The story of Royce Gracie and the first UFC
When a person talks about MMA (at least here in the west) most likely they are referring to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, more commonly known as the UFC. Starting in 1993, it was originally created as a tournament that would prove once and for all, what was the greatest martial art in the world.
Rorion Gracie along with his partners held the tournament in Denver, Colorado which featured eight men from different martial arts around the world to compete in a no-holds-barred, one-night tournament, representing fighting styles such as Sumo, Boxing, Savate (French Kickboxing) and Catch Wrestling.
It was the Gracie family’s idea to host this violent, one-off tournament as a way to prove their Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu was the ultimate fighting art. With this stated goal, the obvious choice to represent the family was Rorion’s brother, the formidable Rickson Gracie. A monster of a man, Rickson was already known throughout Brazill and the rest of the grappling world as a terrifying undefeated fighter who was as physically intimidating as he was dangerously skilled. But before the final decision was made, the family instead chose a different champion; Rorion and Rickson’s younger and smaller half-brother, Royce Gracie.
Compared to the giants that he was to compete against, Royce appeared to be an unassuming, even diminutive man who’s choice to fight wearing his Gi, a thick heavy-duty jacket and pants, made him look even smaller when he stood across the cage from his towering, bare-chested opponents. Rorion eventually revealed that this was by design, and the family was so confident in the martial art that they had built, that they deliberately choose a smaller member to give the other fighters in the tournament a small advantage.
In the qualifying round, Royce was matched up against an American boxer named Art Jimmerson. In a somewhat bizarre performance, Jimmerson chose to fight with a single boxing glove but failed to land a single punch before he was taken down to the mat by Royce and smothered by the Brazillian until he forfeited the fight out of sheer panic and frustration. The whole affair had lasted just over two minutes.
In his second fight, Royce faced the man who many thought would be the tournament winner, Ken Shamrock. Shamrock was a catch wrestler who had fought all over the world, and unlike many of the other competitors that night, he was also adept at submission holds and ground fighting like the Gracies were. This, along with his superhero-like physique made him seem like a shoo-in for the tournament final. But again, it wasn’t enough to stop the young Gracie, who immediately dived for a takedown, and after a brief scramble on the ground, forced the mountain of a man to tap the ground in defeat. Royce’s second fight of the night, against his most physically imposing opponent, was over in just 57 seconds.
As soon as the Royce released his grip Shamrock began to protest the stoppage, claiming that he didn’t tap out. Confusion erupted as the referee was momentarily convinced by the wrestler’s protests, whos pride and competitive spirit simply would not let him conceded defeat. Though eventually, with Royce loudly challenging him to his face, Shamrock was forced to admit that he had submitted and that he had lost.
After two dominant showings, Royce had reached the final round and was set to fight the 6 foot-five Dutchman and Savate master, Gerard Gordeau. Gordeau was similarly unknown to the American audience at the time of the tournament but made a brutal first impression when he won the very first fight of the night in only 26 seconds by kicking the 400-pound Sumo wrestler, Teila Tuli in the head and knocking out his front teeth. His second fight was also over in less than a minute; after he brutalized the goliath kickboxer, Kevin Rozier against the wall of the cage until Rozier’s team threw in the towel to save their man from any more harm.
The two men faced off before their final fight, with Gordeau standing a full head taller than Royce and outweighing him by more than two dozen pounds. When the fight began, Royce grabbed a hold of Gordeau and pushed against the side of the cage while the kickboxer furiously tried to escape from his grasp. It wasn’t enough, however, and the fearsome striker was dragged to the ground just like all of Royce’s opponents before him. Once they hit the mat the once-formidable fighter was utterly helpless against the master grappler; it was only a matter of seconds before the Gracie’s champion had wrapped his arms around his opponent’s neck, and Gordeau was forced to submit and accept defeat.
Gordeau tapped furiously on the ground and on Royce’s arm to get him to release his neck, but after the last fight, Royce was refusing to acknowledge the surrender until he was physically separated by the referee. When the official finally pulled Royce off of Gordeau’s body, he didn’t celebrate. He didn’t yell out with joy or throw his arms up and cheer; if anything, Royce looked angry. While his teammates rushed in to congratulate him on his victory, Royce seemed furious; as if he couldn’t believe that anyone had ever doubted him or his family’s art. It was a look of both pride and defiance, as he told the crowd and everyone watching in their homes that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was the best in the world, and no one could do anything about it. The Gracie family had issued their challenge in America, just as they did in their home country of Brazil; and again they proved that they were the very best in the world.
Thank you so much for reading all the way through my first real story, I hope you enjoyed my retelling of one of my favorite nights in mixed martial arts history.
- Jab Cross
P.S. If you liked what you read and want to watch UFC 1 for yourself, the whole event is free to watch on YouTube right here. It's a fantastic look at the early history of the UFC and a fun throwback to the early ‘90s and all the silliness that comes with it.
If you want more stories about the early UFC, Royce Gracie's MMA career, or the legendary history of the Gracie family in Brazil; let me know and I will record a short podcast about Brazil's most famous fighting family and link to it here on my page.