Metamoris founder and Gracie black belt Ralek Gracie is not one of the most liked jiu-jitsu practitioners in the art today. Between owing money to Metamoris competitors and heavily ridiculed “G-IN-A-GI” music video, the grandson of the legendary Helio Gracie has not exactly attracted the same positive attention as his other family members.
Now, it appears Ralek is once again earning the ire of the jiu-jitsu community. Less than 24 hours before this article was written, a BJJ practitioner named Nathan Hallford went on to Metamoris’ Facebook page and asked if the promotion would be using any of the entry fees to pay previous unpaid competitors.
Ralek’s response:
Hey buddy, we don’t exist to pay debts. We exist to make a difference for Jiu Jitsu and the people who care about Jiu Jitsu. We have adjusted our business model to account for not only past mistakes but future opportunities. Again because we care. Thank you!
Naturally, other people in the thread did not take kindly to Ralek’s response.
Sean Kennedy wrote:
“We don’t exist to pay debts” Who do you think you are? The arrogance of that statement is astounding. Anyone that supports you is a fool.
Luis Brazilva wrote:
Wow Ralek. That could’ve been said a lot differently. Wrong choice of words
Others pointed out what they believed to be Ralek’s hypocritical stance, considering he had once complained about not being paid by the MMA promotion he once fought in, Dream.
The negative comments forced Ralek to clarify his original statement.
I underestimated how much people want to take me out of context still. To be clear, paying debts from revenue earned is what businesses do to stay afloat. My response to Nathan (because he sounded like a troll) was based on the assumption that he knew our intentions were to cover anyone and everyone and my response was an attempt to give him more context as to our efforts toward growth in avoiding such issues, which I felt was the deeper issue at hand. No business has any chance of moving forward without applying the fullest efforts to pay what is owed.
About the link: Dream gave up. They never stayed in contact with me and they filed bankruptcy- they still owe me 60k but I wouldn’t take back the experience for anything. Now I have more compassion for them. They tried to build the Japanese audience and they took risks, they failed and future promotions will learn from them. I know the pain of not getting paid and I ended up paying people way too much to compensate for my emotions. That backfired.
We are pushing forward because that’s the most respectful thing to do if you owe anyone money. I should get back to it but I appreciate all your passion.
You can read the entire conversation between Ralek and his critics below.
https://www.facebook.com/metamoris/photos/a.470194073001115.104065.470193449667844/1258322714188243/?type=3&theater
Ralek is and always will be a douche. Anybody who supports him and his bullshit are idiots.