Back in 2017, veteran BJJ black belt Ryron Gracie decided to take on a pretty unique challenge by grappling 3 opponents at the same time. It’s something that many critics of Jiu-Jitsu would say is impossible, given that the sport is generally considered to be useful against single opponents. Obviously Ryron is a member of the Gracie family though and if anyone was going to be capable of keeping up with multiple opponents at once, it would be someone like them. Every member of the family is pretty much raised on the mats, and Ryron himself was already teaching kids classes by the time he was 12 years old. When this sparring match took place, he was already a 4th degree black belt with several decades of training.
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Ryron Gracie vs 3 Opponents
It’s worth noting that Ryron Gracie didn’t just grapple with 3 random opponents, they were all students and it was relatively friendly sparring. They weren’t untrained or brand new though; as one of them was a blue belt and the other two were purple belts. Ryron starts out in guard and the three opponents quickly surround him and start going on the offensive. Obviously it was practically impossible to prevent them from passing his guard, as they were able to outflank him collectively in a very short space of time. Ryron was on the defensive from that point and although his students were clearly attempting to submit him, he was able to stay safe for several minutes.
After a while, Ryron was able to take top position against one of his opponents and start getting off some offense of his own. The threat of a choke makes the student give up his back, and it isn’t long then before Ryron is able to submit him. The odds are still stacked against Ryron even with one opponent out of play, but he’s able to take top position on one of the two remaining students immediately after. It takes just a few seconds for him to lock up an arm-triangle choke then and even though the other student is trying to help him escape, Ryron submits his second opponent.
At that point it’s just a regular sparring match, as Ryron only has one student left out of the 3 opponents that he started out with. It’s even quicker at that point as Ryron has a significant experience advantage over his student and he’s no longer handicapped by having to deal with anyone else. He submits him with an armbar and is able to finish out the sparring match by beating all 3 of them in a little less than 8 minutes in total. It was a genuinely impressive feat and one that a number of black belts might actually struggle to complete.
The footage of Ryron Gracie grappling with 3 opponents at the same time was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Gracie Breakdown:
