Royce Gracie
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Royce Gracie (born December 12, 1966) is a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter who revolutionized the martial arts world in the early 1990s with a string of quick victories over larger opponents in the UFC. Royce had 11 wins by submission on his way to capturing three tournament titles between November 12, 1993 and December 16, 1994. His results changed attitudes towards traditional martial arts and fueled a movement of fighters towards the grappling arts.
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Biography
Childhood
Royce is a son of Helio Gracie, originator of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and spent his childhood in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. As a toddler, Royce learned Jiu-Jitsu from his father and his older brothers Rorion, Relson, and Rickson Gracie. Royce began competing at the age of 8. Royce attained the level of blue belt at the age of 16, and a year later was invited by his brother Rorion to help teach Jiu-Jitsu from his garage in America. Despite not knowing English, Royce accepted the offer and moved to California.
The Gracie Challenge
Royce received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 18 and soon began fighting in defense of the $100,000 "Gracie Challenge". This publicity stunt was an open challenge to all martial artists to see if they could defeat a Gracie in a no-rules fight. Most of these matches took place ad hoc in the Gracie gym when challengers would show up to fight. Many of these fights were videotaped and included in the Gracie In Action video series. While Gracies have lost in competition, there is no record of anyone successfully winning the Gracie Challenge. Royce had never fought professionally, but that would change on November 12, 1993.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship
Brainchild of Rorion Gracie and Art Davie, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament with very few rules that would award $50,000 to the winner. The basic premise was to find out how different styles of martial arts would fare against each other. Art Davie placed ads in martial arts magazines and sent letters to anyone in any martial arts directory he could find to recruit competitors for the event. Among the takers were kickboxer Patrick Smith, #1 ranked shootfighter Ken Shamrock, and Savate world champion Gerard Gordeau.
While Art Davie felt that Royce's older brother Rickson Gracie, who was stronger and more skilled than Royce, was the obvious choice as the Jiu-Jitsu representative, Rorion Gracie chose Royce to represent the family style. At 175 pounds, the Gracie family felt that Royce would be the perfect fighter to demonstrate the claims that Jiu-Jitsu techniques could be employed to overcome a larger opponent.
In his first match, Royce defeated his opponent, boxer Art Jimmerson, once a top ten cruiserweight contender for the WBC. He tackled him to the ground and obtained a dominant "mounted" position on top. Jimmerson quickly conceded defeat, unable to escape the position.
In the semi-finals, Royce looked to be the underdog against 220-pound Ken Shamrock, who showed excellent grappling skills in his first-round submission win over Patrick Smith. Royce immediately rushed Shamrock, who sprawled effectively and got on top of Royce. Shamrock then grabbed Royce's ankle and sat back to attempt the same finishing hold he used to finish his first match, but Royce rolled on top of him and secured a rear choke that forced Shamrock to tap the mat in submission.
In the finals, Royce was again outweighed by 40 pounds, but defeated Savate World Champion Gerard Gordeau, taking his opponent to the ground and securing a rear choke. This victory, along with future UFC events, had a substantial impact on the public image of martial arts and fighting systems. Striking arts like Karate began to lose some of their appeal to grappling arts such as Sambo, Judo, and Royce's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Over the next year, Royce Gracie continued his winning streak in the UFC, obtaining submission wins over fighters such as Patrick Smith, 250-pound European Judo Champion Remco Pardoel, and Kimo Leopoldo. His final UFC victory was in a match that lasted for 16 minutes (there were no rounds or time limits at the time), during which he was continuosly pinned underneath 260-pound wrestler Dan Severn. At the end of a long and competitive match, Royce locked his legs in a "triangle choke" for a submission victory. The match extended beyond the pay-per-view time-slot and viewers, who missed the end of the fight, demanded their money back. Changes would have to be made if the sport was to be profitable.
Time limits were introduced into the sport in 1995 and Ken Shamrock would become the first fighter to survive Royce Gracie's submission attack and earn a draw. The match lasted for 30 minutes before it was stopped. Frustrated by the new rules (such as time limits and the standing-up of fighters if the fight became a stalemate and lacked true progression in the eyes of the officials), Rorion sold his share of the UFC and Royce would never again step into the octagon.
His first registered loss came shortly after he finished his tenure in the UFC where he was choked unconsious with a "clock choke" by Wallid Ismail in a no time limit Jiu Jitsu tournament in Brazil.
It should also be noted that Royce's official UFC record includes one loss, although there is some dispute as to its veracity. In the third round of UFC 3, Royce was to face fighter Harold Howard in the semi-finals. While Royce came out to the ring, he was still completely exhausted from his prior match against Kimo Leopoldo, and had to be physically helped to the ring. Before the Howard match began, Royce's corner threw in the towel. Some have claimed that this loss should not count on Royce's record, as the match had not actually started. However, because Royce came out to the ring, the UFC considers this an official loss on his record.
Challenge to PRIDE Fighting Championship
With each of his first 11 victories, many in the martial arts world were impressed with Gracie and began cross-training in Jiu-Jitsu.
One fighter in particular, Kazushi Sakuraba, a wrestler with excellent submission skills, repeatedly demonstrated the weaknesses of pure Jiu-Jitsu, by effectively nullifying the takedowns and submission attacks, while dominating the stand-up fighting with punches and kicks. Royce Gracie returned to the sport of mixed martial arts in 2000 and entered the the 16-Man Pride Grand Prix with dominant heavyweights Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, and Igor Vovchanchin, along with top middleweight Kazushi Sakuraba.
Royce advanced to the quarterfinals, beating Nobuhiko Takada, before finding himself matched up with Sakuraba. The match was to be without a time-limit, and Gracie and Sakuraba battled for an hour and a half. Finally, Kazushi Sakuraba's leg kicks took their toll and Rorion Gracie threw the towel in before round 7 was to begin, due to Royce's inability to walk on a broken foot. This was Royce Gracie's first defeat*, and would demonstrate that the sport and fighters had evolved in the past five years.
Royce returned to Pride in 2003 and showed off new-found striking skills and strong ground game against Judo gold-medalist Hidehiko Yoshida. The match went the distance and since there were no judges, it ended in a draw. However, consensus was that Royce's performance was dominant enough to avenge an earlier controversial limited-rules match against Yoshida, in which the referee stopped the match due to Yoshida and the referee's perception that Royce was choked unconscious. To this day, Royce claims that he was not unconscious and was just merely pinned underneath Yoshida.
Royce's most recent victory was against the former sumo wrestler Taro Akebono whom he defeated with an armbar two minutes and thirteen seconds into their fight.
See also
- List of male mixed martial artists
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- Helio Gracie (Father)
- Rickson Gracie (Brother)
- Renzo Gracie (Cousin)
- Rorion Gracie (Brother)
External links
- Official Website (http://www.roycegracie.tv/)
- Current Fight Record (http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?fighterID=19)