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New Rickson Interview! Talks Sakuraba And Much More
Translation by:
MMA Europe website (from Portuguese)
Are you ready for your last fight?
I am very optimistic that it’ll happen this year... perhaps it will really be the last fight. In my heart, I have nothing to prove to anyone. I confess that the biggest motivation is to bring a comfort for my children, until today I do not have conditions.
No? Don’t you have a considerable bank account?
People cannot think thus. The conquests of the past don’t matter. If you have the chance to kill an enormous buffalo... I feel a hunter, a supplier for my family. I could not refuse a possibility of these.
Then it will be a lot of cash…
It will... I will put my “donkey in the shade” (meaning his undefeated record and prestige)...
How much will you be paid?
I cannot say it. Contractual issue, confidential.
Will it be in Japan?
Yes. It is where the best stage is. It’s on the work, but it’s not signed yet, I only keep my fingers crossed.
You are worshipped in Japan, right?
I cannot walk in the street in Japan. It is very difficult. They are crazy about martial arts, for the way of the warrior. They had been able to live and experience, through my experience, what they had in theory through the Musashi, the great warriors. Today, in Japan, I represent the modern samurai, and I am a reference for many people.
This last fight will be against Sakuraba?
I do not know... Speculation! For the time being I cannot guarantee, but it will be closed soon. I know that many people would like to fight with me to place my head in a wall. Many people speak of Sakuraba, the Gracie killer, right? If I have the chance to get him, it’ll be excellent.
You won’t lose that one, right?
Why would I think about losing, in this period of my life?
You cannot think about losing, are you afraid of the defeat?
Kid, I see fear as a sign of intelligence, of preservation. My biggest fear is to leave this world. I am afraid to die because I do not know what it goes to happen. I am only fear of what I do not know, because I cannot calculate the danger, how to act. Clearly, I am afraid, as everybody. But I “negotiate” with this feeling in a very simple way. I look to help itself making what I can to protect me. But when having to fight I leave all my fear in the hotel: it does neither enter the ring nor at the dressing room. After a certain point, when the situation is not rationally predictable, I deliver it to God. Then my fears are over, because I deliver my life to my mission and lose the fear to die, because everything is delivered to a superior determination that is not in my mind.
Do you feel like another person when you enter in ring?
No. I take off, totally, the conscience and enter in an emptiness zone. My mind stops thinking and I start to live inside my instinct and my training. I do not think about a thing, in nobody, I do not ear any noise. There’s just me and my opponent.
You speak constantly of God; are you a spiritual being?
A lot. I never went to a church or hall. But my father made me understand our relationship with the universe. That we do not choose when we came, we do not go to decide when we go. That there’s a reason for everything. And we have to honor this mission: people are here to serve. We cannot waste potential or any other resource. This made me alert to the context, the nature, the relation that I have with people, the respect that I have to the natural evolution of the things. I do not believe that everything’s over when one dies or that we born coming from nothing. I believe that there’s a spiritual luggage.
But do you believe in a God which observes us?
My definition of God is the only thing that you cannot explain, that is the space that exists between all molecules and atoms. That makes everything to turn. In the same way that the atoms never really touch, the Moon does not lean in the Land, the macro and micro atomic universes are the same thing. A piece of tissue is equal to a piece of the universe.
Do you have some ritual?
I pray. I look for to empty my mind of thoughts and to search for an open canal to an unknown superior entity and to accept the information that people do not speak and do not see.
Do you believe in a malignant force?
Clearly. But I think that good defeats evil.
Where is this evil force?
In our conscience. It is created in the hatred, the cowardice, the fear, the envy. It is created in the Man. It is not in the nature. If you aren’t alert and a shark catches you it wasn’t an evil action, it just followed the instinct. Badness is in you to know that you could help a child and you don’t. Or to know that you are acting of incoherent form with what is right to obtain money or some other easiness. To use the cowardice, to steal, for personal interests. But the Good simply has more power. Even if an atomic war comes and kill everybody, I find that the good goes to create everything in return. For more badness that the human being makes, even if he doesn’t want, it cannot neutralize the beauty of nature.
Are you pessimistic about the future of the planet?
I am not pessimistic, I am realistic. People will have to adapt. It is an obligation for us all to search for a solution to deal with the reality.
Do you think that the society and politics are capable of adapting while there’s time to?
No. The human mind is very egoistic. It is the generating factor of the problems of humanity. A man that produces oil will sell it until it runs out, he’s not going to think about offering clean water. What is being made is very small in relation to the necessity of the planet. The end of time is arriving, I mean, the end of oil, an atomic bomb... this S__t are going to arrive at any time.
Do you think a lot about this?
No. I am not worried about what does not exist. I only live the reality.
But doesn’t thinking about this mean that you are preparing yourself, just like happens for a fight?
Right, the strategic preparation is valid. But the concern, to lose the sleep, the lack of awareness lack that even if you want, there are things that you cannot change. Just like it happens in a fight, I can even anticipate some problems that my opponent can cause me, and train for that, but I will not go to lose my sleep for that. I have to accept that, eventually, in the worst of the hypotheses, I will lose and wake up in this situation.
Why did you come back to live in Brazil?
I’ve been about 20 years in the US. I am very grateful for what I obtained in terms of education for my children, for professional chances. But there’s emptiness in living outside of Brazil that is irreparable. We need an energy exchange, of a sentimental situation that does not exist there. This situation “pissed me off”. Now I am trying to keep my businesses overseas and have and headquarter here. I feel that in Brazil I obtain to receive energy and to give in the same level. There I feel that I am being sucked and I do not have a way to recycle that.
What’s in the US that sucks your energies?
It is more about the heart, of how I feel, as I locate myself in the world. I live for the reason, but I obey my heart. Being happy is the most important.
Were you always like this, with energy and spiritual concerns?
Since that I started to understand this. It is important that people have sensitivity to understand important values... Some people base their life upon money, their career or conquests.
And what’s the foundation?
It is to feel - emotional, moral and intellectually - happy. It is not about money, it’s not what is happening around me: it is about how I feel. Today, are you feeling well? I could not feel any better.
How was your childhood?
Like everyone who had a good childhood, it was balanced. I had much love in house, good advice and a certain control. And, coming from a traditional martial arts family, when you start to locate yourself in the world as a Gracie you’ll be pointed out like the next champion. Will “he” be equal to his father, won’t he, will he be good or is he going to slide to another side? And I started soon to incorporate this condition of being a Gracie, to relate me with jiu-jitsu in a deep form, to understand it not only in a philosophical way, but also professional.
You always wanted to become a fighter?
Since I was small I already wanted to be a fighter, to compete, to please my father, the expectations. My father did pay much attention to school. He did not want to know about the regular way or about golden medals. That was a good way for me to relate with him
How was your school bulletin?
Always red. I wasn’t into studying. I liked mathematics, sciences.
What about in the street?
Man, I was always a soldier of Good. But many times, to protect someone or to feel like a hero with testosterone, I fought in the street. My father always taught that if you are wrong you ask for excuses. If it is right you must be ready to die for it. Based in this, when you see somebody being damaged... I was kind of trying to be the sheriff. If you mix this kind of influence, a good dose of testosterone and lots of ignorance for being a kid... it’ll turn into an aggressive formula.
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