Rickson Gracie FAQ

TheAth-ah-lete said:
I just watched Choke the other night and was extremely impressed by Yuki Nakai(sp?). He actually went blind in his right eye and didn't say anything about it for years so that it wouldn't reflect poorly on the sport. I honestly didn't know how well he did in the tournament before watching the documentary(except that he beat Gordeau) and when I saw he was only 135lbs I thought it was ridiculous he was being put in with guys twice his size who really "should" have killed him. That guy had Heart. Extremely motivational, and ironically he seemed to embody Gracie Jiu Jitsu even more than Rickson by beating guys who outweighed him by 100lbs with his grappling.
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Nakai is incredible. Wanna know something else? He reached the highest level of BJJ by training through instructionals, practicing and going to Brazil sporadically to compete in competition.
 
tapiahome said:
Is Rickson religious? I am guessing the gracies are not (what with all the bastard children) but can you shed some light on this? Do they still believe carlos was a peruvian deity or whatever?

Has anyone ever mentioned it as the reason for the gracies' fall from grace? Rockson's death due to drugs, Royce getting caught doing steroids, all of them losing to Sakuraba, Losing the UFC, extinction in MAA, etc. It's just that I have always thought of Brazil as a very Roman Catholic nation so I am interested in how the gracies consider themselves as gods affects Brazil's perception of them.
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I don't know whether or not they are religious, and their relation to Carlos's spirituality.

The Gracie's "fall from grace" never really happened. They achieved their goal: to prove their jiu jitsu to the world. That's all they had ever tried to do.
 
It may have been corrected since the OP, but you said in the first post that the Gracies do not train stand up. Royce has trained a good deal of Muay Thai, and he spent the majority (if not all of) his training camp for the Matt Hughes fight training Muay Thai at Fairtex. I still think if he was preparing for fights with Rickson and Royler he would have at the very least gone to decision.
 
DonkeyKong said:
Nakai is incredible. Wanna know something else? He reached the highest level of BJJ by training through instructionals, practicing and going to Brazil sporadically to compete in competition.
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Wow. That is even more motivational. I saw in a thread on here people talking about never getting good at BJJ unless you train under world class guys. I wondered what world class guys were training Carlos and Helio after Maeda left them...
 
DonkeyKong said:
Nakai is incredible. Wanna know something else? He reached the highest level of BJJ by training through instructionals, practicing and going to Brazil sporadically to compete in competition.
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Nakai has a judo background aswell
 
TheAth-ah-lete said:
Wow. That is even more motivational. I saw in a thread on here people talking about never getting good at BJJ unless you train under world class guys. I wondered what world class guys were training Carlos and Helio after Maeda left them...
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Yuki Nakai was already a very experienced grappler before he even started BJJ.
 
TheAth-ah-lete said:
I just watched Choke the other night and was extremely impressed by Yuki Nakai(sp?). He actually went blind in his right eye and didn't say anything about it for years so that it wouldn't reflect poorly on the sport. I honestly didn't know how well he did in the tournament before watching the documentary(except that he beat Gordeau) and when I saw he was only 135lbs I thought it was ridiculous he was being put in with guys twice his size who really "should" have killed him. That guy had Heart. Extremely motivational, and ironically he seemed to embody Gracie Jiu Jitsu even more than Rickson by beating guys who outweighed him by 100lbs with his grappling.
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Yes, Nakai was good. But what about Rickson refusing to punch him or even slap him as his training camp was suggesting him to do?. He defeat him without hurting him because Nakai was already beat up. Now, that's Gracie Jiu-Jitsu right there.
 
Balto said:
Yuki Nakai was already a very experienced grappler before he even started BJJ.
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almost all wins by submission
he is what 139

and fought 200+lb gerald gordeau and 330lb craig pittman

that was before he ever trained bjj

he started doing bjj to compete in it after he couldn't fight anymore since he went blind in one eye

