By Felix Rodriguez, Staff Writer
The sons and daughters of Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Rickson Gracie and Leo Messi are forced to live in the spotlight through comparisons and what can often be unfair expectations to replicate and surpass their parent’s successes in their chosen fields. Thiago Messi has not even developed enough muscle power to hold his own head up, but he’s already signed to his father’s childhood soccer team despite of this minor inconvenience. Even mentioning little Thiago in this article highlights the issue of great expectations unfairly placed on children who choose to follow in their famous parent’s footsteps. Maybe it would be prudent to wait for the child to grow up before speculation about his soccer career begins, but as mentioned before, this is one of the negatives that comes attached with having such a famous father.
Rolles Gracie is no stranger to this very pressure having grown up as part of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s most famous family. Aside from the normal expectations that come with baring the Gracie surname, Rolles also happens to be the eldest son of one of the most beloved and talented figures to come out of his family’s stable of fighters, Rolls Gracie. Rolls Gracie was the family champion and family representative for Gracie Challenge fights until his untimely death. Rolls Sr. was the first of his clan to cross train in disciplines like sambo and wrestling and is accredited with developing the open guard style jiu-jitsu practitioners still employ today. For those who don’t know and to put things in perspective, most high level jiu-jitsu competitors list Rickson Gracie as one of their role models; Rickson, Rilion and their peers all list Rolls as theirs. Being the son of the role model for the most popular role model in your craft would cast a long shadow over most people, but Rolles Gracie seems to deal with the added pressure of being the son of one of the greatest jujuteiros of all time just fine.
Despite the untimely loss of his father, Rolles has vivid memories of the times he did get to spend with him as a young child. He shared an anecdote about a picture of him and his brothers perched on top of a shelf at his father’s jiu-jitsu school that was made famous in Kid Peligro’s “The Gracie Way.” According to Rolles, when he and his brothers would act up and become too hyperactive his father would use the shelf as a parenting tool. He explained, “That picture is a memory that I have in my life before my father passed of him bringing me to the gym and running around and messing up everything, when we [my brothers and I] bothered the class too much he would put us up there to calm down.” Rolles’ uncle, Rilion Gracie took up Rolles’ jiu-jitsu education after losing his father and ensured that the same calm and cerebral approach to grappling that his father had taught him growing up would also be passed on to his nephew. When discussing Rilion Gracie’s effect on Rolles’ jiu-jitsu education he explained that his uncle Rilion not only “took over my jiu-jitsu education, but also embraced me as a son.” When explaining how Rilion Gracie helped fill the void in Rolles’ life he fondly recalls his uncle picking him up every weekend and taking him with the family to a beach town an hour away from their home in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil as an example of why he has “such high respect for him [Rilion Gracie]” as a person.”
When asked about his opinion regarding Lloyd Irvin’s recent claims of biased refereeing against American athletes in IBJJF competitions Rolles saw the bias not necessarily as a Brazilian versus American dynamic. Rolles believes that biased calls stem from familiarity and not nationality noting, “I don’t really believe people are doing it because of lack of character, they may know the guy, they may train together or they may know their teacher.” He describes the bad referee calls as a current problem stating, “I think it could be happening this way and there could be some bias but I really believe they should have neutral referees [of different nationalities than the competitors]. That would be the easiest way to avoid those things [controversial decisions].” When asked for suggestions on how to fix this problem Rolles mentioned that “right now for example in the final matches of high-level jiu-jitsu tournaments they have three referees so it is starting to get better. People are becoming aware of these mistakes and they’re starting to fix them. Politics mess sports up and they should remain in Washington.” When discussing submission-only competitions, like Metamoris, as an alternative to point-centric scoring systems Gracie said that he “viewed and very much enjoyed the Metamoris matches” and that he would be open to competing in a future card if the invitation didn’t conflict with his developing career as a mixed-martial-artist.
Aside from teaching and competing in jiu-jitsu, Rolles Gracie is also an MMA fighter with a record of 7-1. Rolles’ seven wins have all come by submission and his only loss came at the hands of Joey Beltran in the octagon, after which he was released from his contract. The Beltran fight was his first and only fight in the UFC. Rolles is currently under contract with One Fighting Championship and was preparing for his third fight under the Asian promotion at the time of this interview. When asked for the reason why his relationship with Zuffa was so short-lived Rolles noted, “I got very disappointed with the politics of the UFC at the time. They knew I wasn’t 100% and they knew I was injured [knee] but I wanted to fight anyway. They knew that I was hurt so I was very disappointed for not getting another chance to defend the name that I have [Gracie] because I was somebody else that night. But right now I’m just focusing on my career one win at a time, I’m with One FC right now, but if I get another invitation from them [UFC], I’ll take a look at the offer, but I’m done focusing my [MMA] career on trying to return to the UFC.”
When not fighting or competing Rolles can usually be found training and teaching at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York City. Helping Renzo run one of the largest and most successful academies in the country would be a daunting task for most people, but what seems like added pressure is something that Rolles has taken in strides. Rolles has also found success as a teacher, becoming a highly esteemed instructor under Renzo because of his ability to simplify the concepts needed to successfully apply jiu-jitsu techniques. When asked about his popularity as an instructor Rolles shrugs and notes “I had good role models to follow.”
Rather than wilt when faced with the added pressures and expectations his very famous last name brings Rolles Gracie has embraced who he is throughout his experiences competing in jiu-jitsu, teaching the art his family popularized throughout the world and when competing in MMA. Whether Rolles Gracie will be able to fill the shoes of his legendary father or not is yet to be determined, but it is clear that Rolles doesn’t mind biding his time under the shade of Rolls Gracie’s long shadow in the mean time.