Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Jiu Jitsu Royalty to MMA Flop: Kron Gracie's UFC Story
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Hey, welcome to the Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. Now, over the weekend, one of JT and myself's heroes, crone Gracie, got knocked out in the UFC, and this caused us to talk about what happens when elite level grapplers go to MMA. Now, in today's episode, we're going to talk about how the evolution of a fighter can really determine what kind of future they have in MMA, and sometimes, like what we're seeing from Krohn, it can end up in great sadness for us grappling fans. I'm also going to tell you, guys, the super awkward story about when I met Krohn and had the opportunity to train with him, and I expect that you will probably cringe just as much as I did when the interaction happened. It's a fucking banger of a story, though, hey, but we also go into, like, what a successful MMA career looks like for grapplers.
Speaker 1:If you like UFC, if you like watching grapplers enter the MMA sphere, you're going to dig the episode. Let's get into it. Hey, also, do us a favor. You like listening to the show? We appreciate it, but we'd really like to ask you to do one thing for us, that is, to like and subscribe, give us a five-star review If you're listening to this on an audio platform, but also to share it with a friend. It's a. It's about like 30 seconds of work for you, but it goes a really long way to helping get this show in front of more people like yourself, uh, and that allows us to keep doing this thing, which we is over. So you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready, bro.
Speaker 1:Did you see what Bryce Mitchell did to Kroen Gracie on the weekend? It was so for me. Me, it was painful to watch, it was sad, I mean. Yeah, me too. There was, like I've always loved Krohn. I feel like Krohn is possibly or Krohn, depending on how you want to say it probably the greatest waste of potential of jiu-jitsu crossing over to MMA. Like it didn't translate. No, that's what I'm saying, no, and I mean, he came across with the obvious gaps that you see in grapplers who become MMA fighters. Sure, but then they normally close those gaps up and level up their striking and all those things, sure, and he seems to have just not done any of that. He seems to have just stayed with, with the skill set he had.
Speaker 1:I watched a documentary. Uh, I don't know, it was actually a documentary maybe it was just vlog series of his training. He's training with the diaz brothers and this is like a bunch of years ago actually four years ago, five years ago it appeared to me that he was just getting dumber. This is a hard thing because the vice, the chrome grace he eats yes, yeah, he's yes, and he eats sushi late at night and he's clearly struggling to put sentences together. He's talking about training with the Diaz brothers. He's clearly getting hit in the head a lot. He's also smoking weed. You're like, oh bro, he needs to go train with Tito Ortiz. Oh my God, no, no, god, no, no, no, no. The huntington beach bad boy. I mean, if you're in cali, shit. There's clearly one option, dude I. I think.
Speaker 1:The difficulty for me is I remember seeing gron come up in jujitsu with a very unique no style kind of style, like he didn't play one guard or one pass and did exceptionally well, found great ways to submit people, even though I did see him get absolutely mauled by Sergio Moraes. His first year at Worlds got destroyed and then also saw him got completely fucked up by Dourinho in the final at 2012 Worlds. I think he was great in the Gi and also his match against Gary Tonin is an amazing match at the ADCC, you know like, and he almost submitted Marcelo Garcia with a guillotine which people forget. Like Marcelo got out, but it was fucking close. Like it was a very do or die moment and Marcelllo got out of it like a champ, but it was very close the potential for crone gracie to become a new epic mma legend.
Speaker 1:So it would be very hard to live up to his like father's reputation. Right, because he was like a, he helped build the game. Yeah, the potential was so big and the result has been so very little and so frustrating, I think, for a lot of fans who believe in his ability. Yeah, and I mean tough footsteps to follow in right, being Hickson's son, like you can only imagine that Hickson would be a pretty tough fella as a father and that, sure, just coming into the scene with that last name being his son, there's already a huge amount of pressure on you. Sure, just coming into the scene with that last name being his son, there's already a huge amount of pressure on you. Sure, yeah, it's. You know, for any MMA and jiu-jitsu fan, there's been a lot of disappointment in watching his MMA career.
Speaker 1:So, on the weekend, for those that didn't see it, I didn't actually see the whole fight, but it looks like he's getting touched up on the feet. Bryce is coming in and Krohn jumps close guard on him and Bryce catches it, catches it right, and then pulls the arm out, frames his forearm across Krohn's chin or face and then just dumps him back, slams him and hits this huge frame and then, I think, follows up with two elbows and he's out. And it was like it was perfect. It was the perfect response to someone pulling closed guard on you. And it's like I mean, I know when I get tired right and doing jiu-jitsu, I'll do something like that, I'll jump a closed guard. It's like it's a habit that a world-class mma fighter cannot have no. And and look I as someone who has had very limited mma experience but trained for mma positions that you usually go to in jujitsu, which are good in bjj, are just not good in mma like just being in closed. Even if you guys throw back to when GSP fought Matt Serra.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no. I apologize, johnny Hendricks, english fella missing an eye, bisping Bisping, he was copying it from close guard. Right, he was getting elbowed in close guard, but that's both athletes very tired on the ground. Right, jumping close guards from standing, that's some risky shit. If you haven't got a hold of something, yeah. If you've got a fucking guillotine wrapped up or a strong overhook, yeah, like for sure. But just jumping it so that we can go to the ground now is a really fucking bad strategy.
