Renzo Gracie - The Pride of Gracie’s Legacy

Renzo Gracie, born on March 11th, 1967, is a 6th-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a mixed martial artist. He is the grandson of legendary Carlos Gracie. He has won several tournaments like Ultimate Fighting Champion, K-1, Pride Fighting Championships. and International Fight League, including five UFC victories. He is the predominant figure in a 2008 documentary named Renzo Gracie: Legacy.

In February 2022, Renzo was inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame for his extraordinary fighting record.

Coming from a Gracie background, Renzo started his training at a very young age. He was trained by many of the Gracie formal trainers, but he was highly inspired by the legendary Carlos Gracie Jr. and Rolls Gracie.

Renzo had his first Vale Tudo fight against Luiz Augusto Alvarado, a kickboxer, whom he won against via grappling and the rear-naked choke.

After fighting and dominating his first fight, Renzo moved to the United States to train others in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and pursue his career professionally.

In October 1995, the World Combat Championships, a no-holds-barred tournament organized by Jon Peters' son Christopher invited Renzo to compete in their inaugural tournament. The event had two distinct events for strikers and grapplers, with the winners of each competing in the finals.

Renzo was assigned to the grappler branch based on his training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu . His first bout was against Ben Spijkers, a Dutch judoka who had teased Renzo in the press conference and pranked him in his hotel room the night before the match.

In the first round, Spijkers secured a takedown, but Renzo responded with another, took his back with headbutts and elbow smashes, and ultimately used a chokehold to seal the victory.

After the fight, Renzo purposely stepped on Spijkers's head as he walked away from the ring as a form of retaliation for the joke, an act for which he subsequently expressed regret.

Renzo faced up against the next striker, Phil Benedict, and despite taking a strong right punch to the head in the opening few seconds, Renzo managed to take Benedict down and defeat him with ground and pound from the mount.

In the finals, Renzo met kickboxer James Warring, who Renzo defeated via neck crank in the same amount of time as his previous match.

Renzo originally joined WCC hoping to battle Bart Vale, who was competing as well. Vale had claimed that weaker opponents such as Renzo were terrified of facing him, thus Renzo enrolled to beat him.

Vale, on the other hand, was going to forfeit his position in the championship after his first match, therefore the match was canceled. Producer Peters had originally planned to hold a second event in which Renzo and Vale battled in a "super fight" style, but those plans were scrapped due to a lack of interest.

In September 1997, Renzo competed in Pentagon Combat, an MMA event organized by the future ADCC sponsor Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed.

Renzo faced Eugenio Tadeu, the battle assured to be heated since Tadeu's style, Luta Livre, was at the time a fierce rivalry with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The first few minutes of the bout were unremarkable, with Renzo later alleging that Tadeu had oiled up his body to make it more difficult for him to grasp, but he ultimately managed to mount Tadeu and win the match. When Renzo became exhausted, Tadeu began to take command of the situation and control the action.

The event's organizers did not provide adequate security for the bout, and despite luta livre supporters receiving fewer tickets than their jiu-jitsu peers, they were able to sneak into the arena early in the event.

In response to the match becoming stale against the cage wall, the audience broke through security and took possession of the cage itself, yelling insults at the competitors and even hitting them through the netting if they got close.

Several spectators scaled the fence while others ripped it down, causing the bout to be temporarily halted to remove them out, while Renzo was hit with punches and kicks from luta livre supporters who went unnoticed by the referee.

The situation ultimately erupted when Renzo fought off one of his assailants, resulting in a massive brawl among the roughly 400 people present.

Gunshots were heard as audience members tossed chairs and seats at one another and the lights were turned out in the theater.

As a result of the obtrusion, the mixed martial arts (MMA) event was outlawed in Rio de Janeiro for ten years.

In 1997, at the first event of Pride 1, Renzo faced Akira Shoji, a Japanese judo fighter. Renzo utilized armbars, omoplatas, and rear-naked chokes, but somehow failed to defeat Akira. After 30 minutes into the fight, the match was declared a draw.

In the event of Pride 2, Renzo fought against Sanae Kikuta, a catch and judoka wrestler. The fight was fought under special rules by Renzo himself, which was an unlimited number of ten-minute rounds. The match, however, was extended to over an hour since both competitors were generally passive in the clinch and Renzo’s guard. In round 6, Renzo was able to get a guillotine choke and pin Sanae to the mat.

According to Renzo, he was drugged before the bout by PRIDE promoters, which he said was the reason for his poor performance.

Renzo Gracie took a break from Pride tournaments for reasons that are still unknown. He returned in Pride 8.

After his return to the PFC, Renzo faced Alexander Otsuka, a professional wrestler.

Alexander secured a takedown and briefly passed Renzo’s guard, but the Brazilian was able to recover and win the battle. Alexander had arrived at the contest with a bandaged hand from a pro wrestling match the previous day.

