the banquet, you know, like a buffet table, you know, roast chicken and everything. No, that I had, you know, now in Mexico, that I was, there for 10 days.
27:34 I think I put 3 kilos on in a week. Yeah, now it’s time to go down again. I remember I was on some crazy diet once, and like Roger was like, “Why are you wasting your time like that, man? Just be fat and happy.” So, I always think of you when you’re dieting for the fight.
27:49 I always think of that story. Is that a weight you want to stay at, at 185? Yeah, I think I’m very comfortable on that weight. And I think I’ll… It’s better for me because I’m a I’m, I’m a light-light heavyweight, you know.
28:01 So, be a strong middleweight. Yeah. So, for me, I think it’ll be much better. Okay. I got a question for you.
28:09 What was Nick like the first time you met him? And how did you meet Nick? I think Nick, he, you know, I met him. He just walked in the door in the academy saying that he wants to train. So, he’s a, he’s a cocky South African thinking he’s going to come in and beat everybody.
28:25 But, you know, he came in and thinks he’s like a black belt. Who is this Roger Gracie like? You know, yeah, we, you know, it was good. Eventually he came down to reality. Is this true?
28:41 We taught him the humble side of life. Yeah, it’s kind of true. When is this? What year was that? 2004.
28:48 Okay, and you came from Cape Town to London to train with Roger. Okay. And what was it like? What was the academy like then? What was everything like?
28:58 Man, I mean, it hasn’t changed that much, you know? It was interesting. I remember, like, cuz in South Africa, you could beat most guys, you know, cuz there’s no real jiu-jitsu there, right? I’d been learning from videos and stuff, and I was like, “Yo, I was expecting him to look like a meathead, you know? Dude with a shaved head and like, proper kind of like, remember what Ryan Gracie used to look like?
29:20 A tough guy, you know?” And then like Roger opened the door to his academy and I said, “Hey, I’m looking for Roger Gracie.” And he was like, “Yeah, that’s me.” You know, and he’s got, like, his long, like, poster boy floppy haircut, and he’s all relaxed, and I was like, “Man, this dude doesn’t look that tough.” And then, he, me up, bro.
29:40 And I was like, “Wow, okay. Let me learn from this cat.” Yeah, it was fun. It was a very interesting journey. And how many years did you train before you got your black belt?
29:50 How long was it, Roger? Four? 2008? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
29:56 Yeah. How do you decide to give a black belt to someone? I mean, is that a difficult decision for you to make? Difficult, no, because it’s not out of nowhere, you know? It’s kind of slowly progressed, that you see the person coming up, and after a while you know, more or less, you know, after this much time he will be kind of ready to receive his black belt, you know?
30:18 He kind of has the belts before, and if you train regularly, like each belt has a, like, a time period that you kind of stay in that belt learning. And once you get past that, and some people, they stay longer, some people they kind of, they get it right away, depending if they was able to train during the whole time. And, you know, they suddenly, he didn’t train for 6 months, and then you kind of hold him a little bit more, but, you know, the process is that the techniques that you’re learning, and, you know, you can, you can kind of expect a person to be ready after a period of time.
30:52 So, you know, the black belt, you kind of see, you know, when the person gets his brown belt, for example, you know, okay, in 2 years’ time he might be ready. So, you might take him 2 and 1/2 years, it might take him maybe 3 if he’s not training, you know, much, he’s really busy, but you have that kind of period that, at one point, you know, in that year, he will be ready. It might take a year longer, and, or, you know, he might be ready straight away. So, you can kind of expect him to It’s not out of nowhere, you know, okay, suddenly you’ll be training for 10 years, he’s a belt, you know.
31:25 Mhm. It’s There’s a period that you know, okay, in 4 years’ time, if he doesn’t stop training, he might be ready. Or, you know, instead of 4, 5… But is that story in the after UFC, the early UFC, when Royce Gracie won, and then jiu-jitsu was going crazy in the States, everyone wanted to do jiu-jitsu? There’s like, everyone talks about it.
31:47 All the Brazilians used to fly over to the US and used to change their belts on the plane, on the flight over, you know, they’d go from purple belt to black belt. Which I find interesting, because the whole thing about jiu-jitsu is it’s not like Taekwondo or some of these shitty arts where you sign up for a 12-month course, and at the end you get a black belt, you know. In jiu-jitsu, if you’re a black belt, like any jiu-jitsu guy wearing a black belt, you know that that guy is legit.
32:10 You know what I mean? Yeah. I try to explain that to people about jiu-jitsu, but it’s hard to explain it, because they’ve been saturated with, I hate saying it, but, you know, the kung fu and karate black belts, which, you know, but with the jiu-jitsu, I always try to explain to people that, you know, these guys have earned it, but it’s hard to explain unless you’ve rolled before. Yeah, I think because, jiu-jitsu is kind of, unique, because you have the live training every day.
32:33 So, it’s not it’s not like a lot of the martial arts that you go in, you do the technique, you practice the move and you go home. After a certain practice time, you get your belt. It’s not just because, you know, you know, you have to put in practice. You have to try lively, you know, the technique. So, you kind of, you know, lively train every day.
32:56 You spar, you know, the other with another person resisting as much as you can. So, you get, you know, you have to put in practice what you know, which is, you know, you see other other martial arts, they don’t put in practice. So, it’s hard to know how much you know. So, they get fooled. You know, you’re a black belt, you’re really good, you know, being a black belt must be you are top level of your art, you know, of the martial arts you chose to do.
33:23 But because you’ve never put in practice, you know, you never try a punch followed with a spin sweep and, you know, a flying armlock, which you never tried lively. You only did with your other person letting you do it. So, you not even know if it works or not, you know? You have to try with the other person not letting you. So, if you can’t get it, you know, okay, this works because he’s not letting me, and I’m still doing.
33:50 I always laugh, like, sometimes I’m at the place where Roger trains judo. I teach jiu-jitsu there, and sometimes I walk in and there’s a karate class before, and there’s like a 12-year-old kid with a black belt, and it’s just like, what the… do you know what I mean? It’s sad, actually. Yeah, it’s called rolling night. It’s a term in jiu-jitsu, which is a euphemism, because it’s…
34:12 There’s nothing calm about rolling, but it’s basically a live fight between two guys on the ground until one taps, and they can get pretty heated. But, like, like Roger said, you get to find out if where your skill level is. Yeah, very safe. In jiu-jitsu, you have no striking. So, it’s a, it’s kind of a safe way to spar, and, you, you… the other martial arts, you know, most of them, you know, karate, kung fu, and everything, you have the striking.
34:38 And I think a way to attract more people, more members to practice, you take the live training away. Because if you put the sparring, you know, who will want to spar, get kicked in the face, and punched every day, you know? So, it’s not really fun to do that daily. So, that’s why there’s a lot more technique than actually sparring involved. Like boxing, you know.
35:01 You know, only like athletes, young people, you know what I mean, physically strong, will be going to do boxing. Because, you know, boxing, you do have the live sparring. You can do the technique, but there’s no belt system, so you just do it for fitness. But if you want to learn how to fight, you know, then you have to do a bit of sparring. It doesn’t have to be too much, as a professional, but there is some that you have to do.
35:23 And that means you punching someone that’s punching you back. And, you know, maybe for a guy, a lawyer, that, you know, works in the office, he doesn’t want to spar, you know, go with a black eye to a meeting every day, so he won’t do that. He would do something else. And, you know, maybe he’ll do, I don’t know, karate. The…
35:41 There’s some, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to, Tell a, you know, the story of… Yeah, the disrespect disrespect karate in any way, but there is some styles that there is no live training. So, it’s hard for you to prove or to say, you know what I mean, this is, you know, it’s really good, you’re going to be very useful in, you know, it’s going to work really well. Which it does not. There’s no live sparring.
36:11 You know,… Oh, for those of you who don’t know, I mean, if you’re a jujitsu guy, you’ll know, but like Roger is He is the best of the best in what he does, literally the best of the best. Everyone always says, like, everyone else is here, and Roger is a cut above, and he’s proven it in competition over and over. You know, Roger, I remember you saying once, I think it was in another interview, you said champions aren’t born, they’re all made, right? But, you know, I don’t know that that’s true, because I know there are a lot of guys who probably train even harder than you, right?
