BJJ and MMA have been linked since the very beginning of both sports, and nobody knows that better than Royce Gracie. He learned how to grapple directly from his father Helio Gracie, one of the original Vale Tudo competitors in the Gracie family. Not only was he able to pick up a ton of lessons from those who came before him, but Royce Gracie also carved out his own path in combat sports as well. He shot to fame when he won the original openweight MMA tournament at UFC 1 and in the early 1990s, he was practically synonymous with the sport.
That was the very beginning of MMA as an organised sport, and Royce Gracie was able to establish himself as the best in the world right from the start. He went on to win subsequent tournaments at UFC 2 and UFC 4, before battling Ken Shamrock to a draw in the inaugural UFC Superfight Championship fight. Although he took some time away from the sport after that fight, he returned to feature in some of the most famous moments of all time. From his legendary 90-minute fight with Kazushi Sakuraba to his ill-fated return from retirement to challenge for the UFC welterweight world championship, Gracie stayed relevant for years to come.
Royce Gracie was asked about the the state MMA in the modern era, and whether he felt that BJJ wasn’t used to it’s full extent:
“Yes and no. A lot of the time it’s the influence of the coaches. The coaches tell the fighter: ‘beat him up!’ So when he gets in a good position, instead of finishing the fight he goes to try to beat him up. He wants to make the guy bleed. He wants to show domination by beating him up instead of showing technique.”
Royce Gracie was also asked about BJJ competitors transitioning to MMA in general and he believes that it’s actually an important move to make:
“Eventually, everyone should do it. The Jiu-Jitsu, the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that my father created, wasn’t for a tournament to score a point. It was for street self-defense. So at the end of the day, it’s a fight. It’s a self-defense style, to defend yourself in a street situation. Fighting inside of a cage for the UFC or for an MMA show is just as close as you’re gonna get to a fight on the street. A lot of people sometimes train all their lives and never have a chance to do it. They never have a chance, they don’t get attacked, they don’t get into a fight in the streets. So by entering MMA, yes you have a chance to use it. The Jiu-Jitsu my father created, it wasn’t for a points system for a tournament.”
The full interview with Royce Gracie where he discusses the relationship between BJJ and MMA was uploaded to the official Jits Magazine YouTube channel:
