As most of the country is still under stay-at-home orders, Nieman Gracie is adjusting in New York where he resides. “Things have been a little crazy,” an understatement as the city has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. But the Bellator rising star perseveres.
Gracie (9-1 pro record, 7-1 in Bellator) has been running outside a lot but has secured an old-school spinning bike (not a Peloton) and does yoga in his living room to accommodate for missed gym time. He still is able to get in an occasional workout at his uncle Renzo’s gym in New York but the downtime has meant altering training plans.
Renzo is Nieman’s coach and believes in his uncle. “He was the most complete fighter of the family and stressed [to Nieman] to train in everything.” Nieman added, “He put it in my mind to be a complete fighter.”
The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace has transferred his grappling pedigree into the MMA cage. While his Jiu-Jitsu is his bread and butter, he is not averse to using his striking in MMA. Gracie stresses that it is important to train in both gi and no-gi for jiu jitsu. “The gi will give you the base,” said the second-degree black belt in BJJ. “You will be able to fine tune your game [in the gi].” He also noted that while no-gi helps him train for MMA, grappling is easier to get out of bad positions due in part to the ability to slip out of situations as combatants sweat. The gi is harder to escape due to the fabric.
Bellator has checked in on their up and coming welterweight but did not give him a status of events for the promotion as that has yet to be determined. Gracie is willing to come back when the promotion is ready and is not too worried about COVID-19. As with every fighter in the promotion, they are awaiting a go-ahead on when they might be able to get back into the cage.
Gracie wants to get back into the Bellator cage as soon as possible as the welterweight was on a role in his MMA career having gone undefeated until running into a tough challenge of Rory MacDonald last June in New York City. MacDonald handed Gracie his first loss as a pro as part of the Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix. “It was a bad taste in my mouth,” Gracie described. “It took a while, the first two weeks were kind of hard,” said Gracie, “As the time goes by, it was a little easier.” The 31-year-old dropped a unanimous decision to MacDonald but he took the loss in stride as a learning experience.
With just 10 pro fights under his belt, Gracie believes that the experience of facing a tough veteran like MacDonald can only help him. Prior to his setback against MacDonald, Gracie compiled 5 straight submissions showing his grappling pedigree.
His last victory against Ed Ruth in December 2018 was a big one for Gracie. The fight, which took place in Honolulu, gave Gracie the opportunity to do one of his other passions: surfing. Gracie has been “bothering” Bellator about if and when he fights next that it be in Hawaii so that he can catch waves and throw punches in the same trip. He recalls that last December he broke his hand and was not able to fight or surf in Hawaii. He hopes to once again be able to be back in the cage and then catch some waves.
Leave a Reply