36:41 You know, like, and you still kick their ass. And, what do you think it is about you that makes you that extra bit better than the average top-level jiu-jitsu guy? What is the difference? I asked one of your friends, a guy called Felipe Jerry, I asked him a long time ago, I asked him the same question, and he said, “When you were training, when you were younger, because people knew you were a Gracie, they’d always, if they saw you doing a technique wrong, they’d come and correct you, and they’d give you extra special attention.”
37:12 And I thought that was kind of an answer, right? I mean, what, in your opinion, is the thing that made you stand out from everyone else? I think it’s, it’s pretty much myself, you know, my own state of mind, my own willpower to try to be what I want to achieve, you know? And, I always believe that I could be the best jiu-jitsu fighter in the world, even since I was a young age. But I truly believe that I knew that was just a matter of me training hard, that I would, get there.
37:45 And, you know, with the passage of years, just keep training, keep training, and A way to do that is, through your training partners, you know. You don’t get beat by them. If you beat all your training partners, which, you know, or you do, I always train with the best guys, and, you know, suddenly you start beating everybody else, and, it’s just a way to not accept defeat, and really believing that you can be really good, you know, like, you know, at the early stage, you know, when I was fighting like Jacare, you know, I liked the fight when I broke his arm, and I fought him again, That, you know, was very close, and, you know, there was a controversial over takedown, you know, that.
38:26 And, you know, like in my mind, it was like, “Oh man, he’s really good.” I, you know, I knew he was a, he was very good. He’s very close. But, man, I just got to train more to not be close. You know, if I train more, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll tap him out.
38:40 I’ll be much better than him. So, I think that’s kind of always stayed in my mind, you know. It doesn’t matter how good the guy is. But, I have to be better, to not let any doubts, you know, I don’t want to go for the judge for decision. So, I always just train more, and, you know, the better you train with that mentality, believing that you want to be better, not just train, you know.
39:01 It’s not the one who trains the hardest will be the best fighter in the world, you know. It’s the one who trains the smartest and with the right mentality, you’ll be the best. For you, it’s a lot about mind, because I remember we were in South Africa one time, we were driving somewhere, and, I was talking to you. I was like, “Ah, I’ve got to train to make my body strong, cuz I want to be the best in my division.” And you just said to me, you were shocked.
39:25 You were like, “Being the best fighter has got nothing to do with having the best body.” And I was like, “What do you mean?” You said, “Well, it’s about having the best mind.” And I realized then that your whole thing is about the quality of your thoughts, you know. It’s like, you, that all comes first.
39:42 It’s your state of mind. It’s, keeping that vision of where you want to go clear in your mind, and then everything else follows. Would you agree with that? 100%, you know, it’s nothing can beat the mind, you know. It doesn’t matter how strong the guy is.
39:56 If he has any doubt that somehow he might lose, you know, he will lose, because he’s thinking that. So, he’s making that reality. So, you know, you can get a guy with a very weak body, you know, and, but he really think he can win, you know, he will find a way. You know, he’s, suddenly he’s you know, he did the life, I find his way, you, but you have to really believe. Mhm.
40:19 And you know, you you get there for sure. I think that’s why in everything, everything in life, from martial arts to business, why there’s so many people doing something and very few achieving the best, because they are the ones who really believe. Everything, not just in, in, you know, in what I do in jiu-jitsu. I’m the one example in what I do, but it’s the state of mind who’s going to take you there. But not everybody has it, you know, because they just don’t believe.
40:51 Mhm. Everybody wants it, but they don’t really believe they can do it, you know, and, because they don’t ever do it. What’s that Bible verse? All things are possible for those who believe. Of course.
41:03 Mind, you know, is much stronger than people believe, you know, but they have to, because that’s the only way they’re going to get there. Mhm. A lot of jiu-jitsu fighters are very philosophical. And like when I watch Roger fight on all his matches, he’s always calm. I never seen you get angry.
41:19 And, yeah, you’re the most zen person I know. Seriously, I’ve, I’ve, I actually know once I saw you lose your cool, but, yeah, in almost 10 years that I’ve known you, only once, dude. What’s that about? Meditation, or, no, it’s not really meditation. I think it’s, Probably, I, I meditate while I’m fighting, you know.
