Royce Gracie - MMA Pioneer

Royce Gracie was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on December 12, 1966. He is 42 years old today. He is 1 of 7 boys in a family of 9 children. His father was the legendary Helio Gracie that created the world renown Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Royce compiled an amatuer record of 51-3 while competing in Brazil. All of the Gracie brothers played a part in making Jiu Jitsu what it is today. Royce was competing by the age of 8 years old and along with his brother Rorian were also teaching the art. By the age of 18 Royce was a black belt and the family had since moved to Torrance, California where Royce and brother Rorian began again teaching Jiu Jitsu from the family garage for what were sometimes 10 hours a day. What came of that little venture some 22 years ago in Torrance, now represents the largest Jiu-Jitsu Academy in the country. What the Gracie family has meant to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can be compared to what Micheal Jordan meant to basketball. The level of excellence that Helio Gracie purveyed to all that were taught Jiu-Jitsu under his care is second to none. It was only January 29th of this year that the great Gracie patriarch passed away at the age of 95. On the day of his father's passing Royce posted on his website: "Today my father, Helio, at the age of 95 passed on. I am honored to be the son of such a great man! He was an inspiration to me throughout my life. He was a man of small stature but his heart was that of a giant. Many of you may think that the greatest thing my father ever gave me was Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. But I want all of you to know that I will remember him most for what he taught me off the mat. He taught me how to be a man, a husband and a father. He taught me how to be the whole person."

It was late 1993 that Royce's brother Rorian along with Art Davie created the Ultimate Fighting Challenge (known today as the UFC) hoping to showcase Jiu-Jitsu's various grappling talents. It started as an 8 man elimination tourney with very few rules. Fighters came from various backgrounds to pursue the $50,000 top prize. The tourney had no weight limits for either being too heavy or too light so participants often had enormeous weight desparities to overcome in the octagon. Royce only weighed 175 lbs and fought with a "gi" suit on in what many felt was an advantage for him as they felt he used it as a form of ligature strangulation to subdue an opponent. Royce reeled off 8 straight submission victories winning UFC 1 & 2 before succumbing to injury after a war with Kimo Leopoldo in UFC 3 and having to forfeit his 2nd round fight against Harold Howard due to injury suffered in the Leopoldo match. The Leopoldo match represented the 1st real challenge to Royce as he was mauled much of the match by the overpowering Leopoldo. He managed to grapple and maintain his composure eventually winning by an armlock. After the forfeit loss in UFC 3, Royce came back to win the UFC 4 tournament by defeated the huge Dan Severn by triangle choke. He then fought in UFC 5 going to a draw with a young Ken Shamrock in a fight with no judges being present. It would be 5 years before Royce would fight again in 2000 and he clearly had lost much of the dominant grappling game that made him one of the most feared fighters in UFC history. Royce entered the octagon in 2006 at the age of 40 years old to fight then UFC Middleweight Champion Matt Hughes and was clearly over matched by the younger Hughes. Being stopped by strikes after Hughes mercifully relented in breaking Royce's arm earlier in the fight in a kimura hold that Hughes released because he knew Royce would not submit.

For me, Royce Gracie was much of the reason I am a huge MMA fan today. Those early fights in those 8 man tournaments where Royce would sometimes face 4 fighters in the same night and would face guys twice his size was the stuff legends are made of. Royce was an annaconda in the cage. He would attack, get a hold of his opponent and eventually make them tap from one of an array of Jiu-Jitsu submissions at his disposal. He and his family are the originators of the wildly popular sport of MMA that we all know and enjoy today. While the sport has advanced and the rules have changed. The same competitive fire that makes the champions of today appreciated is the same burning flame that attracted me to Royce Gracie many years ago. He was often outweighed by over 100 lbs in his matches. He would never opt for the stand up approach to fighting but rather utilizing the grappling form that he was an expert in. Even though all his opponents knew what he would do, he was that rare athlete that could still do it anyway. His opponents had no way of stopping his attacks. Before the Hughes fight Royce was quoted saying, "This is my house, I built it." That was so true. The UFC is the house that the Gracie family built. We must never forget that. MMA would not be what it is today without Royce Gracie & the Gracie family. The original pioneers of the sport that has exploded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3xA40wEtcI