Speaker 1:And half guard, half guard this is the thing I wanted to talk about. Like, I always thought half guard was a great spot, right, like it's safe, it's economic. No, if you look at most great MMA fighters, like Fedor or any of the guys who, like even Khabib, will try to push to half guard because you're then attached to the hips so you can just wail on them, wail on their body, like it's a bad place to be, and so I think we all have this. It's kind of I don't know, maybe it's childish this idea of like, oh, but if only they could put it together. Every outing has shown that things have not improved right. And the longer a person fights, it doesn't matter how famous your last name is. Usually the quality of the fighter does not go up right, because you take a lot of damage and what I had seen even off that like vice thing where he's chatting, he's copying.
Speaker 1:I talk about volume punching. You have to have the skull and the neck of a Diaz brother to take that many hits. You have to be Max Holloway to take that many fucking hits and still have some semblance of a brain. And I don't think that Kron Gracie has the the skull and neck genetics to be volume punched in the head and still make good decisions. I mean, motherfucker's got a jawline Real, recognized, real. You know what I'm saying. That's tough, bro.
Speaker 1:This whole volume punching like it's oh yeah, now, if you decide to jump close guard in a real fight and your opponent slams you on the ground and knocks you out, that's your fault. However, if you want help building a strong, robust body for jiu-jitsu, we can help you with this. Now, if you don't follow this advice, that's your fault. But here's the deal you can make a good decision and let's all make good decisions. You can get the Bulletproof for BJJ app today and start training for free for two weeks. All you got to do is go to the app store, search Bulletproof for BJJ and download the app, start training, make a good decision, build a strong body that performs on and off the mats, and let JT and I coach you on this journey of jiu-jitsu strength and mobility. We'll see you on the inside. Go to the app store, get the app, let's get into.
Speaker 1:So to that point about, like you know, seeing the evolution of the fighter once they enter, say, MMA. I think that's what's very exciting about watching, like Boucher yeah Right, he is getting better. Yeah, and even Adolfo, where he hasn't been up and up and up, but you can see changes and you can see mistakes. But he's been in the UFC for ages. He's had terrible losses. He lost to a blue belt no, no, he has. But you can at least I'm guessing you can see that he's. I mean, there was that loss where he got arm triangled, which was really bad. Dude, he's an ADCC champion. What the fuck is he doing?
Speaker 1:I know the hardest thing for me is I have always revered Adolfo as being one of the baddest mothers in Jiu-Jitsu ever, because I saw him live, I saw him destroy so many great folks and just was so overwhelmed with his prowess to see him do so poorly Like. I think people forget that Damien Meyer is possibly one of the only Jiu-Jitsu guys to really live into their MMA career, like even Jacare didn't quite. You know, you know, like, you know, there was a time when people thought, oh, jacare and mma, it's going to be amazing. And then he met bobby knuckles and then that kind of didn't work out very well. You know, like, yeah, we always have these great hopes of jiu-jitsu folks doing something great in mma and it doesn't doesn't necessarily translate. I feel like damien meyer is the only guy to really no, that's, that's right. I mean, yeah, fuck that. And some of the other best grapplers, you see, are not strictly grapplers, right, they're MMA fighters or they're wrestlers who learned some jiu-jitsu. But my point there was that you want to see some kind of growth right in the fighter and when they come in and you see none, you're like fuck, like it's disappointing, because you want, you want the jiu-jitsu guy to succeed. Yeah, fuck, I'd love to see crone just crush everyone. Yeah, you know, I'll tell you about that time I trained with him. You may have, but please regale, it was so fuck, it was one of the most, uh, awkward experience of my life really.
Speaker 1:I, um, I was in la and I was hanging out with shanji and we had done some training, I think in in the morning or something. And then Shanji was like hey, do you want to come and train this afternoon? We're going to go to Crohn's Academy. And I was like wow. And he's like, yeah, hickson just gave the academy to Crohn. He just stepped down. And he's like, so it's pretty sick, we'll go see it. And I was like, wow, I mean, all a bit of a chance encounter, that's cool.
Speaker 1:And so, um, we kicked it at his place for a bit and then we went over there and um, there was a class going on and uh, we get in and uh, the class starts and then we're just off to the side of the class and there's like some guys gathering, arriving. You know, we get in dress where I can't remember if we put the gear I think it was no gear, I can't remember and um, shanji's like do you want to? You want to train with us or you want to train in the class? And I was like I'll train with you, guys. You know that looks sick. And uh, harlech gracie turns up, all right. And shanji's like, oh, fuck, harlech's here. And like, and I was like, oh, what's the deal? And oh, he's tough, like he's a tough role. And so I was like, wow, like I didn't even know if I let Gracie ride at the time, but I was like, oh, wow, okay, he must be really good.
Speaker 1:And a couple other dudes, I think there was six of them. All Gracies, yeah, like you know, take your pick right. And I, what was I at the time? Was I blue belt? I think it was a blue belt, yeah, yeah, that's fucking tough blue belt, right amongst these black belt champions.
Speaker 1:And we get we, you know, they're on sign, we're sitting, we're sitting around. And crone's like, yeah, I'll just get the class started and then we'll get, we'll come over and figure it out, guys, so hang. And harlech's like hey, man, do you want to do like a warm-up, warm-up, roll? And I was like, yeah, bro, that sounds sick. And so we like do the thing. And we just start like flow, rolling. And I'm like just trying to, trying to do something. And he's just like sweet me, fucking this.
Speaker 1:That I'm like I just felt like I'd never done any jujitsu and I I instantly got hit with that feeling of like your jujitsu fucking sucks. You are so shit, what are you doing here? And I'm like I'm here and I'm like I'm like, oh, this is horrible, painful. And so we did the five minutes or whatever. And then, um, I think shanji said to me um, oh, cron's like, hey, all right, so we're gonna do 10 minute rounds and we're just gonna go back to back for the next 60 minutes. Oh god, and I'm like fuck, 10 minute rounds, I've never even heard of such thing. And um, and then shanji looked at me and he, I think I'm pretty sure shanji had seen my role with harlech, yeah. And then he's like, hey, if you want, you can still jump in the class. And I'm like, thanks, shanji, I'm gonna jump in the class, jumped in and went to war with some fucking blue belts and uh, anyways, at the end of the session, uh, the class finished up and then we're watching those guys finish their rounds.
Speaker 1:Krohn gets injured with Shunji, or someone Gets injured, someone runs off, gets the ice pack, it's the thing. You know, a bit of a palaver limps off the mat. And then you know Shunji and I are like getting changed, getting showered up to get out of there, whatever. And we leave and Krohn's in the little sort of front office that is at like the, the entrance to the academy, and he's in the office, he's just leaning back on this chair all the like a bunch of his students around and they're watching something on the computer and, um, they're all watching this thing, blah, blah, blah. And uh, shunji's like, hey, you know, let's go.
Speaker 1:And I I'm like, oh fuck, I gotta go say thanks, you know they. No, no one charged me or anything, you know. And I'm like it's crone, gracie, man, you want to be grateful? So I like I like waved and like crone and all the guys like I'll see you, man and I, and I just like ducked in and I was like man, thanks so much for having me, it's a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1:And uh, he put his hand out and we shook hands and as I shook his hand, he recoiled and was like, ah, I've got torn skin there, what? And I'm like, oh sorry, oh okay, well, see ya. And it was like he had this big tear right, like a bit of broken skin, and I was like, fuck, that was so fucking awkward. Yeah, like it gave me the hand and then was like, oh, kind of like you know, why did you do that to my cut? Couldn't he have offered his other hand? I was like this is fucked, we just need to go. That's so strange In front of all these boys in this little office, like already feeling like super diminutive, you know.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I was like, oh, I hope it heals up, cron Bye, don't get a skin infection. That's so strange. Couldn't he have just gone like fist bump with the other hand or something? I mean that would have been great for me, right, you know, I mean just, but Just odd, but didn't, I guess, guess I go? Wasn't he aware he already had some fucking man? Oh, I'm bleeding everywhere. Yeah, why would you do that to me? It's, yeah, it's jiu-jitsu stigmata, bro, it's on you, your royalty, it's how it goes. But that's so strange. Oh look, yeah, it was just one of those ones where you're like, ah, today wasn't. Today was awesome, but also not that awesome. Yeah, it kind of. You know, it didn't go quite right. Yeah, like the, like the role with Halleck, like that, and then just being like you're so fucking shit at this, and then injuring Krohn's hand, like that. I was like you need to get the fuck out of here, bro, you didn't injure him, his lack of self-awareness fucked that up. But that's so strange. I mean it's time.
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Speaker 1:Man, I I one time met crone in an elevator with hickson oh wow.
Speaker 1:But.
