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Interview w/ MMA Legend Royce Gracie (part 1)
Reported By: Boxing Insider - 08.27.2003 02:40 AM
Boxing Insider Talks With Mixed Martial Arts Legend, Royce Gracie
- by Chris Colderley ©
When it comes to Royce Gracie, there is no middle ground. You love him or you hate him. You think he’s the greatest UFC champion ever or you think excelled over lackluster competition. You think he could still dominate mixed martial arts or you think he would be easily dispatched by the current competition.
Regardless of which side you come out on, there is no debate about Gracie’s impact on mixed martial arts in North America and around the world. Armed with his family’s style of Jiu-Jitsu, Royce Gracie shocked the world of martial arts with his unique ground game and vast arsenal of submissions. Gracie’s legacy has endured not only because of his in-the-ring performances, but because of his stubborn resolve to remain true to his style and its underlying philosophy.
Royce Gracie left the UFC after a 36:00 minute draw with Ken Shamrock on April 7, 1995. Since then, he has appeared sporadically in the Pride Fighting Championships against Nobuhiko Takada, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Hidehiko Yoshida. The rarity of his performances has affected neither his popularity nor the demand for his services. With the current wave of “Old School” fighters in the UFC, and the upcoming tenth anniversary show in November, many fans are wondering if Royce is finally returning to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
In this three-part interview with Chris Colderley, Royce Gracie talks about his family’s style of Jiu-Jitsu, gives his views on the current state of mixed martial arts, weighs in on the upcoming light heavyweight championship match between Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz, and discusses the possibility of his return to the UFC.
BoxingInsider.com: How’s everything going with you?
Royce Gracie: Good! I’ve been traveling all over the place.
BoxingInsider.com: I heard that you were doing some seminars at a military base actually?
Royce Gracie: I just got back from Fort Bragg . . . teaching the Special Forces.
BoxingInsider.com: How many seminars do you do in a year?
Royce Gracie: I would say about forty-five seminars in a year.
BoxingInsider.com: That’s quite a year!
Royce Gracie: Almost every weekend. It depends if I am doing small ones. For long ones, I will be gone a whole week teaching. [I would] say about forty-five to fifty.
BoxingInsider.com: How’s your family doing? I saw pictures of Rickson surfing, which was unusual.
Royce Gracie: When I am home, I just stay at home and try not to teach. That gives me the freedom to go ahead and travel all over and teach because there’s a lot of demand out there.
When I come home, I try to hang out with the kids and teach them properly like Gracies. But, I don’t think it would go very well with my wife, if I came home after a week at Fort Bragg and said, "Honey, I need some time to myself. I think I am going to go surf."
Ah, I don’t think so! When I come home I try to stay home as much as I can.
BoxingInsider.com: How’s your dad doing, Royce?
Royce Gracie: Good! He’s ninety-one this year. Ninety-one in October.
BoxingInsider.com: I know you are very close with your father - as is your whole family. What’s the best advice he ever gave you?
Royce Gracie: I just had a talk with him six months ago about this. The best thing I learned from him wasn’t exactly Jiu-Jitsu. It was not to be lazy!
He said to me, "All you have to do is work at it. Work at it and show what I taught you."
BoxingInsider.com: You last fought in the UFC Five. Why did you leave, never to return?
Royce Gracie: [I didn’t return] because they started to change the rules. They started to put time limits. Fighting somebody much bigger than me with a time limit that’s what happened to me in the UFC Five with Ken Shamrock. I am one-hundred and eighty pounds to two-hundred and twenty pounds, and they put a time limit.
He didn’t come to fight, he came to survive. For him a draw is a victory. He acts like he won. I thought that was "BS!" That’s why I stepped out.
BoxingInsider.com: What about weight limits?
Royce Gracie: Too many rules. Who cares about the lightweight division? Who cares about the athlete in there? I’m a little crazy, so I like to pick a fight with a heavyweight [laughing].
BoxingInsider.com: Having said that, I don’t think you have ever fought anybody your own weight?
Royce Gracie: No! Close to it, but mostly guys that are heavier.
BoxingInsider.com: I don’t think anybody who would be in your division now that they have established weight limits.
Royce Gracie: Yeah. Plus putting in five-minute rounds - three five minute rounds doesn’t allow . . . You don’t have time to show technique. You have to work the guys who come out with brute force. That’s what it showed in the beginning. The little guy would be able to defend himself and tap out a bigger opponent through some technique.
BoxingInsider.com: Explain the philosophy of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. You mentioned a little guy beating a big guy, a lot of emphasis on technique, and conditioning.
Royce Gracie: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was developed by my father. My father learned by watching. My uncle learned from the Japanese.
My father was so small, he couldn’t do it - about 135 or 140 pounds. He just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t run, very small, very weak. He couldn’t do exercise. The doctor forbade him from doing exercise.
One day, my uncle was late for class so my father was like, "Hey, I’ve been sitting down watching. I know exactly what you know. I just can go through the program with you if you want."
They told him, "Sure. We can play around a little bit."
Right there on the first day, not just memorizing, for a few years, what my uncle was teaching, but developing his mind. Instead of doing it one way, he changed it a little bit. What he did was add leverage to the technique.
[For example], a big man could come over, pick a car off the ground. Another big man could come, take the tire, and put on a new tire. That’s how they used to change a tire.
What my father did was create the jack. One little man with one hand can lift the car up and change the tire. He added leverage and technique to the whole system of changing tire [or] technique of fighting. That’s what he did. From that day on, he took over the school.
By the time my uncle arrived, "I’m sorry I’m late. I’ll compensate you for these classes."
The men said, "No. No. If you don’t mind, from now on, we’d like to take classes from Helio."
It went on from there.
BoxingInsider.com: How much of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is art and how much of it is science?
Royce Gracie: I’ll say everything is art. I’ll say 100 percent art, right there.
BoxingInsider.com: Give me an example of how you consider it art?
Royce Gracie: The beauty. . . The smoothness. If you watch two guys of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu working out - [notice] how smooth they are. They don’t rely on strength. They don’t rely on speed. There is always going to someone stronger and faster than you so you have to get the technique.
BoxingInsider.com: Royce you were able to use your UFC appearances as a vehicle for establishing on of the most successful martial arts enterprises in the world. Explain your philosophy – the family’s philosophy – on marketing.
Royce Gracie: I don’t believe in a good student or a bad student. I believe in good teachers and bad teachers. I consider myself a very good teacher. If you show up to a seminar, you will learn!
A lot of teachers out there don’t care. They don’t care what they’re teaching. They don’t care about the technique. They show it. If you catch it, great! If you don’t catch it, ah, it doesn’t make a difference. My family was very successful. They make sure you get the move.
Stay tuned with boxinginsider.com for the rest of this interview!
Chris Colderley is a boxinginsider.com contributor.
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