MMA Spotlight 9.18.08: Royce Gracie

Posted by Reuel Mante on 09.18.2008

The first hero of modern MMA starts with the introduction of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in the United States.



In 1993, Rorion Gracie and Art Davie started the UFC as a tournament with the grand prize of $50,000. Ask a fighter like Keith Jardine if that's a big payoff and he'll agree. Davie originally wanted Rickson Gracie to enter the tournament but Rorian decided that Royce would be a better representative of Jiu-Jitsu being that he was a smaller than the other fighters. With speculation running around that this guy was going to just get bowled over by guys like 6'5" Gerard Gordeau or sumo wrestler Teila Tuli, what the audience saw was a 6 foot, 176 lb man take out three men in less 5 minutes of work to be crowned champion of UFC 1.

With intensity in his face and mean submission game, Royce submitted Ken Shamrock and Gordeau by choke and even submitted Art Jimmerson by mount. Yes, the official call for Jimmerson's tap out is by mount. A little side note is that Art was so nervous that he was going to get hurt. After discussing submission holds with Big John McCarthy, he was in a worse state of anxiety. Once Royce got the mount on him, he freaked a little and tapped out before Gracie could lock on submission hold. Despite that, I like to say that Royce was so scary then that even his mount was painful.

UFC 2 followed in the same pattern for Gracie. Instead of an eight man tournament, a sixteen man tournament was scheduled. All Royce need was 9 minutes to go on and win the entire event. People started talking about how invincible Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was as clearly no one had an answer for the ground game. Enter Kimo.

UFC 3 seemed to be looking like the same thing as the previous two events but Royce would battle Kimo Leopoldo in the first round. For the first time, UFC fans got to see Royce manhandled like never before. Pressed up against a cage and battling fiercely for position, the two went at it for almost 5 minutes until Royce was finally able to catch Kimo in a fight ending armbar. The fight was so intense that Gracie needed to be carried out by his brothers and was not able to continue in the tournament. Before his next round fight with Harold Howard began, the towel was thrown for Royce, ending an eight fight consecutive win streak that is only tied today by Jon Fitch.

UFC 4 saw Gracie return to form as he would go to the finals to face none other than Dan "The Beast" Severn. Severn's wrestling ability and size advantage allowed him to control Royce from beginning to end. Unfortunately for Dan, he was not able to finish the Brazilian and only dragged the fight out for Gracie's longest fight up to that point. In what seemed to be an eternity, Royce caught Severn in a triangle choke and forced the Michigan native to tap out. In his third tournament victory in the UFC, Royce cemented his legacy in the early annals of UFC.

UFC 5 turned out to be Gracie's last U.S. MMA event for 11 years. In a rematch from UFC 1, Gracie fought Ken Shamrock in the first superfight. I use the term superfight loosely because it was anything but that. Basically, Shamrock would get the takedown and then rest in Royce's guard for 34 minutes. Yes, there were no rounds, no standups for inactivity, and no judges. After the fight had run its time limit, the match was considered a draw. No wonder the Gracies left the UFC for so long.

5 years would pass before Royce would ever fight again. After Kazushi Sakuraba submitted Royler Gracie in Pride Fighting Championship, the Gracie family decided to gain a measure of revenge on the Japanese superstar. During the Pride Grand Prix tournament in 2000, Royce and family demanded special rules for a fight with Sakuraba. The rules followed as such:

15 minute rounds.
Unlimited rounds.
Fight can only end by knockout or submission.
Fight cannot end on a referee stoppage.

In what ended up being an epic confrontation, Kazushi Sakuraba would dominate Royce for 90 minutes before Gracie's corner threw in the towel. In an act of respect, Saku shook hands with Helio Gracie and called Royce the superior ground fighter.

Royce followed the event with two draws against Hidehiko Yoshida and Hideo Tokoro and an omoplata submission victory over Akebono in K-1. Then in 2006, Gracie was invited back into the UFC to face Matt Hughes at UFC 60.

In a classic past legend vs. future legend fight, Matt Hughes proved that the new breed of MMA fighter is more dominant as he quickly gained the takedown and full mount in less than 2 minutes of the first round. Then next two minutes displayed Hughes attempting to submit Gracie with a straight armbar but Royce was able to maintain composure and escape a submission. Not long after, Matt rained down punches and was able to control Royce into giving him his back and win the fight via TKO. To date, this is the last time Gracie has been in the octagon.

Gracie's last fight was a rematch with Kazushi Sakuraba. Not as exciting as their first bout, Gracie defeated Saku by unanimous decision after three rounds. The most surprising outcome of this fight however, was how Royce would test positive for Nandrolone. Since his suspension by the California State Athletic Comission, he has not fought since. In all honesty, I expected him to fight at the Yamma Pit Fighting event. No luck there.

Needless to say, Royce Gracie has stamped his name in MMA history. He was the one of the first two men inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. His win streak, as I said before, is only matched by Jon Fitch. His influence of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is still felt today. Do I feel that he can make a comeback? No. But it's always good to remember where the fighters of our era evolved from. Royce Gracie is truly a legend in the history of MMA.