Royce Gracie

Template:MMAstatsbox Royce Gracie, pronounced Hoyce Gracie (born December 12, 1966) is a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Gracie became well-known in the mid 1990s with a string of submission victories over larger opponents in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Between 1993 and 1994, he won 11 matches by submission and was the tournament winner of UFC 1, UFC 2, UFC 4, and fought to a draw with Ken Shamrock in the superfight at UFC 5. These results contributed to the movement towards grappling, cross-training and MMA. Demonstrating that skill and style can beat strength and size, he produced notable wins over Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Biography

Royce is a member of the Gracie family. He is the son of Hélio Gracie (Helio, along with his older brother Carlos Gracie, are the originators 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. He began competing at the age of 8 and by the time he was 16 had attained the level of blue belt. A year later he 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. He competed in a number of Jiu-Jitsu tournaments in Brazil and the United States and compiled an amateur record of 51-3. Royce received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 18

The Gracie Challenge

It has been speculated that soon after he received his black belt he started what was called the "Gracie Challenge," in which competitors would face him in a No Rules contest till either submission or knockout for $100,000. This claim was nullified in an interview with Royce himself from silvervision.co.uk in which he states, "It wasn't really a $100,000 challenge. My brother had a big problem with one of the big American kick boxers. Somebody was going to do the commentary for the chapter and they called my brother, and asked if he wanted to face him. He said that he would face any one in MMA. My brother had already faced him before and beat him before. He told them to ask him if they knew who he was facing as he should know who he is facing. Benny the Jet pretending he didn't know 'I don't know who the Gracie's are' so they made a bet to put a $100,000 down each and fight for something. Benny the Jet backed down on that he didn't want to put his money down so instead put his belt against the $100,000 and said if my brother won he would become the World Champion in Kick Boxing. My brother doesn't know kickboxing, he would give his belt to my brother and if my brother would have to lose he would have to give him $100,000."

The Ultimate Fighting Championship

Brainchild of Rorion Gracie and Art Davie, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was an eight-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, Pancrase fighter 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, and with a frame much smaller than his opponents, 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 journeyman boxer Art Jimmerson. He tackled him to the ground using a baiana (morote-gari or double-leg) and obtained the dominant "mounted" position, also pinning Jimmerson's left arm around the boxer's own neck. Mounted and with only one free arm Jimmerson conceded defeat, mostly due to frustration rather than submission. Jimmerson earned $20,000 for the fight.

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. Shamrock has later stated that Gracie used his gi suit as a tool for ligature strangulation to perform the submission, protesting the fact that he was not allowed to wear his wrestling shoes because the event organisers had stated that it could be used as a weapon, feeling that the rules for the tournament were created to favor Gracie.

In the finals, Royce was again outweighed by 40 pounds, but defeated Savate World Champion Gerard Gordeau (who broke his hand in the first round of the tournament against Teila Tuli), 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. Stand-up fighting arts lost some of their appeal to grappling arts such as wrestling, Sambo, Judo and Royce's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

File:Royce Gracie vs Dan Severn UFC 4.jpg

Versus champion wrestler Dan Severn.

Over the next year, Royce Gracie continued his winning streak in the UFC, obtaining submission wins over fighters such as Patrick Smith, 250 pound (113 kg) 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 continuously pinned underneath 260 pound (118 kg) wrestler Dan Severn. To end the 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.

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 and a 5 minute overtime. Fans have been calling for a rematch ever since. The draw sparked much debate and controversy as to who would have won the fight had judges determined the outcome, or had there been no time limits, as by the end of the fight Royce's right eye was swollen shut. After this fight the Gracies left the UFC. In November of 2003, at the 10 year anniversary of the UFC, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie were the first inductees into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Royce's official UFC record when he left did include one loss. In the second round of UFC 3 Royce was to face fighter Harold Howard in the semi-finals. Although Royce came out to the ring, he was dehydrated as a result of his first round match against Kimo Leopoldo, and had to be physically helped to the ring. The announcers of UFC 3 stated that Gracie's shoulder had been hurt in the previous round. Before the Howard match began, Royce's corner threw in the towel.

Over three and a half years after he finished his tenure in the UFC Royce returned to active competition, only to be choked unconscious in under 5 minutes with a "clock choke" by Wallid Ismail in a no time limit jiu-jitsu match in Brazil.

In May of 2006, Royce Gracie returned to the UFC to face then UFC Welterweight title holder, and likely future Hall of Fame fighter Matt Hughes at UFC 60. After dominating the first round, Hughes took Royce's back and began raining blows, forcing the referee to stop the fight and leading to a TKO loss for Royce at 4:39 of the first round.

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 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

However one fighter in particular, Kazushi Sakuraba, a former amateur and professional wrestler who derived his foundation in submissions not from jiu jitsu but rather from catch wrestling, rose up in the years following Royce's final UFC appearance to make a powerful argument for the potency of that particular approach to grappling in the hands of a capable fighter (several practitioners of catch wrestling had previously been defeated by members of the Gracie family, including members of the UWFi, the stable to which Sakuraba belonged). He did this by embarking upon a series of wins over Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelts, including Marcus "Conan" Silvera, Vitor Belfort and Royce's brother, Royler Gracie. Sakuraba's victory over Royler constituted the first loss by a Gracie in professional fighting in several decades and as such, sent ripples of shock and controversy through the mixed martial arts community. Some protested that the victory was tainted due to the fact that Royler — although placed in a debilitating submission hold — never conceded defeat and was mere seconds away from the final bell when the bout was stopped. Others countered that Royler suffered a broken arm and several torn muscles stemming from the submission, thus validating the Sakuraba victory, but there is no medical evidence supporting this.

The Gracie family took great umbrage over the incident, feeling that they had been cheated by Pride. Compelled to set the record straight, Royce Gracie returned to the sport of mixed martial arts in 2000 and entered the 16-Man Pride Grand Prix with dominant heavyweights Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, and Igor Vovchanchyn. However, it could be argued that Royce's main intention in entering the tournament was not winning the Grand Prix crown but rather doing battle with the Gracie family's new nemesis, Kazushi Sakuraba. In fact, a special set of rules were requested by the Gracies that would apply only to the potential Sakuraba-Royce match, including no referee stoppages and no time-limits, the fight ending only in the event of a submission or knock-out.

Royce advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Sakuraba's stablemate Nobuhiko Takada (ironically enough, with a judge's decision), before finding himself matched up with Sakuraba. Gracie and Sakuraba battled for an hour and a half. Early in the fight, Sakuraba nearly ended things with a knee-bar towards the end of the first round. Later on, Royce returned the favor with a guillotine choke which Sakuraba lingered in, but eventually escaped from. As the confrontation stretched on, the Gracie's own no time-limit rules began to work against Royce as Sakuraba's wrestling skills and balance nullified Royce's ability to score a takedown and — in some instances — even pull guard.

Even Royce's ever-present jiu-jitsu gi became a weapon for the wrestler to use against him as Sakuraba used it to help him control Gracie on the instances the fight did come to the ground. However, with Sakuraba's control of the takedown, these instances of ground warfare became increasingly sporadic. After the 90 minute battle of punishing leg kicks, Royce's brother with Royce's full acknowledgement threw in the towel during the intermission. Gracie could no longer stand and suffered a broken foot from accumulated damage. Prior to the bout, there was speculation that the fight was largely personal, with Sakuraba looking to atone for his stablemate's defeats and Royce looking to avenge his brother. However, following the stoppage, Royce and Sakuraba embraced in the ring. Gracious in victory, Sakuraba flatteringly pointed to Royce as the superior ground-technician when questioned as to why he didn't engage him on the ground more frequently.

Sakuraba would go on to defeat other members of the Gracie family including Renzo Gracie and Ryan Gracie earning him the nickname "Gracie Hunter."

Royce returned to PRIDE in 2003 to fight Japanese gold-medalist judoka Hidehiko Yoshida in a Judo vs. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu limited rules MMA match. Royce lost that match by a controversial referee stoppage; the referee believed that Gracie had been choked out on the ground, thus stopping fight, but Gracie immediately claimed that he was fully conscious. Adding to the controversy over this match, due to the limited strikes nature of the match, some sites do not include this match in Gracie's MMA record. However, having MMA matches with unusual rules is not that far from the norm in PRIDE.

The next year, Yoshida and Gracie then fought again in another MMA match which had rules more like the standard PRIDE MMA rules. This match took place at PRIDE's Shockwave 2003 event on December 31, 2003. That match had no judges decision on Royce's request and it ended in a draw after two 10 minute rounds. Gracie surprised Yoshida by uncharacteristically fighting without a gi. Since that fight Gracie stopped fighting with a gi.

In September 2004 Pride tried to reach an agreement with Royce about his participation in the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix, but Royce had issues with the proposed opponents and rules (Grand Prix fights must have a winner and cannot end in a draw) and so he jumped to the competing K-1 organization. Pride sued Royce for breaching his contract with them. The case was settled in December 2005, with Royce issuing a public apology, blaming his actions on a misinterpretation of the contract by his manager.

K-1

On December 31, 2004, Royce entered the K-1 scene at the "Dynamite!" card inside the Osaka Dome, facing off against former sumo wrestler and MMA newcomer Akebono Taro under special MMA rules (Two 10-minute rounds; the match would end as a draw if there was no winner after the two rounds). Royce made quick work of his heavy opponent, forcing Akebono to submit to a wristlock at 2:13 of the first round. The match was refereed by the UFC's John McCarthy.

