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Winning - Nowadays people celebrate
with flashy high-fives, guys pointing at their muscles,
high chest-to-chest bumps, screams and other such
emotional outlets when they win, hit a home run, make
the winning shot, sink that 30-foot putt.
Our
emotions seem to run rampant and we do whatever it
takes to let people know that we did some outstanding
feat. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that,
since I have been guilty of it myself. Rarely do you
see a guy, like the vintage Barry Sanders, simply
hand the ball to a referee after scoring the winning
touchdown. No emotional display, he just gave the
ball to the referee and ran back to the huddle.
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Losing - What about the guy that loses his boxing match and
blames the referee? The guy who throws a temper tantrum
after losing and won't shake his opponents hand? The
guy who misses the putt that could have given him
a million-dollar payday and then cries to the press
about the injustices he's suffered? What about a guy
like... Ryron Gracie, who just happens to be one of
the sons of the famous Rorian Gracie and the nephew
of Royce, Rickson and relative to many others of the
famous Gracie family. Recently, Ryron fought a sport
jiu-jitsu match against Mike Rose of Team Caique.
Mike was a student of Rorian and Ryron and Caique,
before Caique left the Torrance Gracie Academy to
open his own school. Ryron was expected to win, especially
since his younger brother, Rener, beat Mike a year
earlier at the King of the Hill tournament. Popular
thought is, "A Gracie shouldn't lose. They know
all the secret techniques." Well, Ryron lost.
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Sportsmanship
When Losing - After the fight, Ryron congratulated
Mike on what some would say was a huge upset. He then
had a 10 second chat with Caique, Mike's coach. This
in itself is somewhat normal. But what happened next
was something that you just don't see nowadays. Something
a little refreshing... that soon-to-be-famous, Ryron
smile. I don't know what was going on inside his head,
but his outward appearance displayed a look as if
he had just won. I had a chance to say a couple of
words to him after his defeat and could see no difference
in his demeanor. A few minutes later he was down on
the mat coaching his brother Rener. I said to myself,
" Isn't this the guy who just lost?!?!"
He would later enter the open division and claw his
way back to the finals to face, of all people, his
brother. Instead of seeing who was better between
the two siblings, Rener decided to forfeit the championship
to his older brother. Ryron was not happy with that;
and decided a double-leg should be applied on his
youngest brother in jest. Again, the classic Ryron
smile permeated the auditorium. You could see the
two brothers just love the game of jiu-jitsu.
Jockin'-
Is this writer jockin' on the Gracie brothers, especially
since he belongs to the Gracie Torrance rival, Machado
Jiu-Jitsu Academy? I think not. I had a chance to
meet the two brothers a year or so ago trying to coordinate
a super fight between them and some other fighters.
They both seemed humble, not the cockiness some would
expect to see from the future of the Gracie family.
I had heard a lot of negative reports about
the Gracie family and had sometimes myself been caught
up in the "Machado vs. Gracie" hype. But
after meeting these two guys and speaking with them
throughout last year, I have determined they are both
class acts. With that said, if I ever lost a match,
ball game, miss the putt and then have to acknowledge
the loss, no matter how I feel, I will say to myself,
"What would Ryron Gracie do?" He would probably
shake the guy's hand, give him a congratulatory hug
and tell him, "Good job."
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DISCLAIMER:
These are not necessarily the thoughts, comments or
opinions of GrappleTV. However, they are the thoughts,
comments and opinions of Esco. If you feel there is
something I left out, was totally wrong on or if you
want to write a rebuttal, send your e-mail Esco's
Editorial. If I feel like it, I will post
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