Cub Swanson says his beef was with jiu-jitsu politics, not Kron Gracie

TAMPA, Fla. – Cub Swanson’s relief after not only defeating Kron Gracie, on Saturday night, but also proving he could still put on crowd-pleasing fights in the way that has long made him a fan favorite, was palpable.

Swanson knows that you can’t fight at the highest level forever, but that only served to amp up the pressure in a way only other fighters can understand after he lost four consecutive fights.

But Swanson decided not to let that fact weigh his mind down going into the co-feature featherweight bout at Amalie Arena, and that mentality paid off.

Swanson put on a “Fight of the Night”-winning performance in his exciting battle with Gracie, earning across-the-board, 30-27 scores to take his eighth career UFC postfight bonuses and snap his losing streak.

“As fighters, we put pressure on ourselves – any crap people is talk nothing compared to what we do to ourselves,” Swanson told MMA Junkie after UFC on ESPN+ 19. “I was beating myself up. I needed this win. I put a lot of pressure on myself in the last fights. But for some reason, this fight, I knew it was gonna be tough – but I just kind of wiped it away and was like, ‘Hey man, just do what I do.’ I was pretty relaxed for this camp.”

Much was made going into the bout about a beef between Gracie and Swanson, the latter of whom got turned away from Gracie jiu-jitsu schools as he went to train for the bout.

Being the veteran, Swanson has a better grasp on the situation, and after the fight, he made clear to Gracie that he has no issue with Gracie with him personally, but rather with some of the more backwards thinking among some in the jiu-jitsu world.

“I told him I respected him,” Swanson said. “I respect him a lot. I know growing up, he’s probably had big shoes to fill. My beef wasn’t with him, per se – it was the politics of jiu-jitsu, and they can just decide to out someone, you know? I’m just not a fan of that kind of bully style. But I just wanted him to know that it’s not something that he did personally. When you go three rounds with someone like that, you say, ‘Hey man, keep your head up. I’ve got 30-something fights – you’re gonna come back stronger.’ He’s a warrior.”

While Swanson has spent much of his career with Jackson Wink MMA in New Mexico, he also is known for going from gym to gym and learning what he can. If Gracie wants to have Swanson’s career longevity, he believes his vanquished foe should consider doing the same.

“I think one of the biggest things is that he said maybe I’m not loyal,” Swanson said. “And in his day, which is old school, you’ve gotta stick it out with someone. But we’re in an era where you’ve gotta learn what everyone knows. You’ve gotta be a student of the game. You’ve gotta travel. That’s what a real samurai does. My advice to him is to travel – go be humble, go out and train, get as good as possible, and train with everybody. If you stick at one gym, you’re not gonna grow. He was wrong in that aspect.”