Kron Gracie Looks Back On UFC 310 Performance & Release

Kron Gracie  recently did his first interview with MMA Fighting after being released from the UFC. The former ADCC champion addressed the criticism of his decision to pull guard in the Bryce Mitchell fight and why the loss led to his release.

He is also claiming that he will never pull guard again in a fight after the harsh criticism from fans and why that tactic likely led to his loss and release. You can read some of the main parts of the interview below and the full interview.

“I mean, I was fighting a top guy, obviously. He was in the top 15, and I knew it was going to be a tough fight, but I was very confident and I was doing well, and I had a lot of confidence in my guard and pulling guard, and I just made a mistake and I paid for it.

So I feel like that’s just kind of the name of the game. Sometimes you zig and you should have zagged, and then you get cracked and so that’s what happened.

From an actual technical point of view, there were some technical mistakes I made and that’s why I paid the price. But this is the fight business, and I know, the game is dangerous, and that’s what it is.

So it’s nothing new to me, or nothing I’m shocked about, it didn’t really change anything in my mind.

It just kind of took a long time for me to get another fight, so I didn’t try to take this year off. I was trying to get back in fighting, trying to get motivated to get on another card and continue.

Just generally, if you’re fighting a top guy, if you win or lose, you should be able to stay in the game.

But I think the way that I fought, the way I pulled guard, and the way that it happened, a lot of fans were disappointed and I lost a lot of stock in that transition.

So, I think that’s kind of like as a fan and as a business, the UFC is a business, it makes sense for them to be like: “Well, you lost a lot of fans, go get your fans back, go get some wins and see what happens.

It’s a business. If pulling guard is going to be that much of a detriment to the ability to keep fighting, and the ability to make money, then f**k it, I won’t pull guard ever again. And I already made that decision that I’m done with pulling guard.

I always do really well from pulling guard, and it was something that I had in my back pocket, but I feel like now, not only for myself, I have to try to get on top.”- Kron Gracie.

A Short Response To Kron Gracie’s 

Kron Gracie is no doubt an incredibly talented grappler and had an impeccable run to win the ADCC title in 2013. However, he may have a similar issue such as BJ Penn had in his UFC run with his coaches, who are basically yes men.

Bryce Mitchell is a highly-skilled black belt and has some of the best MMA Jiu-Jitsu in the world. To even consider pulling guard on him and thinking it would work showed that Kron didn’t have the right people in his corner to tell him not to pull guard.

Hopefully, Kron Gracie learns from the mistake and we see him have another run in the UFC.