Speaker 1:But I could, I? I I wanted to talk to them, but they just refused to talk to me. Like I was at Worlds and they were staying in the same hotel as us and I saw that they were being interviewed separately, like they'd been kept away from the crowd. And I had said to Fabio, like cause he? He told me stories about Hickson. I'm like can you go up and talk? Like are you allowed to go up and talk to Hickson, like can you like? He's like see how you go. He's like, you know, I'm friends with Hickson, it's cool, but he's like if you don't know him, don't just roll up on him. You know, like not like he's going to be mean to you, but he's just like that's just not what he's like. You know, and it was interesting, him and Crone were very much separated from everyone and they always had a couple of guys around them. You know, and I'm like, yeah, they're like royalty, right, respect.
Speaker 1:I just step into the elevator and you know, you know you can have the awkward, like like you know you might do it. Oh, hey, how's it going. Or oh well, hey, how good is it something you know, as long as they're how long they're on the 13th floor. I'm on the third floor, like you, just you do it. I step in and it's just those two and no one else.
Speaker 1:And I step in and I just they see the recognition on my face and I'm like, oh, and there was a moment of pause. I'm like, should I Just? Should I bow, should I shake it? What do I do? And then they both kind of looked at me and then they both looked at the elevator counter. They both looked away and just acted like I was there and I was like I'll just turn around, I'm not going to say shit, I just wanted to give props, show respect. That's all I wanted to do. I wasn't looking for autographs, nothing. But they just were like, nah, they just, you know, they both stonewalled me and I was like, fuck, I really don't matter, do I? All right, fair enough, like I just, I was like I don't want to fuck up. I, you know, I mean, why would you do this? And then Hickson would have choked me unconscious.
Speaker 1:Bro, it's an interesting thing because we also project so much onto these people. Yeah, they're just humans, you know, yeah, and they have great skills, but they're also their own kind of weird too. So you don't want to? Yeah, it's, it's hard to read into that, but man, what does this mean for? Well, I still hold hopes for crying. I mean, I don't know what his ufc um contract is like, but I I'm like, I'm still fucking like.
Speaker 1:If that guy's fighting, I will always be interested in the result and I'll want to see him fucking smash. Yeah, but someone even put a post up meme talking about aljo versus, like aljermaineain Sterling, one of the best to ever do. It puts on absolute highlight reel grappling scramble fest on the prelims yeah, oh, you haven't won a fight in five years, but your last name's Gracie. You're on the main card, son. Yeah, how fair is that? Like that's bullshit.
Speaker 1:This guy's a previous champion and ridiculous. I mean, they've always hated Aljo by the looks of it, but he's incredible, he's great and a good dude from all reports. You ever see that one where he slipped up in the post like he's doing a hype-up piece to the camera and he meant to say blah, blah, blah, I'm coming for that ass. But he said blah, blah, blah, I'm coming on that ass. And then he's like coming for that ass. You ever see that? No, it's so fucking good, super awkward. I mean that's Aljo, right, he's a funny cat. But I mean I felt I felt bad for him because I watched that match and it was great and he, he, he should have won in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I felt it was a bad decision, like there was a couple of decisions. Oh, you watched his fight. Yeah, yeah, right, and I man, he did so. Well, considering they're trying to, they're trying to bring up this like russian wrestler, what have you. Yeah, how did great man Took him down a bunch, like it was.
Speaker 1:It was very close match, but I still feel like, anyway, aljo might've won, but it it is painful to watch Kron be terrible and be on the main card and Aljo have like a stellar fight, win or lose, and just be on the prelims. Yeah, it's kind of sucks, but this is the bias, the world we live in. Maybe, maybe, yeah, it kind of sucks, but this is the bias, the world we live in. Maybe he needed to be relegated to the prelims to fucking bring the best. Oh God, is that what it did for Kron? Did him being elevated bring out the best? Well, no, but we don't always rise to the occasion, do we? No, apparently not. Sometimes we just fall to close guard. Fuck, anyway, I'm still in there, I'm not, I'm off, I'm off the bandwagon. Never was on the bandwagon, even Hidolfo.
Speaker 1:I lost heaps of respect for Hidolfo because it's like these guys are training with the best MMA coaches in the world. You can't make it translate. Like man, go back to jiu-jitsu. Like, don't stay there, it's not even worth the fame. Adolfo's fighting. What's his name? From Smeaton Grange, jacob Malkoon. Yeah, that'd be interesting. Michael Sidney Boyer, one of Rob Whittaker's teammates. I've trained with him a little bit in the past. Strong beard, strong man, great wrestling, great wrestling and just fucking tough as nails. Yes, like fucking tough as nails. Yes, like fucking tough as nails. I think he could knock Adolfo out. I mean, adolfo obviously has amazing jujitsu and also can wrestle, but dude, Malcolm's got the fucking hands. Yeah, I mean, that's what it is right. I mean that's how fucking Adolfo gets triangle choked by a blue belt. Is you crack him in the face a bunch of times? Yeah, and he hadn't, yeah, not conscious of it. So there it is. Hey guys, if you like the show, do us a favor. Like subscribe Audio platforms. Leave us a five-star review. Do it now. Thank you, preach.