41:40 So, you just got to keep your body really focused, you know. Mhm. If, you let your emotions control you, that means you’re not controlling yourself, you know, and you start losing your own control, that means you cannot control the fight. And, you know, the more you control yourself, the better view you have of what’s happening, the more feeling you can have for it, and, you know, that’s what fight is. Mhm.
42:07 You know, you’re a Brazilian guy. What are you doing in London? Yeah, my father first moved here, and you know, after that it was just natural for me to come and open the school too, especially after he decides to move back to Brazil. And, kind of, the beginning, it was it wasn’t really, not thought, you know, I was going to move to London forever. It was kind of going to go open my school, see what happened.
42:27 I was going to keep maybe half there, half in Brazil. But, you know, the school here was getting bigger and bigger, and suddenly I’m, you know, I mean, I’m staying here more and more. Now, here I am for 10 years now. Do you ever look at the weather and say, what am I doing here? In the winter, I think that all the time.
42:45 Do you… How much do you think your career would have been different if you’d stayed in Brazil? Do you think it… Yeah. It’s hard to say, you know.
42:53 It’s very hard. Brazil, there’s a lot of distraction. And I think one of the reasons that, you know, maybe I’m, I became so good, because yeah, here I was kind of alone in a way, so I have to do everything on my own, training or training with my students. You know, I never had, like, really good training partners daily to train. I had Braulio, who’s two hours away, but, you know, we only get together once or twice a week, and sometimes we don’t get together for months, you know, to have to train.
43:24 So, you kind of have to learn to do your own training. And I think that was the biggest challenge for me, and but because I didn’t have that, I really have to try harder, and mentally, you know, I mean, I really have to believe was that possible. Had to do it, and, you know, it became possible. But I mean, you were saying you’re only as good as your partners, or that’s a common phrase, and you’re here in London with probably no black belts anywhere. In Brazil, you could probably spit and hit a bunch of black belts.
43:52 So I was always curious, how can you get better and improve without having that hard competition every day on the mat? You just got to, you know, do your own training. I think once you hit a stage I couldn’t ever do that if I came here as a blue belt. But because I already came here as a black belt, so I have a very strong foundation of my game. So, because of that, I could try to figure out my own training ways to improve myself.
44:21 But only because I already achieved a level. And if I would move here, you know, as a purple belt, with my foundation not so strong, I wouldn’t be as good. You can, yeah, once you have the technical base, you can still get better against a lower-level student, because you’ll say to yourself, okay, I have to finish him with a kimura, right? And then that will restrict your options. You can still improve your physical, your technique like that, right?
44:50 Is that what you mean? Yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah. What if someone’s listening right now and they want to get into jiu-jitsu, into jiu-jitsu?
44:56 What’s the biggest piece of advice you could give them? I just, you know, call, call the academy and sign in. Don’t forget to go to the rogergracie.com. No, no, you know, but that’s all you have to do. You know, there’s no secret.
45:14 Then, it’s not that jiu-jitsu, you know, it’s for athletes. It’s people who want to be the best fighter in the world. Jiu-jitsu is for everyone, you know, I mean, for exactly everyone. You know, my school, I have a 4-year-old, and my older students, they were 86. 86?
45:30 86 years old, you know, and everybody between that, you can become a student. I think there’s a lot of ways that you can Improve your life doing jiu-jitsu. It’s not just to become a fighter, not just for young people. I think it’s quite the opposite, you know. I think it, there’s a lot, it helps a lot of people that there’s nothing to do with fighting.
45:53 I think, especially in London, you know, I mean, one of the things that I see a lot is it’s such a busy city, you know. I mean, it’s, you work, you’re busy all the time, and you never rest your mind. And, you know, there’s not everybody who gets to meditate, you know, to kind of take all the stress away, the daily stress. And when you’re actually training, I think it’s when you’re on the mat, it’s one place that you switch off completely. You know what I mean?
46:18 It happens to me, and I see it happens to most of my students, if not all of them. You know, while you’re on the mat, you’re not thinking about home, you’re not thinking about work, you’re not thinking about stress. It’s the opposite, you know, because you’re exercising, you’re sweating, you’re taking all the stress, all the bad things you have in your body. You’re just Taking it all out. So, when you finish, when you go home, you know what I mean?
46:40 You’re a different person. You were able to switch off your mind, you know what I mean? You’re less stressed, and, you know, you’re ready for the next day. I think that’s one of the most important things, especially in London, that is such a busy city, you know. And, you know what I mean?
