Khonry Gracie Doesn’t Believe Family Name Adds Pressure

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Khonry Gracie returns to action at Bellator 225 when he takes on Oscar Vera. Of course, he is the son of Royce Gracie and the grandson of the legendary Helio Gracie. To have that last name, given all the family has accomplished in mixed martial arts is special, yet he doesn’t believe it adds any pressure.

“No, not at all. I don’t think it adds pressure at all,” Gracie said to Sherdog.com. “I’m here to do me and get the sense of where I can take MMA. My grandfather always thought, teaching before fighting. I’ll always go back to teaching.”

For Gracie, growing up in an MMA family was special, yet he makes it clear his path to the pros was not an easy one. He had to learn all the martial arts, not just jiu-jitsu and showed that in his last fight against Ron Becker. He won the contest via unanimous decision for his first career win and stood for the majority of 15 minutes.

“Nothing about this career is easy. You have to grind everyday, if you don’t show up one day, that is one day your opponent could be better,” he explained. “Even though I grew up in the jiu-jitsu family, I still had to learn wrestling, muay Thai and other martial arts.

“But, yeah, it was amazing. The fact that I won standing up and maybe went to the ground once or twice was a huge confidence booster. It showed I don’t need to rely on my jiu-jitsu.”

In the end, Gracie is confident in his skills that he will extend his win streak to two at Bellator 225 on Aug. 25.