Photo by Sherdog

Shine Fight Promotions continues to add quality talent to their roster with the addition of heavyweight Rolles Gracie (3-1). Rolles is the son of the legendary BJJ practitioner Rolls Gracie, who was raised and trained by his uncle Helio Gracie, the co-founder of Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

As a three-time Pan-American Champion, No-Gi Pan-American Champion, and No-Gi National Ultra-Heavyweight Champion, Rolles is an accomplished grappler in his own right.

Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers commented on adding Rolles to their roster:

“Rolles Gracie is one of the best grapplers in the world. He is consistently working on developing his game and he is ready to show his true capabilities in ring.  If there is one thing history has taught us , it is that an in shape, ready to go Gracie, is a very dangerous thing.

Gracie had his first professional MMA fight in 2007 in the IFL against Sam Holloway (6-4). It took him just 1:49 to submit Holloway with a rear-naked choke.

His next two pro MMA fights took place in 2009 at Art of War in China, where he scored first round submissions over both Baga Agaev and Peter Graham.

In late 2009, Gracie signed on with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, however, was released after just one fight, a second round TKO loss to Joey Beltran at UFC 109 in February of this year.

Rolles spoke about signing with Shine:

“I am very excited to be a part of the Shine organization. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to come my way, and I am confident that this is going to be a great partnership. I’m looking forward to doing big things with Shine.”

Although a press release from Shine released on Wednesday states that no date has been finalized for Gracie’s debut, if our report from last week stands true, he will be fighting UFC and IFL veteran Mike Ciesnolevicz (18-4, 1 NC) on Jan. 8. The Ultimate Fighter season eight winner Efrain Escudero is also supposed to fight on the card.

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