Rickson vs. Rigan: background and aftermath (part 3)

Rickson dug deep when asked about events surrounding his 1986 fight with Rigan Machado. If you need to get caught up, check out part 2 here.

Our own Luca Atalla, an eyewitness to much of what was going on in the jiu-jitsu scene at the time, had a follow-up question regarding whether Rickson and Carlos Jr. were avoiding each other almost a full decade later: "Renzo hadn't had too much contact with you as a grown-up fighter. But after he started fighting professionally, Carlos Jr. only was in his corner in the first match in the World Combat Championship. After that, he didn't show up anymore. I was with Renzo, and you were at almost every Renzo fight after that. And you went to Hawaii to follow up when he fought B.J. Penn, you went to Japan several times... So you were very present in his corner no matter what happened."

Luca's curiosity was finally satisfied as the master answered:

"For me, Renzo is always a dear brother. I feel like I was committed to help him the best I can; and I'm always proud to see him display his courage and his techniques on the mat, in the ring, and it was great—every time was just good emotions and good vibes.

"What made me feel like I'm a little away from other members of the family was not exactly personal or a lack of anything; it was just more logistics; I'm in California; it was a little not too accessible for others. Basically, it was nothing premeditated, it was not an intention, but it happens that I don't have much access to the newer generations to keep following up. 

"I feel that it isn't coming from me, the distance; maybe other members of the family, for any reason, keep some distance that's avoiding them getting close to me, but I'm not sure. I feel like I have done my best, I have tried to help all the family members I could, and it's always a pleasure to be involved with family members and jiu-jitsu."