He Asked Me How Did Quick & Deadly Royce Gracie Help Define Mixed Martial Arts? Article Database

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He Asked Me How Did Quick & Deadly Royce Gracie Help Define Mixed Martial Arts?

By: Yoshi Kundagawa

Could be luck - nope not luck. I first caught wind of this guy, Royce (pronounced like Hoyce - the R is an H sound, the guy is Brazilian!) Gracie at the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship. I was pretty impressed, I must say.

First off, let's go back in time a bit. The Gracies go way back in the world of Jujitsu. When young Royce was just old enough to walk, his grandfather Helio taught him everything he needed to know to kick butt. At age eight, little Royce started competing in tournaments. And he started winning consistenly.

So, here I am at the first ever UFC tournament seeing this dude I never heard of take down men so much huger than he was, they looked like they could pound him like a nail. I remember thinking, is this dude for real? He is 180 pounds, but a thin 180, you know? He was skinny and did not look overly strong. He certainly was not muscular or anything.

You see, I always heard you get two guys, both of them good and the bigger hombre wins, hands down. That is how it is supposed to work, right? Not with Royce. I saw him get beat down one time against this behemoth Dan Severen. He must have outweighed Gracie close to a hundred pounds! Severn picked Gracie up and slammed him back down to the mat a dozen times. He was on top of him the whole match. But right when Royce looked dead for sure, old Danny boy taps out! I and the rest of us onlookers freaked out. Gracie got him in an arm bar and the fat lady was singing. Victory for Gracie and Brazilian Jujitsu. A Hero was born.

Up until then, no one really understood the importance of leverage and body positioning in martial arts. No one had done the types of submissions Gracie did. No one trained them. But after Gracie captured three UFC titles, people were paying attention then, believe you me! It changed mixed martial arts completely. Technique was critical from that point on. Everybody was pressuring their coaches to figure the next best submission move to get their opponents to tap out like Royce was doing to everyone. The smaller man now had an advantage if he had a complete jujitsu game.

So the world took notice of a fighting style that had been perfected by the Gracie family for seventy years. Watching him fight with guts and skill made me a big fan of mixed martial arts. The sport received publicity and legitimacy the day he hit the scene. When he won the tournament and starting setting records, it was like everyone else came on board and the sport blew up in popularity from there. The world of mixed martial arts would not be what it is today without Gracie and his family doing what they did for the sport.

Yoshi Kundagawa is a writer covering the MMA world. You can download his blog at http://www.martialarts3000.com/taichiqigong.html

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