46:56 Of course, you have a whole bunch of other stuff that you can, gain by doing jiu-jitsu, you know? We’re not talking about, being able to, you know, defend yourself, feeling a bigger confidence in yourself, cuz, you know, you’re already facing other guys, you know, and training and sparring, that gives a big confidence, you know, when you train every day with other guys, and they’re trying to, you know, catch you, and you, you know, you’re defending, you’re doing your… you’re on your own, you’re trying to kind of spar, training with someone, you know? Sometimes you achieve, you can submit him, and that’s a big goal, you know?
47:32 Suddenly, you’re dominating someone, and, you know, that’s a great feeling. But, in a healthy way, because there’s no striking, it’s, it’s, no one gets hurt, you know? It’s, it’s a short limit. You’re not fighting for your life every day, you know what I mean? For half an hour, it’s the opposite, you know?
47:48 It’s just a very few minutes, you’re practicing, then stop, and you rest, and then you go at it again. And, you know what I mean? I, that’s how it improves your life, you know, in many ways, you know. I think everyone should roll, but it’s just, you know, I tried to get my dad to do it. He’s turning 70, but, you know, you said you had an 86-year-old that became a blue belt or something, right?
48:07 What happened to that guy? He stopped training. He had a heart problem. He had to put in a pacemaker. Brian, you should have seen this cat.
48:16 He was serious. 86 years old, right? And he would do, like, at the beginning of the class he’d do a forward roll. You know, a little forward roll. But he’d do it, but he couldn’t do it properly, so he’d literally jump in the air, flip, and land on his back.
48:28 And the whole academy would shake, and every time he did it we’d all cringe, because we thought he was going to break. Literally thought he was going to shatter into a million pieces. It was crazy. And he still persevered and got his blue belt. Wow.
48:40 There’s a good character. There’s a black and white picture. I think it’s at the academy, or maybe I saw it online, and I, it’s got your father in it. And I think it’s of a group called the Famous Five, which I think is the black belts that were given out by Rolls Gracie, but before he died. And it’s, maybe it’s another picture, but it was like, it was like Hickson and Hoyce and Hoyler, and I just see all of these like complete black jiu-jitsu black belt studs.
49:04 And I was just wondering what you see when you see pictures like that, of like this whole family history of the Gracies. It’s, it’s something else, you know, especially, like, you know, the moment that they took that picture, they were always, they were all trained together. You know, so you can think of the quality of the sparring and the competition that you had in the matter of that day. You know, it’s, it’s definitely something. Do you think, if you took a top black belt from today, like Cobrinha or one of the Mendes brothers, and you put him against one of those guys, because jiu-jitsu evolved, evolved so much, do you think that they’d overpower them already easily, or not really?
49:43 Not really, you know, I, I, I don’t think so. I think there’s a lot of evolution in jiu-jitsu, you know, the game changes a lot, but, but it’s not that, you know, the fighter today is a much better fighter than the guy that was yesterday. I think this, you know, it’s a there’s more professionalism today, you know, people are better athletes. You know, the game is harder, you know, you have to do more fights. The fights are harder because physically everybody is stronger and better prepared.
50:10 I think in that way, you know, I mean, it’s a big difference. Which, you know, you have barely a few tournaments in the year in the past, and, you know, a few fights in those tournaments, and not everybody was a professional jiu-jitsu fighter, and I think back then, by my father’s time, very few guys were just jiu-jitsu fighters, you know, everybody had their own normal job, but they used to get to train every day, and those are the people who used to compete, and, you know, kind of did the active competitions. But, you know, today it’s, nobody else does anything.
50:44 They’re professional jiu-jitsu fighters. This is what they do full time. So, you know, physically it’s much harder today than what it used to be, you know. So, it always trips me out that, like, the travel plans of some Japanese guy changed the whole history of the Gracie family. It’s crazy.
