Dana White has been told by one of MMA's original regulators to cut Kron Gracie after yet another loss on Saturday night.
The Jiu-Jitsu black belt was viciously knocked out by Bryce Mitchell at UFC 310 after a fight that drew the ire of fans for its intense fighting. It brought his losing streak to three after he returned to the octagon last year, and now leaves him without a win for more than five years.
Gracie is a member of a famous family in UFC and MMA history, but seems limited in his stand-up and wrestling games. And there are now increasing calls for him to be released, including from some experts in the sport.
Dana White told him to cut John McCarthy's Kron Gracie
After the fight, there seemed to be a universal feeling among fans and pundits that Kron Gracie's time on the roster might be over. His last and only win under the UFC banner came against Alex Caceres in 2019, and he has since been defeated twice in his comeback.
One man who knows the Gracies and MMA in general better than anyone is former referee John McCarthy, who helped shape the sport's original rules. And he thinks the time is right for Gracie, saying on his Weighing In podcast: “I think they're releasing him.
'The experiment is over, it doesn't matter what your name is if you're going to fight like he did. You have to say he came close in the second round, and he did. The arm bar was there for a while and it was good.
“But you can't have someone jump on guard and pull guard all the time. Bryce Mitchell shouldn't get any credit for any takedowns because he didn't do a single takedown, he even said it at the end of it, they said 'that's a takedown' and he says 'that wasn't a takedown, Kron f* **ing pulled the guard'.
“I even texted you [co-host Josh Thomson]to take guard and keep a closed watch? Yes, this is going to go well. It's like, 'What the hell, man?' This sport has progressed, you know it has, I know it has, people are so good at all these different things.
“You can't be a jiu-jitsu stylist who doesn't have stand-up or real wrestling and you're going to pull guard and expect to win. It won't happen, or at least it's very rare.
Bryce Mitchell admits his arm almost broke during the fight against Kron Gracie
During the 10 minutes and 39 seconds the fight lasted, Kron Gracie did not score a takedown and only scored six significant hits. However, there was a moment of brilliance on his back in the second where he almost locked in an armbar, which Mitchell admits nearly won him the fight.
Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images
'If I had struck an attitude [up] Man, he would have broken my arm,” Mitchell explained to TNT Sports. “I've trained with some of the best, if not the best, arm bar specialists in the world and it just took every bit of knowledge, patience and wisdom.
“About a minute before he got me in, I knew I was in trouble. So leading up to all those series I was actually trying not to give up on my back. I felt the option was: 'Give up the back or let him go for the arm.'
“My instincts told me, 'Don't give this man your back or he'll break your neck' and my instincts made him grab my arm and they did everything they could to keep my arm safe – but it was really close.”
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