Bringing an end to our four-piece special feature on Brazilian jiu-jitsu ahead of Saturday night’s big UFC 134 event in Rio de Janeiro, we take a look at the biggest Brazilian names in the history of the sport.
By Fergus Ryan
Gracie
It all began with the creation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by the Gracie family and their quest to promote their fighting style as the greatest. It started with Helio and the Gracie Challenge in the 1930’s and since then generations of Gracie’s have lived the fighting life all over the world. Rorion Gracie created the UFC and his brother Royce would go on to win 3 of the first 4 tournaments. Other notable careers in modern MMA include Renzo, Royler and Ryan. Most recently Roger (Strikeforce) and Ralek (Dream) have carried on the family tradition.
Gracie Family history
Rickson Gracie
Royce may be the most famous Gracie but Rickson, his half-brother, is the uncrowned family champion. At six years old he began training and competing in BJJ. By the age of 15 he had his own BJJ school and at 18 he received his black belt in the family martial art. In 1980 at the tender at age of 21-years-old Rickson won his first victory in Vale Tudo against the famous 230-pound Brazilian brawler Rei Zulu. Before the UFC was created and at the height of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu rivalry with the Luta Livre fighters, Rickson carried the torch for the Gracie’s and BJJ.
While his official MMA record is 11-0, he claims his unofficial MMA Vale Tudo ledger is more like 400-0. While its hard to back these figures up (even his father Helio disputes the number), you can find grainy footage on YouTube of Rickson beating Hugo Duarte on the Pepe Beach in Barra, which suggests not all his fights were at official events. In the lead up to his confrontation on the beach, Duarte had stated he would need 3 months to prepare for a fight. Rickson, who trained 24-7-365, didn’t want to wait 3 months so he tracked down Duarte to Pepe Beach and told him “I’m here to fight people who like fighting” and the rest is internet history.
Rickson Gracie v Rei Zulu 1984 Vale Tudo fight in the Maracanazinho before an audience of 20,000
Chute Boxe Academy
Admittedly, this inclusion in our top 5 is a a bit of a round up as you could not talk of Brazilian MMA without mentioning the likes of Jose Landi-Jons, Rafael Cordeiro, Wanderlei Silva and the Rua brothers, Murillo and Mauricio to name but a few from Chute Boxe. It began as a Muay Thai academy in 1978 in Curitiba, Brazil, under head trainer Rudimar Fedrigo. However, it morphed into the most devastating Vale Tudo gym in the world in the 1990’s and MMA powerhouse in the early 2000’s. Chute Boxe fighters were compared to berserkers due to their extremely aggressive and physical fighting style with a penchant for devastating kicks.
Bursting onto the Brazilian Vale Tudo scene in the mid-1990’s Chute Boxe fighters captured three of the four title belts in the dominatant International Vale Tudo Championship promotion. This served as a spring board for the Chute Boxe to enter the Japanese MMA and the world’s largest MMA promotion at the time, Pride FC. Wanderlei Silva would follow up his IVC belt with the Pride Middleweight (200lbs) title after winning the 2003 Pride FC Middleweight Grand Prix, which he would hold for 6 years. Shogun Rua would follow this up winning the 2005 Pride FC Middleweight Grand Prix as Silva stood aside to allow his team-mate take the spoils.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira began his fighting career at the tender age of 4 in judo classes. Having survived being run over by a truck when he was 9, and being in a coma for 25 days he added boxing at 14 and BJJ when he was 18 to his list of skills. By the time he was 25 he won the RINGS King of Kings 2000 Tournament title. He backed this up by winning the Pride heavyweight title belt later that year. During his time in Pride FC he battled and beat the top names in the game – Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Heath Herring, Josh Barnett, Fabricio Werdum, Sergei Kharitonov, Ricco Rodriguez, Mark Coleman and Jeremy Horn. After the Zuffa purchase of Pride FC he won the UFC interim Heavyweight Championship with a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance making him one of only four men to have held Championship titles in both Pride FC and the UFC. Unfortunately, most of Nogueira’s title winning 40-fight career was while nobody was watching, as MMA was still in its infancy. Its only fitting that the legend gets an opportunity to showcase his career in front of his home crowd at UFC 134 against Brendan Schaub.
Anderson Silva
If fighters like Nogueira laid the path for MMA to get mainstream media acceptance, Anderson Silva is proof that the sport of MMA has got there. Since becoming the most dominant UFC and MMA champion in the history of the promotion and of the sport, he has now reached the level commonly afforded to more recognised sports. In the lead up to UFC 134 new sponsorship deals with Nike, Burger King and Brazilian soccer team Corinthians Paulista have all joined the Anderson Silva bandwagon. The former Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and Shooto Middleweight Champion is the longest reigning UFC champ since he won the middleweight crown in 2006. He also boasts the longest win streak in the UFC at 13 and the most title defences at 9.
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