Exactly one year later, on the K-1 "Dynamite!" card of December 31, 2005, Royce battled Japan's Hideo Tokoro, a 143 pound fighter, to a draw after 20 hard-fought minutes. The match was refereed by the UFC's Herb Dean. Royce's original opponent was scheduled to be the Korean giant Choi Hong-man, another MMA newcomer.

June 2, 2007 Royce returned to K-1 "Dynamite" for their first US event in Los Angeles, California. He fought Kazushi Sakuraba and won a unanimous decision in the long-awaited rematch of their classic 90 minute battle in the 2nd round of the PRIDE 2000 Grand Prix tournament. However, Gracie failed the post-fight drug test, testing positive for Nandrolone. He was suspended 365 days from the date of the fight and was fined $2,500.

Return to UFC

On January 16, 2006, UFC President Dana White announced that Royce Gracie would return to the UFC to fight UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes on May 27 2006 at UFC 60. This was a non-title bout at a catchweight of 175 lbs. under UFC/California State Athletic Commission rules. To prepare, Royce cross-trained in Muay Thai and was frequently shown in publicity materials from Fairtex [2].

In round one, Hughes hyperextended Gracie's arm in an armbar which would have caused most to submit, but Gracie refused to tap[3] and held on with a startlingly calm expression on his face. Toward the end of the round, Hughes was able to get Gracie onto his stomach, and proceeded to straddle his back and deliver 17 uncontested punches and elbows from behind to both sides of Gracie's head, causing referee "Big John" McCarthy to stop the match at 4:39. In a later interview, Hughes claimed that he purposely let Gracie out of the arm lock because he knew that Royce Gracie would not submit and would rather allow his arm to break. After the fight, Gracie announced that he would return to fight again "I've got a couple more in me. Let me go home and heal this up. I'll be back. I'll be back.". This match was notably Royce's first and only match with Zuffa, LLC.

Rematch with Sakuraba

On May 8th, 2007, EliteXC announced that Royce's opponent for June 2nd in Los Angeles, California would in fact be Kazushi Sakuraba.

On June 2, 2007, Royce took down Kazushi Sakuraba by unanimous decision in the K-1/Elite XC joint "Dynamite" card in LA Coliseum, in a three 5-minute-round match that was characterized as overly-defensive and inconclusive. He then failed a steroid test after the match with beya kahozi aka strong bones

Steroid Scandal

On June 14, 2007, further controversy surrounded the rematch with Sakuraba as the California State Athletic Commission revealed that Gracie had tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. According to the California State Athletic Commission, the average person could produce about 2 ng/mL of Nandrolone, while an athlete following "rigorous physical exercise" could have a level of around 6 ng/mL. Both "A" and "B" test samples provided by Gracie "had a level of over 50 ng/mL and we were informed that the level itself was so elevated that it would not register on the laboratory's calibrator," said the CSAC. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master was fined $2,500 (the maximum penalty the Commission can impose) and suspended for the remainder of his licence, which ends on May 30, 2008.

The California State Athletic Commission's Bill Douglas told MMAWeekly, "Currently, our rules do not support overturning a decision based off the drug test results. However, Armando Garcia and I are meeting with the Attorney General next month to begin the process of modifying the existing laws to incorporate those rules for the future. Should everything move along like I anticipate, I would expect to see the changes in place by the end of the year."

Quotes

• "I'm going to choke him out by applying a submission hold, make him quit, help him up, send him home." Before his fight with Matt Hughes
• "This is my house, I built it." Coming back to the UFC in 2006.
• "Gracie Jiu Jitsu all the way." UFC 1
• "I Go to Disneyland!" Response to a question posed at what he will spend his money that he won by winning UFC 1.
• "A lot of people think, and made the comment, saying ”Well, the first UFCs was a big infomercial for Gracie Jiu Jitsu”. Yes, it was. But it was reality. There was no set-up over there."
• "A belt only covers two inches of your butt, the rest you have to back up on your own."
• "I'm Royce Gracie... Some people never learn." In response to Ken Shamrock's prediction of defeating the legend of the Gracie family at UFC 3

Personal life

Royce is married to Marianne and has three sons, Khonry, Khor, Kheydon.

Starred in the music video for ‘Attitude’ by Brazilian band Sepultura.

MMA record

Professional record breakdown

20 matches	14 wins	3 losses
By knockout	0	3
By submission	12	0
By decision	2	0
Draws	3

See also

• List of male mixed martial artists
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Gracie family
• Hélio Gracie (Father)
• Rickson Gracie (Half-brother)
• Renzo Gracie (First cousin, once-removed)
• Rorion Gracie (Half-brother)
• Relson Gracie (Half-brother)
• Royler Gracie (Brother)
• Rolker Gracie (Brother)
• Rolls Gracie (Cousin)
• Mixed martial arts

External links

• Official Website
• Professional MMA record for Royce Gracie from Sherdog