In his second MMA fight, Rolles Gracie, son of the legend Rolls Gracie, was the big star of the Art of War 12, which did a mega event in Beijing, China. Doing justice to the last name, the Gracie showed that the ground game is his area, submitting the Russian Baga Agaev with a rear naked choke. After the victory, which was watched closely by a lot of fight icons such as Rickson, Royler, Royce, Werdum, Demian, Shaolin and Thales, the black belt chatted with TATAME.com about the emotion of the victory. Check below the chat with Rolles, who spoke about his life in the United States, career goals and more.

This was your first fight in MMA?

This is my second, I fought another a year and a half ago, and spent that time giving lots of classes, focusing on the academy to compete at the No-Gi Pan American, but this year everything is set for me to fight for at least two more times... It will be good.

Are you higher than Roger (Gracie)? What is your height and weight?

Yeah, I'm a little bit higher than Roger, and weighted 113kg for the event. I have 1.95 m.

How was your first experience in MMA?

I was very calm. Despite having just few experience in MMA, I'm already living in the center of the fight for a long time, competing in Jiu-Jitsu. I was well trained and that makes me confident... When you enter and know that haven’t trained enough, you get worried thinking "should I had to have trained more?", but as I was training the whole year...

Did you see any video of your opponent? When you heard about the fight, how much time to train did you have?

I had almost three weeks to train, but I was already training because I was suppose to have fought in April, but I hurt my knee and thought it was best to stop a little, then this opportunity appeared. I was in Renzo's house and asked if I could fight the event, but not as a guest, I said I wanted to go there to fight, and then I made the contact and happened.

You never had much contact with your father, because you’re too young... Do you feel much pressure to be the son of a legend?

I don’t feel pressure because of my father, but I want to win and pressure myself, and the pressure is normal for any athlete who is there and wants to win and be in the heads, and not be there to make numbers.

What is your dream, do you dream of fighting in the UFC?

We are organized, with a manager focused to get us the fights and I want to fight in the best organizations, UFC, Japan, everything.

Will you fight the ADCC?

Yes, I have signed, it is certain. This year I should do two more fights in MMA and the ADCC... It will be no time until the end of the year.

After you have won the prize, Rickson said anything to you?

It was nice... Two or three days before the fight we went to the academy, made some positions, stayed together, he showed his view, it was quite nice, because I had said that, when I was younger, with 14 or 15 years old, I had a little class with him, where he showed me a way to defend the arm-locks that I use until today. I told him that, the things he showed me I do today, I liked a lot of the experience with my family, Royler, Royce.

Where are you living? How is your life?

I was living in New York, now I moved out of there, and we opened a new academy.

Is there any modality that you train more than Jiu-Jitsu?

Before I begin to fight MMA, I always liked to train the falls standing, Judo, Wrestling. I like to train everything, punch, kick, but the thing I practice more is Jiu-Jitsu, I practice almost every day, along with other modalities. I believe a lot in Jiu-Jitsu, which for me is the backbone of MMA. A guy who doesn’t know Jiu-Jitsu won’t survive for a long time in MMA.

How would you define the importance of your father in Jiu-Jitsu?

What I hear my uncles and my older cousins talk is that he was almost a bridge of the old Jiu-Jitsu to the new Jiu-Jitsu, making the modality more aggressive. Formerly it was more a defense fight and he began to see the offensive part and began to fight to get it, to do it  fast. When he died, I was four years old and Igor was two. I have many memories of him, remember him taking us, taking to the Parque da Cidade, in Rio, to the academy, putting us to roll in the mat, playing... I was a child, but I had a good contact.

Who is your idol in Jiu-Jitsu and MMA?

My uncles, my cousins and, always when I was a child, different from other boys who wanted to be a soccer player, fireman, I wanted to be equal to my uncles. They were my idols and I never saw myself doing anything different.

Now you have 30 years old. When you were with 15, Royce was starting to shine...

Yes... No only the MMA part, but I already knew that I would end up getting involved with the part of Jiu-Jitsu.

And what did you think of the event itself, of the MMA getting into China?

I think that it will explode, because China is a big market, South Asia also... The guys said that they’ll show this event on TV after for 300 million people, roughly the population of the USA. Then, they should take this event to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai... They have a TV show every Sunday, began with an hour, now they have MMA the whole day in the weekend. It has everything to explode. The event is very well organized, the production is cool, the card also, the fights were great, of course is still starting…