The Gracies

Mitsuyo Maeda  settled in Brazil and opened an academy of "Jiu Jitsu" . One of his students was a young man named Carlos Gracie. After studying with Maeda for several years during the 1920's, Carlos opened his own academy in 1925. Carlos and his brothers established a solid reputation by issuing the now famous "Gracie Challenge" . All challengers were welcome to come and fight with the Gracies in no-holds-barred (NHB) matches. The Gracie fighters emerged victorious against fighters of all different backgrounds. The Gracies continued to develop the strategies and techniques they learned from Maeda, honing their skills with the realities of real fighting.

Several members of the Gracie family began to emigrate to the United States in the late 1980's. BJJ became world famous in the mid 1990's when Royce Gracie won a string of victories in the early Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitions, an event pitting martial artist and fighters of various disciplines against each other in an NHB format. Shortly after, Royce's brother Rickson went undefeated in similar events in Japan, and other members of the Gracie clan were equally as successful in MMA events around the U.S. It became quickly apparent that fighters versed only in punching and kicking lost every time they faced a BJJ trained opponent. At present, all fighters in open rules events (now popularly called "mixed martial arts" or MMA) train in BJJ to some extent. The emergence of the Gracies and their particular brand of Jiu Jitsu, with its time tested and proven effectiveness in challenge matches and MMA fights, has had a major impact on martial arts worldwide.