Kron Gracie “Crown Prince of BJJ ” Arrives in The UFC
BJJ, submission grappling champion Kron Gracie stands as heir to the throne in the legendary Rickson Gracie school of Jiu-jitsu.
If carrying the Gracie Family name wasn’t hard enough he’s also had nay sayers his entire career in combat sports talking down his “old school fundamentals” approach to fighting often calling it out dated and doubting how well he would fair vs the elite grappler’s on the scene.
Kron went on to not only prove his game works but took things a few steps further proving to be one of the most lethal finish minded competitors to ever step on the mats; crushing a who’s who of world champions and rarely loosing under and rule set and usually only by points.
“Marcelo Garcia and Sergio Moraes an Buchecha have submission wins over him as far as i can remember”
To me as a mixed martial arts purist the upside to his game is the focus on the attributes like timing, balance and tempo of the fight often overlooked for the new exotic / cutting edge technique touted as the fix for everything and must have to be a top level contender.
Yet to an untrained eye Kron does nothing a high level blue belt does’nt and given the lack of inversion and grip specific tactics some may even say less. so it it takes a certain level of sophistication as a watcher to really appreciate his magic.
Lets take a look at this machine in action vs a variety of opponents in MMA, submission and BJJ competition and you and tell me what you think??
Kron Gracie vs Leandro Lo in the GI
Lo needs no introduction and this match is a great contrast of styles
Kron vs Shinya Aoki No Gi
World class submission master Aoki brought a level of danger
always going for the kill himself in previous matches.
A favorite of mine is the Metamoris match up of Kron Gracie vs BJJ ace Otavio Souza .
“Once Kron passes he goes straight to work with devastating results”
Kron Vs Otavio Souza Gi in metamoris rules
MMA Competition
After a gold medal in ADCC he decided to take his jiu-jitsu to the ultimate proving ground and test himself in MMA vs some very stiff competition right out of the gates; Again highlighting the effectiveness of his skill set and finishing all the opponents and even showing the beginnings of some crafty dirty boxing/striking skills.
“Nothing crazy at this point but he’s been off for several years and working hard on sharpening the tools”
Kron vs Yamamoto
In my opinion even better was this fight vs previous top-level contender Kawajiri,
Kron Gracie vs Kawajiri
Current day
This brings us to current day where he now makes the move to the pinnacle of world wide MMA competing in the UFC vs Alex Cacceres. Alex is a good 1st test for kron and will no doubt try his best to counter grapple and strike his way to a win.
While i don’t see his first opponent being too much of a threat barring a freak ko early in the match Cacceres is a quality opponent and tought guy but no explosive enough to do the damage id be looking for anyone beating Kron to deliver, although this is a fight so you never can be 100 percent sure.
Kron’s inclusion to the UFC roster marks one of very few appearance of a gracie family member in the event since Royce debuted back in UFC #1 and With so many in the martial arts community and especially Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, looking to Kron as the purest expression of the art his career will be as closely watched as any likely bringing back a lot of the eyes from the BJJ community to Mixed martial arts that left with the departure most BJJ stars as they now focus on the professional grappling circuits.
Either way it will be interesting and congrats to Kron for putting his skill set to the test in the ultimate proving ground for any fight based
Jiu-Jitsu practitioner.