50:59 I guess we wouldn’t be sitting here having this chat if that Japanese guy hadn’t gone to Brazil, right? Yeah, it’s crazy that way, right? I was wondering what, what it’s like to train with Georges St-Pierre, and what he’s like. Yeah, he’s a great guy, you know, he has a great personality. It’s a…
51:14 Yeah, it’s a, you know, it’s, he’s hard to see a guy you know, to be so famous as he is, and, you know, to be such a cool guy. And, you know, yeah, and he’s a very good jiu-jitsu black belt, you know. He puts the gi on, he rolls with his students, whatever he goes. And he’s, you know, he’s not that cocky guy that, you know, really aggressive, cannot get beat, you know, doesn’t have that, arrogance. Yeah, the arrogance inside him, you know, he’s got to beat everybody.
51:44 No, he’s, you know, he’s got to roll. If you get to beating me, he doesn’t care. And, you know, fighting is different than training, you know, that’s for sure. When he fights, he’s a completely different guy. You know, I was, I was listening to your interview recently with Mac Danzig, who was on The Ultimate Fighter, and he was saying that how, when he first started training at Couture’s in Vegas, they would put the gloves on and spar as hard as they could four times a week until they would just beat each other up too much.
52:11 And he’s like, “Now, we don’t do that anymore.” He’s like, “We were just it was just not necessary, but it was all trying to see who could be the best at that point.” And I just wonder, you talked about it earlier, do you take it easy and make sure you don’t overtrain when it comes to striking? I think, you know, you cannot overtrain with anything because you have to be healthy all year long. And if you’re just beating your body up too much, how long will you be able to sustain that?
52:39 And, you know, if you want to have a long career, you know, you need to have a healthy body. So, that’s the very important thing of how you train. It can be physically very hard, but you cannot hurt yourself All the time, you know what I mean? Because if you have an injury, if you just keep training over and over through the injury, you get in a point that you’re going to have to stop. And, you know, I think that’s a very common mistake with a lot of fighters out there.
53:06 They just train really hard. Doesn’t matter how, you know, that’s a good example of those- those guys. They were just trying to beat each other up all the time. They’re just training really hard, and then that’s you know, how long would they last with that kind of training? So, it’s not how hard you train, it’s how smart you train, you know?
53:22 Wow. Yeah. Do you watch mixed martial arts? Yeah. Do you…
53:27 Who’s your favorite fighter? Or who do you like? I think there’s a lot of good fighters out there. There’s, you know, it gives me a lot of pleasure to watch, you know. I think, you know, you can see Georges St-Pierre, for sure, is definitely one of them.
53:39 You know, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, you know, this Jose Aldo, you know, I mean, there’s a lot of Nogueira brothers. I think both of them, especially Minotauro. He’s a great guy. He’s a great guy, you know, he’s had a very good style. He’s such a charismatic guy, you know what I mean, that everybody loves him.
53:58 And there’s quite a few others, you know, even, you know, Jon Jones. I think he’s a great fighter. People, they don’t like him much, you know. You could see, especially in his last fight, the whole stadium cheering for Victor. But, you know, he’s a tough guy.
54:10 He deserves to be there, you know. Yeah, it’s so much of a personality game, too. Can you pick up the phone and call if you wanted to go train at Greg Jackson’s, could you? Is that something you think about sometimes, or do you really choose your camps carefully? No, I could go there for sure, you know.
54:25 I have a I know Greg Jackson, you know, and I know people who train there, you know, but you know, I like, you know, right now, like, if I want to really go train, you know, I mean, I’ve been going to the Black House. I go to my cousin’s, when they’re in New York. I can go to Montreal to train with Weidman. You know, there’s a few other places I could go. So, what would I go somewhere else for, you know?
54:50 Yeah, those are good options. And what’s next for you? Next is the jiu-jitsu fight on October 14th, and we’ll see. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be fighting again in MMA, but it should happen soon. I spoke to my manager a couple days ago, and they’re looking, to see when I’ll be fighting next, so I believe very soon now I’ll know.
55:11 That’s cool. How often do you want to fight in MMA? I think about three times a year is good, you know, to keep you active, and, especially now that I’m, I’m 31, you know. I’m not going to have another 10-year career I had in me, so So, you, I mean, what kind of age do you want to retire at, Roger? It’s hard to say, but I think, you know, maybe 37, around that age, depending on how my body will be, but I don’t see myself fighting, you know, for, you know, 40 years old.