After receiving strong upkicks and submission attempts, such as a triangle choke and an armbar, Alexander responded with quick hammerfists. Renzo appeared to have secured an armbar from the bottom as the bout was re-started, only for Otsuka to defend and escape until the final bell. However, even though Renzo followed with a German suplex-like takedown, the bout concluded with both Otsuka and Renzo attempting to subdue the other with a submission.

Renzo quit the Pride Championship again and joined the King of Kings Tournament.

 He fought his first bout at a Fighting Network Rings promotion against Wataru Sakata. Wataru had a 20 lbs weight advantage over Renzo. However, Renzo was successful in defeating him via kicking and submitting him via an armbar.

Renzo fought his next bout against Maurce Smith, and earned a victory by subduing him with a yoko-sankaku-jime judo style combo.

Renzo made it to the quarter finals where he faced Kiyosha Tamura. Renzo started the fight with guillotine chokes and takedowns, but Kiyosha ended round 1 using ground and pound on Renzo.

In round 2, Kiyoshi dogged Rezno’s guard and tried to apply a rear-naked choke. Renzo was successful in escaping the submission but still lost the bout to Kiyoshi Tamura.

Renzo faced Kazushi Sakurba aka the “Gracie Hunter” for his achievements against Renzo’s family, Royce and Royler.

In round 1, the bout was an even exchange of takedowns and strike attempts.

In round 2, Gracie was taken down by the Japanese wrestler. Despite his numerous methods and tricks, Renzo was unable to get past Kazushi’s defenses. Sakuraba's back was caught against the corner by Renzo, who completed a De la Riva Reversal and brought the contest to an end. At that point, Kazushi grabbed Renzo's arm and whirled him around with a kimura lock and dislocated his arm before crashing to the mat, leading the referee to call a halt to the fight.

In 2002 at Pride 21, Renzo faced Shungo Oyama. He was constantly taunting Renzo during the battle, Shungo copied Sakuraba's attacking movements which he had some degree of success with. After the second round, Renzo grew enraged to the point of spitting on Oyama. Shungo won the battle by unanimous decision after the third round when Renzo attempted to retake the bout. However, they were only able to trade takedowns and strikes before the contest went to the judges. Gracie was dissatisfied with this and indicated that he believed he had lost the case simply because he spat at Oyama, which he believed was a mistake.

In October 2003, Renzo fought his last match when he faced off against Carlos Newton, an eclectic grappler. Renzo was able to take him down and grasp his back, only to reverse the situation. After exchanging many sweeps and submission attempts in a short time , Renzo came close to locking a kneebar, but Newton was able to escape and finish the round with ground and pound from the side mount. Renzo was unable to finish the match in the first round. At the second, Renzo was taken down and thrown to the mat, prompting him to try to finish the battle with a guillotine pull and pull guard. However, Newton was able to free himself and end the match with punches from a half guard. Newton was awarded the victory by a split decision which Gracie later disputed against.

In September 2006, Renzo debuted in the International Fight League (IFL) and fought his first battle against Pat Miletich. Renzo won by subduing Pat with a guillotine choke within three minutes.

In February 2007, for the upstart promotion of EliteXC, Renzo fought against Frank Shamrock, a former UFC Light/Heavyweight Champion. During the match, Frank landed illegal knee strikes to the back of Renzo’s head, for which he was disqualified from the match by Herb Dean.

Renzo took a three-year break from his fighting career. In December 2009, after his return, Renzo signed a six-fight contract with UFC.

In April 2010, at UFC 112, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Renzo fought a battle with Matt Hughes, a former UFC Welterweight Champion. Renzo lost the battle via TKO in round 3.

In November 2014, Renzo fought against Kazushi Sakuraba in a grappling fight and the match ended in a draw.

In June 2018, it was announced by Chatri Sityodtong, the President of ONE Championship that Renzo will be fighting Yuki Kondo, in July, at the Reign of Kings - ONE Championship. He won the bout by submitting a rear-naked choke in round 3.

Renzo Gracie has training academies in Brazil, the United States, Canada, Peru, Mexico, Israel, and South Africa.

Renzo Gracie has trained many famous black belt MMA and BJJ competitors including Georges St-Pierre, Rodrigo Gracie, Chris Weidman, Sean Alvarez, David Branch, Ricardo Almeida, and more.

Renzo Gracie is currently a head trainer at the Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan.

Renzo has co-written two instructional books on Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

• Brazilian Jiu-jitsu: Theory and Technique
• Mastering Jiu-jitsu

• World Combat Champion
• 2x ADCC Champion
• 5x Copa Atlantico Sul Champion

• 6th Degree Black belt in Gracie Jiu-jitsu

Not retired

Photo Credit: @renzogracieacademy