Add your own questions, and I shall seek to answer them.
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Who is Rickson Gracie?
Rickson is an 8th degree coral belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Son of Helio Gracie, and a former professional fighter with a record of 11-0 in MMA.
Why is he talked about so much?
There are a few reasons why Rickson is always being discussed. Overall it is a mixture of factors: the myth built around him, some controversies in his career, and the fact that his words have a huge weight in the jiu jitsu community in general. We will discuss all three in this FAQ and attempt to clear as many misunderstandings as possible.
Is he a mixed martial artist?
In one word, no. Although he competed in Mixed Martial Arts, he has never been a mixed martial artist. Rickson , as his brothers Rorion and Royce, were not raised and trained in sports jiu jitsu, but in streetfighting and self-defense oriented Gracie Jiu Jitsu, as taught to them by their father Helio.He refused to train in striking arts, keeping basically to jiu jitsu and other related grappling arts, such as Judo, Sambo, and Greco-Roman wrestling.
It must be said, however, that there is a river of difference between second and third generation BJJ fighters, taught by Helio or his sons until the beginning of the 90s, to the 4th and 5th generation Jiu Jitsu fighters of today. Mainly, Jiu Jitsu as it is trained today focuses very little on self-defense and the application of its techniques in realistic situations. Thus, it can be said that most black belts today, although more proficient on the ground, are weaker when it comes to applying their jiu jitsu in real life than those of 20 years ago.
With this in mind, Rorion Gracie trademarked the name Gracie Jiu Jitsu, forcing other Gracies to teach under their own name ( Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu, etc), in an effort to preserve the Jiu Jitsu legated unto him by his father.
In short, Rickson is not a mixed martial artist. He is a Jiujitsuka, or "jujuteiro", who actively competed in MMA, like his brothers Royce and Royler.
What did Rickson Gracie do for MMA?
Typically Royce is hailed as the one who took MMA to where it is today. It is true that Royce showed Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to America, but roughly one year later, Rickson was fighting in Vale Tudo in Japan and also bringing BJJ to the spotlight in that country. In winning all his six fights in VTJ 1994 and 1995 by submission, he brought a whole level of respect to his jiu jitsu in that country.
PRIDE, a former MMA giant, was founded basically to show Rickson fighting Japanese icon Nobuhiko Takada. The fight happened in PRIDE 1, with Rickson winning by submission via armbar.
As a corollary, Yuki Nakai, the legendary Giant Killer and ultimate badass, after being defeated by Rickson, started into BJJ and eventually became not only the president of the Japanese Federation of BJJ, but also founder and head teacher of Japan's best BJJ school, Paraestra Tokyo.
In short, while Royce was battling in the UFC in America, Rickson was doing likewise in Japan, roughly at the same time, with equally great results. Just as the UFC grew from Royce's efforts, so did PRIDE out of Rickson's.
I keep hearing that Rickson is some sort of BJJ legend. How good is he, really?
Very good. Rickson earned his black belt in 1980, at the age of 18, and has never been tapped in competition. As a matter of fact, nobody has ever come forth claiming to have tapped him OUTSIDE of competition. To this day, there are testimonies of current jiu jitsu greats praising him. The most recent was Andre Galvao, who claimed Rickson had tapped him multiple times and he himself hadn't managed a single submission.
Other BJJ athletes who spare no hyperboles towards Rickson's skill on the mat are Demian Maia, Nino Schembri, Paulo Filho, Royce Gracie, and Ricardo Arona, to name a few.
Ok. He's so good. How come he never won a Mundial?
Rickson never won a mundial because he never fought in one. The first Campeonato Mundial de Jiu Jitsu was in 1996, when Rickson was already 34 and long since retired from grappling competition. He did, however, win every single Copa Company, the biggest jiu jitsu championship in Brazil and precursor to the mundial, both in his weight class and in the absolute, beating everyone there was to beat.
As a matter of fact, the absolute category was commonly called the Rickson Gracie category, even though he weighed on average 82kgs, or 180lbs.