55:39 I think, doesn’t matter how my body will be. I think it’s a, you know, you’ll be enough. Let’s concentrate on something else. You just need to talk to Dan Henderson and get a growth hormone prescription from your doctor, right? Yeah, you know, like Randy Couture.
55:53 He fought, he was like 45 years old. But it’s hard to say, you know, but I think some guys, that’s all they do in life. Their life is all about, you know, training and fights. So, when they get to retiring, they don’t find fun in anything else they do, you know. Nothing else is as good as, you know, training and fighting.
56:15 I’m not saying that’s what happened with these guys, but I see a lot of fighters, they don’t know what to do when they retire, you know. And they also don’t know when to stop, because they just keep getting called back for that one last fight. I mean, I guess you’re smart enough of a guy to know, like, “Okay, my body says enough’s enough, right?” There’s a lot of reason that someone else is going to be fighting over, you know, I mean, their limit. Some people, that’s the only income they have, so, you know, they have to stretch out a little bit more.
56:45 But, you know, I think in my case, of course, you know, it’s MMA is a professional event, you know. You do get paid to fight, but that’s not my only income, you know. I mean, I have my academy. I’m very happy with that, and you know, I think MMA is kind of an extra. Cool.
57:04 When you’re not fighting or not being a father, what’s something you do to relax? I mean, like, what would we be surprised to hear that Roger Gracie does on the weekend? I think the weekends I always leave to stay with my family, you know, stay with my wife and my kid, especially because during the week I’m so busy training with the academy and all that. So, especially weekends, if I’m not doing a seminar or not traveling anywhere, I’m kind of staying with them.
57:32 Excellent. All right, so to get a hold of you, it’s rogergracie.com and your Twitter at Roger Gracie as well, right? And your fight is in London, that’s coming up on the 4th? No, in San Diego, California. Yeah.
57:42 Okay. It’s where I’m from. It’s nice down there. A lot of, a lot of Brazilians move up to San Diego. Yeah, that’s like the center of jiu-jitsu now, dude.
57:48 Yeah, is it San Diego? It’s some good… They say it’s the closest city to Rio. Yeah, California, man. There’s a jiu-jitsu school in every corner.
57:56 I’ve never seen anything like it. Yeah, no, seriously, there maybe are more schools there than in Brazil. Is that an advantage for you being in London sometimes, do you think? Because you’re kind of like the place to be as far as a destination. Yeah, I mean, I really like London, you know.
58:12 I think I kind of have a feeling that London is kind of the center of the world in a way, especially, you’re halfway through everywhere. Yeah. And, you know, you can go anywhere. It’s kind of the same distance, you know, especially like America, Brazil, you know, Asia. Japan.
58:27 Africa, Japan, you know, it’s easy to go, in any of those places. You know, if you’re in California, that’s the end of the world. If you want to go anywhere else, you’ve got to travel there, you know, the whole globe. I do. Try Australia.
58:40 Imagine New Zealand, man. New Zealand, poor. That’s not even going to mention that, you know, like. No, but you see, like, you don’t see them traveling everywhere as easily, you know. It’s like a massive thing to go anywhere because it’s so far away.
58:53 You spend 30 hours going anywhere, you know. That. Don’t get to travel much because of the distance. But, you know, London is, I think, it’s the one city in the world that you get people from every single place, and, you know, you walk around the street, you don’t see anyone from London. You know, you don’t get to meet anyone from London.
59:12 Yeah, there’s not that many people from London. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, walk, walk around, you know, go in the tube, you know, look around. There, there’s not many people from London around you.
59:20 The percentage is very small compared to other places, you know. A lot of people talk about New York. You know, New York is a fun place, and everybody goes there. I mean, you walk around the street in New York, there’s only Americans. Yeah, no, it’s true.
59:33 I mean, you see it is. There’s maybe 10% from, from outside, from abroad. London is, London is the opposite. It’s, 90% is from abroad. That’s true.
59:43 Yeah, I like that way. Always different languages. It’s good. Well, that wraps up our hour. Thank you so much for coming.
59:48 We appreciate you watching. Pleasure. It’s a great pleasure being here. Cool, man. Well, all the best.
59:52 Thanks a lot, Roger. Yeah, good luck for your fight, man. Thanks, man. I’ll see you guys. All right, man.
59:56 Until then. It’s about the journey. All right, take care, guys.
