Topics Covered:
-UFC return and talking to Dana
-Even though he earned it, why it was good that Rickson didn't fight in the UFC
-On it taking 14 years for the Sakuraba rematch to be made, if he thought it would ever happen
-How serious the feud between Sakuraba and the Gracies was
-Why he never competed at one of the early UFC's
-If he thought that MMA would become so big, compared to when he was fighting in the WCC
-His childhood and growing up as a Gracie
-On the Gracie concepts not being the same as before
-Thoughts on Eddie Bravo vs Royce Gracie
-Funny backstage Pride stories
-His first ever pro fight
-Falling asleep at the Olympics
-The feeling of competing at the first Pride
-Still training with his original BJJ teacher
Some Quotes:
Return to MMA in 2015
“Yes, because I’m fighting Sakuraba now. I’m already in shape and then I have to fight Matt Hughes in September. I said “what am I going to do in the middle, die of boredom? No fucking way. Get me some opponents! (Laughs)”
“I’m going to be in shape now and what am I going to do, get out of shape and get back again? No. I’m going to try to find at least two matches in the middle, so (that) I can have my fun and keep my shape up so I can have a great match with my brother Matt Hughes.”
Fighting in the UFC and talking to Dana
“Yeah I’m going to look to go for the UFC. I’m going to sit down with those boys and have a talk you know? I had a chat with Dana and he said to me “Renzo why do you want to fight? I’ll give you a cheque for you not to fight”. I said to him “let’s be honest, I wanna fight for free.”
"We're gonna get together soon and see what we do. So If I'm feeling on the level, then I probably believe I can do good in there, for sure I'll be back in there. I have great training partners. I have Edson Barboza, I have Ricardo Almeida, Igor, Gregor. So if I'm traiing with those boys, you know I have my brother Frankie Edgar, I train with Chris Weidman, Matt Serra. So if I can hang around with those boys as well and I can keep myself alive, I believe I can keep myself alive with anybody in there."
"I'll be looking forward to training with my boys, and then if I can do well I'll be back in MMA for sure next year."
On coming back to fight at 155 when he returns
“Well actually I’m going to be looking at fighting at 155. Yeah because last time I was walking around at 168, so probably will jump in at 155.”
“I will ask them to match me with one of the 10 first ones. If they say the guys are too tough, I'll tell them to give them a warm up fight then. Give me to them as a warm up fight.”
On fighting Sakuraba at Metamoris compared to fighting him in an MMA fight
“What made him so efficient in MMA was his grappling game. He was never a great striker - but he could strike - but his main thing is his grappling, and that’s what I’m going to be facing. Actually I’m going to be facing the toughest part of Sakuraba. He’s known for having heavy hands, a beautiful Kimura coming from everywhere, great leg locks, so it’s going to be a challenge. It may be a bigger challenge than when I faced him in Pride, but I believe these 14 years taught me a lot and I’ll be ready to represent and see all the knowledge that I learnt over these 14 years.”