Who was better, Rickson or Rolls?
It is hard to accurately measure the skill of someone who died at the peak of their career, especially when that peak was so far above his contemporaries. Rolls Gracie was a pioneer, the Gracie champion of his generation, and widely considered the most talented grappler in the history of the Gracie Family.
He actively sought to improve himself by cross-training and competing in Judo, Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, breaking several family taboos.
Contemporaries of them both claim that Rolls was the Mozart to Rickson's Beethoven. It was impossible to be sure because they were of different generations, and there is nostalgia and affection involved, but most claim that if Rickson was in a level apart from all others, then Rolls was simply hors concours.
This debate is impossible to resolve. Suffice to say that for either one to be compared to the other is compliment enough, in the eyes of the Brazilian BJJ community.
Rolls Gracie
400-0? What's THAT all about?
This is the biggest source of controversy in Rickson's career. And that is largely due to some misunderstandings. To understand what this record is about, we have to go back to a time when MMA as a sport did not exist, and the Gracie family fought simply to show the world their jiu jitsu.
The Gracie family has always had a champion to answer challengers. Typically the position of champion went to the most talented and dominant grappler in the family, the one who could best defeat all comers. The first champion was George Gracie, followed by Helio, then Carlson, then Rolls, and finally Rickson.
Basically, the champion was the one who would take on the more prominent challengers. Since Rolls died, Rickson was expected to be the family champion despite his young age. During the 80s and early 90s he took on all comers and won.
In this time, he was never defeated. Coming into his first fight in JVT, he calculated that he had won roughly about 400 challenges, and because he had no official record in professional fighting,as in Shooto or the like, JVT simply put that as his record, also choosing to hype the fighter.
In short, Rickson's 400-0 was an approximation of his record made by the JVT based on all the challenges he had won in his life. Rickson was not a professional fighter, as all Gracies he had fought to uphold the name of his family and the style of Jiu Jitsu. He considered that his record. Of course nowadays that MMA is a well-developed sport, there is such a thing as a professional MMA record. At the time, despite the existence of Shooto, there simply was nothing of the sort.
Didn't Helio Gracie call bullshit on the 400-0?
No. In an interview, Helio did say that he didn't consider Rickson as being 400-0, because he did not consider closed-door challenges to be professional fights. He went on to claim that, by that standard, he himself would have won over a thousand fights ( quite likely, considering how famous he was and the span of his career). Helio was probably the most popular Gracie champion, having fought over a dozen times in full stadiums, in the presence of national authorities. That is what he considered a record-worthy fight.
In short, he did not consider challenge fights something to call a record, but he did not dispute that Rickson did in fact win over 400 challenges without ever losing.
What does the 400-0 include?
Challenge fights and grappling competitions.
Then it's bullshit. He lost to Ron Tripp.
And here we come to the main catalyst of the 400-0 controversy. It is a known and documented fact that Rickson was defeated by Ron Tripp in a Sambo tournament. Ron managed to score a takedown on Rickson, who fell on his back, thus losing the match. Rickson later claimed to not have known that those were the rules and refused to accept that as a loss.
A loss is a loss.
Indeed. Rickson is not a perfect person, nobody is. Most guess that because he was always held to unrealistic expectations ( be the family champion and always compared to Rolls) from a very young age, he developed something of a vain zeal for his image as an undefeated fighter. The refusal to accept the loss probably came from that vanity and zeal.
Either way, that was the only recorded time Rickson was ever defeated in any sort of martial arts contest. Given that this one loss is the only one to have come up, excuses or no, it still is an outstanding record.
If Rickson is so great, and the family champion, why didn't he take on Sakuraba?
This is one of the greatest Rickson controversies. And it shouldn't be, because it has been explained by several parties many times. Keeping this short:
The fight was signed and set. Then Rickson's son, Rockson, died tragically, effectively retiring Rickson for years. He was devastated and in no condition to train, let alone fight at the highest level of competition, thus, the fight was canceled.
Kazushi Sakuraba, the fight was cancelled due to Rockson's death
