There are many people who are responsible for the creation of Brazilian jiu-jitsu: Helio Gracie, Carlos Gracie, the Gracie brothers, and of course the Machado brothers. But if there is one man who is responsible for the popularity of BJJ, it’s former MMA fighter, Royce Gracie.
After all, who can forget his matches against Ken Shamrock in the early days of the UFC? Who can forget the way he used his family’s art to topple men much bigger than himself? Royce, however, is not a big fan of BJJ today. In fact, in his own words, it “got horrible”:
“Horrible,” Royce said about BJJ in an interview with Bloody Elbow. “Got really-really bad in the past 20 years. It added so many rules. Like you cannot slam the guy – I just saw a fight, on the internet, somebody was fighting, one guy got the other one, I think in a guillotine. The opponent picked him up, walked, across the cage, and dropped him, knocked him out. In BJJ you can’t do that! Imagine if that fight was on the street, that’ll teach the guy. The guy picks you up, man, let it go. Don’t hang on to him. The guy went for the guillotine, he picked him up, walked across the cage, very calm, stood there, and just dove down to the ground with him. Knocked him out, won the fight. Hey, imagine if that was on a curb.”
You can catch the rest of Royce Gracie’s interview with Bloody Elbow here.
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