You likely know by now that 49-year-old Royce Gracie is returning to MMA to take on 51-year-old Ken Shamrock at Bellator 149. The man famous for helping to put Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the map has never been someone that was going to take over a fight on the feet, but he is still working on his standup. He's even teaming up with kickboxing champ and fellow Bellator fighter Joe Schilling ahead of the February bout.
In a conversation with MMA Junkie, Schilling sold his trainee pretty well, even going so far as to say he's "dangerous":
"He’s dangerous on his feet; he has skills there. Obviously, he’s Royce Gracie and we’re not going to try to change his style of Gracie jiu-jitsu, but I think he’s learning a lot of things and has a lot of potential.
"We’ve done a lot of training, but for the most part, we’re just focusing a lot on him and his standup. He has a great work ethic and he doesn’t have any...he comes in like a regular student and works hard and is focused and pays attention. It’s really nice."
...
"It’s more on balance and basic kickboxing that we’ve worked on; he’s dangerous and you just have to give him the task and explain to him. He wants to get better so it’s a lot of fun. It’s inspiring being around him and you can tell he’s excited for this fight."
Sure, okay. Gracie and Shamrock have met twice before, both over 20 years ago. Gracie hasn't fought since 2007, while Shamrock was stopped by Kimbo Slice last year in Bellator.
Bellator 149 goes down in the Toyota Center in Houston on February 19th.