Audio: Renzo Speaks: Prepping Serra, The Serra-Hughes Feud, His Next Fight & Training Gusmao

May 3rd, 2009 · 5 Comments

On a rainy Friday evening last week, I hopped the 1 train downtown to visit Renzo Gracie’s academy on 30th St. seeking Andre Gusmao to talk about his big fight ahead Vs. Houston Alexander. I eventually found the young Brazilian yet first stumbled upon the legend himself who welcomed my query to interview him. I chatted with Gracie in the middle of his bustling MMA mecca about how Matt Serra is preparing for Matt Hughes, the feud between the two fighters, and his hopes to fight later in the year.

Tags: Video News

5 responses so far ↓

1 Renzo Gracie: Don’t sleep on Matt Serra at UFC blog for UFC news, results, videos, rumors, fights, pics and tickets — MMAmania.com // May 4, 2009 at 2:48 pm

[...] Props: TriStateFighter [...]
2 Renzo Gracie: Don’t sleep on Matt Serra | GoFightLive // May 4, 2009 at 5:09 pm

[...] Props: TriStateFighter [...]
3 Renzo Gracie: Don’t sleep on Matt Serra | Ultimate Fighter Online // May 4, 2009 at 6:11 pm

[...] Props: TriStateFighter [...]
4 Renzo Gracie: Don’t sleep on Matt Serra | MMA Fight News - MMA News, MMA Gear, MMA Training // May 5, 2009 at 5:12 am

[...] Props: TriStateFighter [...]
5 Renzo Gracie Ain’t Done Yet | MMA Fight News - MMA News, MMA Gear, MMA Training // May 6, 2009 at 12:19 pm

[...] that [would] take me…they’re willing to take an old man in, I will be there." Go here to listen to TSF’s full interview with Renzo, in which he discusses Serra’s preparation [...]

Off The Cuff... Edgar VS. Alvarez!

In early May, I was down at Almeida BJJ to shoot and produce a feature on Frankie Edgar tied to his photo shoot for FIGHT! magazine. That video will be on Fightmagazine.com soon. While working, I was lucky to witness one of the great sparring sessions in my day. Edgar was going toe-to-toe with Eddie Alvarez who was one week out from his fight V. Josh Neer. Now, I have known Frankie for some time, so I might be biased but he did seem to control the action. Standing, his fast hands and feet allowed him to get off first much like we saw against BJ and Sherk. Each man got a couple takedowns but the overall pace and forward movement seemed slightly in favor of Edgar. Now, in Eddie's defense, he may have been only seeking to work on one element of his game V. Edgar and only trying to react or setup something only he knew of, specific to the Josh Neer fight ... so in that respect, it was not a true test of each fighting the other under the same context. That said, there was not really anything off limits - it was vicious jab/right combos from Frankie followed, at one point, by a head over heel body-throw take-down from Eddie on Frankie ... neither giving an inch. It felt like the real thing minus the the bright lights and octagon. It seemed to get harsh a couple of times but that may have just been my read. In the end, hard core sparring at play. Two of the top-5 lightweights on the planet going after each other at 110% on a lazy Thursday morning in Hamilton, NJ. After the session, what did Edgar do... relax-no, he went to use a chainsaw and chop down small trees in a friend's backyard for three hours.