Trading Ego for a Home

Eddie Kone’s jiu-jitsu journey started on March 12, 1996 — but the story starts earlier, in a troubled youth spent in children’s homes and stretches of homelessness. He came up scrappy and ego-driven, moving through karate, judo, and Thai boxing. Then the early UFC showed him what all of it was missing. He saw Royce Gracie on a VHS tape, and everything changed.

Kone flew to Rio, found the Gracie Academy in Botafogo, trained with Royler, and crossed paths with Helio and other icons — quitting striking on the spot after being submitted again and again by people he couldn’t hit. In this conversation with host Pete Deeley he talks about mentorship and the spiritual, community side of the art, UK gym politics, a memorable last-minute MMA fight won by triangle, and the students who transformed on his watch — including a blind practitioner and a child with cerebral palsy. Throughout, one theme holds: preserving the principles of Helio and Rickson.