As a member of the Gracies, the first family of MMA, and a long-time fighter in his own right, Renzo Gracie understands the fight game. His experience puts him in a position to share wisdom with fighters who are not headed in the right direction.
One fighter he shared his knowledge with? UFC 148 main eventer Chael Sonnen. Gracie saw this fight becoming more about trash talk than a match-up of two great fighters, so he reached out to Sonnen and gave some advice.
"I just told him that if he kept that trash talking he would be taking the greatness of the task that he had ahead of him," Gracie said to MMA Fighting. "He is fighting one of the best fighters of our generation, and people would lose the chance to know the real Sonnen, a great athlete who I saw young fighting hard back in the Japan days, building his career as a fierce fighter, a career that ended up turning him into one of the amazing people that populate our great sport.
Sonnen said the call from Gracie is what made him change his trash-talk obsessed ways.
"When you get a call from a Gracie, it's like getting a call from Randy Couture. You don't share your opinion. You listen, you say OK, and you hang up," Sonnen said.
When all is said and done, do you think the trash talking added to, or took away from Saturday night's title match-up between Sonnen and Anderson Silva?
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