Rivalries: Neiman Gracie

Neiman Gracie appears poised for another move towards the top of the Bellator MMA welterweight ladder and the space incumbent champion Yaroslav Amosov now occupies.

The 33-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will take his second turn as a marquee attraction when he meets Sanford MMA’s Logan Storley in the Bellator 274 main event on Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Gracie has alternated wins and losses in each of his past four appearances. He last competed at Bellator 266, where he put away Mark Lemminger with punches and a follow-up elbow strike in the first round of their Sept. 18 pairing. It lasted all of 87 seconds.

As Gracie makes final preparations for his showdown with the once-beaten Storley, a look at some of the rivalries that have shaped his brief but eventful career to this point:

Ed Ruth

Gracie moved to 9-0 as a professional and put a significant feather in his cap when he submitted the three-time NCAA wrestling champion with a rear-naked choke in the fourth round of their Bellator MMA welterweight grand prix quarterfinal at Bellator 213 on Dec. 15, 2018. Ruth checked out 2:17 into Round 4, having raised the white flag before a crowd of 8,293 at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. After a competitive first three rounds, Gracie turned the fourth into a rout. He struck for a takedown inside 40 seconds, advanced to mount and floated to the back when a visibly fatigued Ruth tried to scramble free. Once there, Gracie secured his position with a body triangle, applied some ground-and-pound and hand fought until the choke was in place. His situation having grown undeniably dire, Ruth was left no choice but to surrender.

Rory MacDonald

The Tristar Gym cornerstone looked like his old self in the Bellator MMA welterweight grand prix semifinals—an unfortunate development for the previously unbeaten Gracie. MacDonald exposed the substantial divide between champion and challenger, as he retained his 170-pound title and advanced to the tournament final with a unanimous decision in the Bellator 222 headliner on June 14, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York. All three cageside judges struck scorecards for the Canadian: 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47. Gracie enjoyed some success with a series of early calf kicks, threatened with a kneebar in the second round and achieved and maintained full mount in the fifth. However, it was not nearly enough to surpass MacDonald’s efforts. The mercurial Firas Zahabi protege battered Gracie with a consistent jab, snuck in a few right hands and did his best work on the ground, where he willingly engaged the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and assaulted him with punches, both from inside guard and from a standing position.

Jon Fitch

Gracie put the former World Series of Fighting titleholder and longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship contender out to pasture when he submitted him with a heel hook in the second round of their Bellator 246 co-feature on Sept. 12, 2020 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Fitch conceded defeat 4:47 into Round 2 and subsequently announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. Gracie engaged the American Kickboxing Academy export at close range, executed multiple takedowns and slowly but surely established himself as the superior fighter. He took down Fitch late in the second round, isolated his left leg and went to work on the finish. Soon after, the heel hook was in place and the career of one of the most successful welterweights of all-time was over.

Jason Jackson

The onetime Legacy Fighting Alliance champion opened some eyes with a unanimous decision over Gracie in the Bellator 255 co-main event on April 2, 2021 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28 for Jackson. It was a disjointed encounter between two of the promotion’s premier welterweights. Jackson struggled through a bizarre exchange on the ground in the first round, as his face contacted the cage and scraped downward, resulting in damage to his left eye. Gracie had accepted bottom position at the time of the incident but reversed into full mount and appeared to be closing in on a finish while his temporarily blinded opponent was attempting to figure out what happened. Jackson withstood those efforts and extended the fight into a second round, where he managed to gather himself. He conceded two takedowns in the middle stanza but flexed his superiority on the feet with leg kicks and crisp one-twos, ultimately turning the tide in his favor. Jackson did his best work in Round 3, where he defended a takedown from the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, landed in top position and piled up control time while denying attempted sweeps.