The History of the Gracie Family Champion - Part II

As the founders of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the Gracie family casts a long shadow over the martial art. They not only created a unique style of jiu-jitsu; members of the Gracie family were also some of the most important innovators with respect to the evolution of jiu-jitsu. They also served as the most important ambassadors of jiu-jitsu, leading to its popularization in Brazil during the 1940s and 1950s. The dominance of Royce Gracie during the first few Ultimate Fighting Championships in the early 1990s catapulted jiu-jitsu from a somewhat niche discipline into the global spotlight. It has only grown in popularity since then.

As the last post explored, Royce comes from a multigenerational lineage of fighters, starting with his uncle, Carlos. While Carlos was the first to develop what we call jiu-jitsu, it was his brothers George and Hélio (Royce’s father) who demonstrated how effective it could be when used during a professional fight, and Hélio eventually came to be regarded as the most dangerous fighter of his generation. However, after losing to a former student, Waldemar Santana, in the 1950s, the next generation of Gracie had to step up to honor the family name and avenge Hélio’s loss.

As Ryan Young of Kama Jiu-Jitsu explains in the below video, this duty fell on Carlson, Helio’s nephew and Carlos’ oldest son. He would ultimately take Hélio’s place as the Gracie standard bearer.

Carlson Gracie

After defeating Hélio, Santana was immediately challenged by Carlson. He was closer to Santana’s age and could match his energy and skill. The two would go back and forth for several years, with Carlson either winning or the fight ending in a draw.

Carlson was significantly bigger than Hélio had been even at the height of his career, and this influenced the style of jiu-jitsu Carlson practiced. Whereas Helio had been meticulous and patient, Carlson used a far more aggressive style of jiu-jitsu that overwhelmed his opponents. He was the dominant Gracie during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s.

Rolls Gracie

The next Gracie family champion was Rolls Gracie. Though he was one of Carlos’ sons, he was raised as Helio’s eldest son and, like Hélio, he was relatively small. Ryan estimates that he was 5’8” or so and 145 lbs. Unlike some other early members of the family, he was fond of mixing martial arts. He studied wrestling, judo, sambo, and other forms of martial arts to bring the disciplines into jiu-jitsu and to improve upon their system.

Unfortunately, before his career could fully blossom, Rolls tragically passed away following a hang-gliding accident in 1982 at the age of 31. However, his legacy has continued. “Even today,” Ryan says in the video, “you’ll have a lot of people that will say that Rolls was the best who ever lived.”

This is not just coming from people looking back upon Rolls’ career decades later. Carlson often said that Rolls was the best even though it’s difficult to compare the two during their respective primes because they were separated in age by about 20 years.

Rickson Gracie

Even before Rolls passed away, Rickson Gracie had emerged as one of the most formidable members of the family. Born in 1958, he received his black belt by 1977 and had his first professional fight just three years later.

Despite the bad blood between Santana and the Gracie family in the 1950s, the grudge eventually faded. By the 1970s, he and Hélio even became somewhat friendly. It was at this time that Santana told Hélio that he had a student who was unbeatable. The fighter’s name was Rei Zulu. Hélio, however, was confident that a Gracie could win, and he chose Rickson to represent the family.

Rickson would win this fight and go on to become one of the most celebrated jiu-jitsu fighters of the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, many people will say that Rickson was the best fighter the Gracie family ever produced, while others will argue that Rolls was the best.

Rickson himself has been reluctant to talk about the issue, though Ryan says that he did open up to Joe Rogan during an interview. As Rickson explained, there wasn’t one fighter who was definitely better; rather, he explained that you could think of their relationship as represented in three equal parts. For the first third of the fights, Rolls beat him. For the third, Rickson started to be able to hold his own. For the final third, Rickson would end up beating Rolls. After that, Rolls stopped training with him.

After Rickson?

No clear family champion has emerged since Rickson, according to Ryan. This is not because the family has struggled to produce a great fighter. It’s actually the opposite reason: There are too many members of the Gracie family who are exceptionally good fighters. As one rises to prominence, another one quickly challenges them. In the past, only one Gracie would enter their prime at a time, so the problem of overlap didn’t really exist.

There is a similar explanation that Ryan touches upon—namely that the hierarchical structure of the family has evolved as the second generation of Gracies enter retirement. Whereas Carlos and Hélio promoted the family name through vale tudo competitions and would handpick the family’s representative (and in turn determine who was the family champion), the Gracie family has expanded and become less centered on one patriarch. There is no one person who selects the standard bearer for the family.

While this makes it difficult to definitively say who the best current Gracie is, it does open the door for a lot of arguments with friends and other jiu-jitsu enthusiasts, which is perhaps the real point of asking, “Who is the best?”