Rener Gracie Apologizes To Korean Zombie For Defending Brian Ortega
Head coach Rener Gracie has apologized to the Korean Zombie for defending Brian Ortega’s actions over the weekend.
Ortega has been in the headlines after he slapped Jay Park — a Korean musician and translator for Zombie — in the crowd during UFC 248 this past weekend. “T-City” took issue with Park’s translation of comments made by Zombie and initially refused to apologize to him.
Gracie — Ortega’s head coach — commented on the now-deleted post in support of Ortega:
“Slapping a translator makes you a bully. Slapping an instigator makes you BULLYPROOF.”
Zombie, who attended Gracie’s seminar in the past, was shocked by the comment as he proceeded to call him out for it.
Gracie has now apologized as he explained his mindset in an Instagram post:
“To @KoreanZombieMMA. I took Brian under my wing at 13 years old, and since then he’s become of one of my best friends. He’s one of the most loyal and talented people I’ve ever met, but sometimes his emotions get the best of him. On Saturday night, his emotions got the best of him, and as his older brother, I will make sure he learns from this. Furthermore, when I made a comment on Brian’s post, it was clear that I took some of the trash talking directed at him personally, and my emotions got the best of me as well.
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The sequence of events is an unfortunate reminder that MMA is an entertainment sport, and regardless of what trash talking takes place outside of the ring, any and all fighting or physicality should only take place between the fighters and should always take place in the octagon.
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I too remember when you attended my seminar in Korea over three years ago. It was one of the highlights of my Asia tour. You were humble, respectful, and very technical. To this day, the training session I had with you remains one of my all-time favorites.
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I apologize for my comment, and I’m sorry your friend Jay Park had to experience the events that unfolded.
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Rener G.”
Zombie accepted the apology:
“Everybody makes mistakes and I am aware that It’s even harder to apologize than to make mistakes. So I appreciate for your apology,” Zombie wrote in a comment. “”It was one of the best experience for me to practice Jiu Jitsu with you and I truly enjoyed the time that we had even though I had to eventually Tap Out. I also would like to apologize for trash talking If your younger brother would Apologize to Jpark sincerely. Ortega should have made his post in sincere.”
Meanwhile, Ortega has also sincerely apologized to Park for his actions.
What do you make of the whole incident?
