For some odd reason, I've been surrounding myself with a lot of jiu-jitsu guys for the past two months and every single one agrees that Roger Gracie is the greatest jiu-jitsu practitioner in MMA. A few even claim that Roger Gracie is the most skilled Gracie in the entire family. The accolades, however, did not serve as a forcefield to protect Roger Gracie's chin last weekend at the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand-Prix. It took just one clean straight for King Mo to capitalize on a first round victory in his first fight since Strikeforce Houston in 2010. At least that's what most people thought. In an interview with TATAME, Roger Gracie says that at some point, King Mo accidentally headbutted him which was the cause of the knockout.

“I couldn’t do what I have trained to do back then. I believed in my jab and he (King Mo) wasn’t bringing much danger,” he said. “When I heard Renzo (Gracie) saying there was a minute and a half left for the end of the first round, I relaxed. I didn’t have enough time to submit him nor take him down, he wasn’t punching me, so I thought I would keep it that way until the second round. That was the first mistake. The second was that he accidentally hit his head against mine, and I got dizzy. I moved backwards, he punched me and I felt. That head was practically an accidental knockout. When I tried to grab him, clinch, his head hit my face and I backed of”.

“I was supposed to work on the clinch, because I wouldn’t risk trying to grab his legs and take him down because it wasn’t the beginning of the fight, so I wasn’t using much energy with no purpose. I was supposed to work on the clinch and take him down. And during the first round I didn’t try to do that, and suddenly I realized the danger he was putting me in. Losing is terrible. Nobody likes losing, especially being knocked out. But what can I do? I’ll train so it won’t happen again”.

Interesting that engaging in the clinch was the perceived method of victor for Roger. Granted, it's tough envisioning Roger taking down King Mo, but closing the distance just opens one's chin to Mo's Cuban-style boxing -- essentially lowering one's hands to bait an opponent in and using speed (and overhand rights) to damage your opponent. [Source]

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+18 # Guest 2011-09-15 08:15

C'mon Roger......

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+5 # benny 2011-09-15 08:24

KTFO

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+14 # Guest 2011-09-15 08:44

Typical Gracie excuse

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+1 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:15

Quoting snoop:

Typical Gracie excuse

he said accidentely he also gave king mo praise and he would be back stronger not really an excuse

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+5 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:16

if you followed roger's bjj career, you can tell that he is far from your "typical gracie"

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+13 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:06

i watched the fight on DVR, and i rewound it and slowed it down numerous times, Hes right. king mo head butted the shit out of him. It wasn't on purpose and its unfortunate but it deffinately lead to the knock out.

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+6 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:44

^this perspective is blame predicated on the fighter who wasn't/is least affected by the collision. That's not how liability is found!

If you come in after a jab trying to clinch with your head turned away (like Roger did) its YOUR fault. Mo was simply jabbed and comin in w/ a punch counter and took the side of Roger's head above his eye, not exactly an ideal place to try to hit with (not saying u said intentional of course)

If you want to see an expert headbutter, checkout Bernard Hopkins.

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+4 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:07

GIF or it didn't happen!

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+3 # Guest 2011-09-15 09:22

Quoting Guestified:

GIF or it didn't happen!

http://www.mmatko.com/king-mo-lawal-headbutt-combo-gif-vs-roger-gracie-at-strikeforce-event/

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+3 # Guest 2011-09-15 10:15

cool. he must have a soft head like hamill

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+1 # BallPtPenTheif 2011-09-15 09:42

Sorry Zeus but you got the strategy backwards. Roger had the reach advantage and he was controlling the range with his jab while meeting Mo with his knee whenever Mo would enter range. The clinch was simply Roger's counter to when Mo would try to enter range and dodge/block the knee.

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+5 # Guest 2011-09-15 11:56

Roger looks like Dexter in the header pic.

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+3 # Yoshinegro_Blackiyama 2011-09-15 13:25

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+1 # Guest 2011-09-15 13:32

Let's look at the facts:
Did they clash heads? Yes.
Was it intentional? Absolutely not, nothing to suggest that.
Did it favour Kong Mo? Absolutely, as he hit with thr harder part of his head and he had forward momentum.

Roger lacks experience. He should have notified the ref immediately, and the fight would have been stopped while the fighters were assessed.

RG's real mistake was thinking he could relax and wait out the end of the round. If the fight had made it into the second it would have gotten a lot more interesting. As the ground and both fighters got slipperier, Roger would have had a big advantage.

However, it wasn't to be. The more experienced fighter won, but I think Roger will learn from this. Perhaps a rematch is in store down the road. For now King Mo gets the plaudits, and rightfully so as this is how the fight game works.

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+3 # Guest 2011-09-15 18:40

Quoting Steve Jamison:

Let's look at the facts:
Did they clash heads? Yes.
Was it intentional? Absolutely not, nothing to s[expletive]est that.

Did you not see the word 'accidentally' in bold in the Roger quote. He's not bitching and complaining.. he went step by step through the fight. The accidental head butt was part of the fight. Why is everyone jumping his shit?
You're right, between getting dazed and getting punched immediately in the head again, he should have found the nano seconds to talk to the ref. That worked out real well for Palhares.

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-14 # Smashida 2011-09-15 14:33

Roger Gracie is a bitch.

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+5 # Guest 2011-09-15 18:41

You're a fucking bitch.
I'll give you a million dollars to say that to his face.

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-4 # Guest 2011-09-15 16:36

Hes just mad he got put to sleep by Blackuraba

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-3 # Sambro 2011-09-15 18:30

If you've ever fought a black guy before you know they have hard heads. That's why Rodney King survived. If he had a soft white guy head, he'd be dead.

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+4 # Guest 2011-09-16 04:35

omg, you're so funny, rofl lmao
omfg

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0 # Guest 2011-09-16 11:22

he dead

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0 # FreeLeeMurray 2011-09-16 09:51

Gracies are fucking excuse makers to the 10th degree. In their world no Gracie has ever lost a fight fairly. And it's a load of bullshit. They're the biggest family of whiners and complainers. I knew they'd make excuses for this shit too.

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