In a recent interview, legendary martial artist Rickson Gracie opened up about his relationship with his son Kron Gracie, who is set to return to the UFC against Bryce Mitchell.
Rickson revealed that he and Kron are currently giving each other space, explaining that his son wants to establish his own identity separate from his father’s legacy.
“I am very hopeful that he does a good fight, I am wanting him to win,” Rickson said in Portuguese interview with Combate. “But now I am giving him space and we had a certain understanding and now he has the space to decide his life in the best way. I pray for him, but now I am going to stay at home watching.”
The martial arts legend acknowledged that Kron appears to want to forge his own path away from comparisons to his father. “Maybe, I think the moment of Kron now, he really wants to feel like Kron Gracie, because he does not want to feel the son of Hélio Gracie, he wants to feel like Kron Gracie, having his victories, his merits, his training, his strategies,” Rickson explained.
He added: “I think he is a little tired of being compared to me, ‘ah, you breathe like your father,’ so he is at the age to free himself, he is trying to get out of this segment, he wants to become an individual, present and powerful in what he created.”
While respecting his son’s desire for independence, Rickson remains optimistic about their future relationship: “I respect this, I see that this is a phase, maybe in the future we can interact and talk about the past and we both want to be together, but now he is serious in his mission and I am serious respecting this and I hope he is happy in his decisions and has good success in life.”
In his new book, Rickson Gracie barely mentions Kron. Among the small notes attached to his only living son is the judgement of the Diaz brothers. Gracie writes:
“I respected Kron enough to let him follow his own path in MMA. When
he decided to train with the Diaz brothers, I became more of an observer than
a coach. While I don’t think that there are any tougher fighters in MMA, I do
not share the Diaz brothers’ fighting sensibility because it is built around
toughness and a willingness to endure punishment in order to hand out
punishment. I always wanted to win quickly, decisively, and avoid getting
injured whenever possible.”
These comments come after Kron Gracie delivered a baffling performance against Charles Jourdain back in May of 2023. Gracie was cornered by Demian Maia on a week’s notice at the time.
Following the universally criticized performance, Gracie reiterated he would be returning to his classic style over BJJ instructional heavy attempts:
“I threw no punches because of bad advice and tried to please the jiu-jitsu community two days before my fight. First fight in my life I didn’t throw a punch. Going back to my old ways.”
