Renzo Gracie would not have accepted a red belt if he were in Rickson Gracie’s shoes. In an article with graciemag , the former MMA fighter and six-degree black belt said:
“Rickson can and deserves to wear the belt he wants. He can. And he deserves it. But if I were in his place, I wouldn’t have accepted it.“
It is according to Renzo and Royler Gracie that in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the red belt is reserved “for those whose influence and fame takes them to the pinnacle of the art“. A red belt is rewarded in lieu of a ninth and tenth degree black belt, so if a practitioner receives a black belt when they’re 19 years old, they can only hope to receive one at the earliest at the age of 67!
Renzo may not be accepting a red belt any time soon, but at age 50 and weighing in at 80 kilograms, he will be accepting a match in MMA after his ADCC superfight. He has not reported which promotion he will be making his MMA return in, though.
The post Renzo Gracie On Rickson Gracie’s Red Belt: ‘I Wouldn’t Have Accepted It’ appeared first on Jiu-Jitsu Times.