Renzo Gracie is never one to hold back when telling a story, but it took his niece Rayra to get him to open up about a near-miss situation from his youth. 

Gracie explains that as a youngster his family had a number of guard dogs to protect their property. 

We had a dog in the house. The dogs had to be so nasty because there were always people trying to jump the wall to go in the house and steal things. Our dogs were the nastiest dogs. 

For me to get into the house I had to talk to the dog for an hour and a half from the top of the wall until he stopped growling at me. 

One day, that dog grabbed me – I was fighting my cousin Ricardo – in the middle of the fight the dog charged and grabbed me by the private parts. 

As people tried to pull the dog, I grabbed the dog and said ‘don’t pull it! Leave it! Leave it!’ 

My amazing mom grabbed the dog’s ear to twist it, he turned to bite her and I was free to run!

 
Watch the full 10-minute interview right below. The dog story starts at 7.15. ​​