Pride fighting championship frontman Rickson Gracie has revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Considered one of the most respected names in the Gracie family, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu belt coral belt is also one of the most respected. Podcast Wednesday that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years ago. Helio Gracie’s son, now 63, said the disease, a chronic degenerative disorder, had affected his motor system, causing tremors in his hands and reducing his ability to move. Despite this, Rickson explained, the diagnosis “wasn’t painful.”
“Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease,” Rickson explained. “So, a lot of the things I’d like to do physically, I’m decreasing. Lee, [the diagnosis] It wasn’t anything dramatic. I am ready for anything in my life. I accept my mistakes and my victories. I accept my life very well, so I am happy today. But this neurological disability opened my eyes to my age and my reality, which hasn’t changed much since then, but I do have a certain tremor in my hands, a certain motor handicap that I hadn’t had before. It’s something that doesn’t bother me too much, because my motivation to get up tomorrow and work is on, so I see it as a godsend to see what I’m going to do. If I give you a lot of money and do bad things, it doesn’t do you any good, but if I give you a lot of money and do good things, I’m proud.”
Rickson continued, “God has now given me a situation in which I must transform for good. The most important reaction I have today in my life is to express my gratitude for jiu-jitsu, for continuing to work in jiu-jitsu to empower people and change the way it is practiced so that it is more accessible to people who They need it. Most. So, I see I’m swimming with handfuls in a perfect blue ocean waiting for the next day without too much worry.”
The main representative of the Gracie family since Rolls Gracie’s death in a hang glider accident in 1982, Rickson has been a jiu-jitsu icon for decades now. For a generation used to defining the importance of fighters based on the level of their opponents in the Sherdog Fight Finder, it is difficult to comprehend the significance of a fighter who only has 11 official fights in vale tudo and MMA, but Rickson has been instrumental in the growth and development of jiu-jitsu and vale tudo in Brazil. Notably, Rickson was one of the first to publicly accept challenges on the streets of Rio de Janeiro to represent his family, with multiple historical episodes such as the two fights with Hugo Duarte, the battle of wills with Marco Ruas and the entire luta livre team inside their headquarters in Boqueirao, the answer to Hawaiian Byron Amona after He broke a friend’s skateboard and two vale tudo matches against “King Zulu” Casemiro Nascimento Martins in 1980 and 1984.
In terms of the current MMA generation, if Royce Gracie is considered the catalyst for promoting the sport in America, after his 11th submission in the UFC, in Japan the equivalent would be Rickson’s six victories in the Japan Open which led the Japanese to create pride, which led to Rickson’s confrontation with idol Nobuhiko Takada and his confrontation at Brides 1 and 4 – long thought to be a turning point in mixed martial arts. Competing in jiu-jitsu in the 1980s, Rickson outdid his opponent in all of his fights, and he is still considered the greatest authority on the sport in the 1980s and 1990s.