Mark Tripp did not buy a copy
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Ron IMO.
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I don’t know, I was young at the time and he seemed very spiritual, zen, and at peace. This is how he came across to me.
Has anyone mentioned that Rockson would have been the undefeated UFC champion yet?
He was THAT good.
I think there are many fair criticisms of the man (and a few over-the-top) here, but none of us really know how we’d react to a tragedy like losing a son until it happens. It’s a cliché, but it’s every parent’s greatest fear for a reason.
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Went and bought the Kindle version cause of this thread. Short book so I’m already 30% of the way through.
So he left school at 13 because he couldn’t be bothered. He has the education level of a 12yr old.
Helio didn’t get him on about it but said to not expect him to provide extra for him because he didn’t educated (ie not more than food and a place to live).
Rickson’s reaction to the money situation was to join a street gang, deal drugs and steal.
This was until he got busted holding a large stash of weed and Helio flushed it.
Rickson then started teaching bjj for a paycheque.
As an 18+yr old he tripped on mushrooms, surfed, drank a lot of whiskey and did a lot cocaine. He credits needing to be sober to teach bjj daily with stopping him from taking the party lifestyle too far.
I’ll give him credit for honesty. He paints a different picture in this book than his long held public image.
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Agreed.
What was his reason for not fighting anyone decent before Rockson died?
I suspect Ron didn’t buy a copy, either.
So hes an uneducated drug dealing gangbanger that never worked a real job and started an academy he lets someone else run while he gets high and surfs.
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Correction……he didn’t start an academy. He worked at one. 
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Yeah like apple and uncle creepy and radach and company.
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I think it was just the picture inside the suitcase and the fact it was an odd combo of drugs in his system that killed him.
For those that can’t be bothered reading the book, Rockson’s suitcase was mailed to him anonymously and inside was a hand drawn picture of the grim reaper standing on a mound of skulls.
Rickson is surprisingly blunt and negative about Rockson’s behaviour in the few years leading up to his death and says he got far too into gang culture and east coast vs west coast stuff to the point he didn’t think it was a good idea why he was visiting NY in the first place and questioned him on it.
So he took the suitcase mailing and picture as a fuck you, a mocking of the parents of the deceased from whoever killed his son.
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Call me crazy, but I remember thinking at the time that Funaki might give Rickson problems as he had some legit skills.
I was more referring to him running off to Brazil, etc. I hope I wouldn’t abandon my family in that situation, but that kind of loss can break a man.
C’mon, he wasn’t present before. If you’re admitting to cheating on your wife constantly that means admitting to the lifestyle that comes with chasing pussy like that.
If your kids are running around with gangs when they had an otherwise privileged upbringing, you fucked up somewhere. It’s not like they grew up in the hood scrounging for food and getting nothing for Christmas.
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Just finished it.
…I’d say it’s worth checking out if you’ve been around bjj/mma for the last couple of decades.
For those here posting negative things about him, he pretty much says the same things about himself in the book. It’s not the rose coloured nostalgia and mythology you’d expect.
Really the only thing detractors may find unacceptable is that he doesn’t really offer any good excuses for avoiding the top fighters of the 1990s. Instead it comes off that he really wasn’t interested at all in testing himself and it was only that Japanese promoters kept offering silly amounts of money with the goal a top Japanese star could beat him.
He does say he assumed that his second big Pride paycheque would be Mark Kerr and he was starting to think about that but then their offer was a Takada rematch for $1.2m …lol can you blame him?
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His crazy bitch girlfriend would have stuck one up kerr’s ass later that night. Celebration and all.
I don’t disagree with either point, but chasing tail is practically his family tradition.
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That they conveniently leave out of their popular narrative. Again, if you weigh their advertised story and personas vs the actual men, they’re like the literal antithesis of one another lol. If they were just like “yeah, we like fighting and fucking and doing what we want”, I could respect that.
I can’t abide. Be yourself bros
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Who else thinks Rickson was the “family champion” back when BJJ was practiced by about 300 people because he was the biggest and most athletic Gracie of that era? (not saying much)
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I live like 2-3 miles from Rickson. If I see him, going to ask him to check out this thread lol
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