Loss Rickson Gracie Submission (Rear Naked Choke) VTJ 1995 - Vale Tudo Japan 1995 4/20/1995 1 6:22
Win Craig Pittman Submission (Armbar) VTJ 1995 - Vale Tudo Japan 1995 4/20/1995 2 7:30
Win Gerard Gordeau Submission (Heel Hook) VTJ 1995 - Vale Tudo Japan 1995 4/20/1995 4 2:41
Win Hiroaki Matsutani Submission (Heel Hook) Shooto - Vale Tudo Access 3 1/21/1995 1 0:20
Win Kazuhiro Kusayanagi Decision (Unanimous) Shooto - Vale Tudo Access 2 11/7/1994 4 4:00
Win Kyuhei Ueno Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) Shooto - Shooto 5/6/1994 5 0:32
Win Jun Kikawada Submission (Heel Hook) Shooto - New Stage Battle of Wrestling 3/11/1994 1 0:27
Win Jun Kikawada N/A Seishinkaikan - Seishinkaikan 2/23/1994 1 0:24
Loss Noboru Asahi Decision (Majority) Shooto - Shooto 11/25/1993 5 3:00
Win Masakazu Kuramochi Submission (Heel Hook) Shooto - Shooto 6/24/1993 2 1:36
Win Hiroki Noritsugi Submission (Kimura) Shooto - Shooto 4/26/1993
 
I still haven't gotten through all this thread, but it is amazing and very well put together.
 
Isn't Nakai kinda linked to mysterious "Kosen" schools?
 
he was a shoot fighter, don't know if he was kosen. But he was impressed with rickson and GJJ that even though Rickson was bigger and stronger; he felt that it was the techniques of rickson that he needed to learn. He stuck with bjj for years untill he recieved his black belt from carlos gracie jr. And he came to brasil and trained at various gyms.
 
Alfer23 said:
It may have been corrected since the OP, but you said in the first post that the Gracies do not train stand up. Royce has trained a good deal of Muay Thai, and he spent the majority (if not all of) his training camp for the Matt Hughes fight training Muay Thai at Fairtex. I still think if he was preparing for fights with Rickson and Royler he would have at the very least gone to decision.
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Rickson by armbar.
 
Nakai was a very competent grappler before he started in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He won his fights before Rickson by submission against miuch bigger fighters, in what I consider THE most impressive display of balls in the history of MMA.
 
Alfer23 said:
It may have been corrected since the OP, but you said in the first post that the Gracies do not train stand up. Royce has trained a good deal of Muay Thai, and he spent the majority (if not all of) his training camp for the Matt Hughes fight training Muay Thai at Fairtex. I still think if he was preparing for fights with Rickson and Royler he would have at the very least gone to decision.
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That is true. Royce did train in Muay Thai, to use his great flexibility and reach on standup. That resource is what helped him beat Sakuraba.

When I referred to Royce I mean for most of his career, up until the Sakuraba fight.

Im pretty sure Helio did not approve of that.
 
marquitou said:
Yes, Nakai was good. But what about Rickson refusing to punch him or even slap him as his training camp was suggesting him to do?. He defeat him without hurting him because Nakai was already beat up. Now, that's Gracie Jiu-Jitsu right there.
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Yeah I thought that was very awesome of Rickson as well.
 
I wonder if Helio was upset because Carlos started Gracie barra and the fact that it's so big now compared to what his sons have done.
 
Helio didn't care so much about that. But he disliked the spread of a jiu jitsu he did not considered real jiu jitsu. He disliked the sport BJJ.

He considers jiu jitsu with time limits and points favors the strong athletes and offense, whereas he believed real jiu jitsu is pure defense, has no openings and works on the opponent's mistakes, and that is impossible with time limits and point scoring.

He also disliked how many black belts were promoted in a short time, black belts in what he considered a bastardized sport of strength and hurry, and were called "Jiu jitsu black belts".

That is why at a point in his life he started wearing a blue belt, saying that a black belt no longer meant something.
 
DonkeyKong said:
Helio didn't care so much about that. But he disliked the spread of a jiu jitsu he did not considered real jiu jitsu. He disliked the sport BJJ.

He considers jiu jitsu with time limits and points favors the strong athletes and offense, whereas he believed real jiu jitsu is pure defense, has no openings and works on the opponent's mistakes, and that is impossible with time limits and point scoring.

He also disliked how many black belts were promoted in a short time, black belts in what he considered a bastardized sport of strength and hurry, and were called "Jiu jitsu black belts".

That is why at a point in his life he started wearing a blue belt, saying that a black belt no longer meant something.
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From what I read, Helio was just into teaching rich client private classes.

He even used to fine his instructors if they were late to the private classes.

You could also rent a clean Gi for each privates.

Helio Academy was booked months in advance.

Carlson Gracie worked for Helio for years without any pay.

Clarson started dating a girl and needed money so one day he got pissed off and went to open his own academy.
 
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