At UFC 288 we saw the return of Kron Gracie after on the shelf for over 3 years. Normally when a fighter takes a long extended period of time off they come back a better version of themselves but that wasn't the case with Gracie.

Even Dana Whit was critical of Rickson Gracie son's performance. Watching him fight was watching UFC 1 with Royce Gracie all over it. Gracie was looking for the takedowns every chance that he got and when he didn't get them he would just pull guard. From there he was just controlling Charles Jourdain in his guard without attacking and being that Jourdain is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt he was well-equipped to fend off all submission attempts.

Kron Gracie showed little to no striking in his return to the octagon when many believed we would see more out of him. He only attempted 56 total strikes compared to Jourdain's 168 strikes thrown. Gracie most recently opened up about his UFC 288 loss and said that ‘bad advice' was the reason why he didn't throw more punches.

It looked like he was trying to please the Jiu Jitsu community and his fans by coming back and getting a submissions victory at UFC 288. By doing that he did himself no favors going against someone as dangerous and as versatile as Jourdain.

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As dangerous as Gracie is on the mat, if he doesn't round out his skillset coming into his next fight with the UFC he could quite possibly be his last fight with the promotion. He showed off much improved striking in the Cub Swanson fight but then regressed 3 years later against Charles Jourdain.

It will be interesting to see who Gracie gets matched up with next and if holds himself accountable and actually lets his hands go no matter who is standing across form him.