Issue 076

June 2011

World champion, undefeated mixed martial artist, teacher and father – Roger Gracie does the family name proud. But how far does he think he can take it?

The question most commonly put to every Gracie is how they cope with ‘the pressure.’ Since Royce, Rickson, Renzo and Ralph blazed a trail through no-holds-barred events in the 90s, everyone bearing the family name has had high expectations put on them, which – thanks to every ‘other’ fighter embracing the art that those early Gracies popularized – they haven’t always been able to meet. For Roger, the most successful of the current generation in competition, the pressure might be there, but you’d never know it. To him, his extended network of relatives is nothing but an asset. “I get a lot of support from the family,” says Roger, who’s now a 10-time world champion between his victories in the open-weight and heavyweight fields. “Igor, Rolles, Gregor and Renzo – they have a lot of knowledge, and they give a lot because they’re family and not just teammates.”

Renzo, especially, has helped Roger make the transition to MMA. After winning the BJJ World Championships in his weight category for three years running, Roger made his debut against Ron ‘H20’ Waterman in 2006, as part of upstart promotion BodogFight’s season finale. To date, it’s the only time Roger has found himself on his back in an MMA fight. “If there’s a choice, of course I would prefer to be on top,” he says. “But he was a much bigger guy with good wrestling, and I knew that taking him down would take a lot of energy.” 

Gracie won courtesy of an armbar from the guard in less than four minutes.

Since then, Roger’s kept competing in gi, submission grappling and MMA, sometimes within weeks of each other “It’s tough,” he admits, “If one tournament comes near the others, I feel a big difference in my grip strength, my power to hold onto the gi.” Not that it seems to affect him too much – in a 2007 bout against Frank Mir’s BJJ coach Robert Drysdale, he ripped one of the sleeves off Drysdale’s brand new gi. He’s also renowned not so much for simply winning all his fights as for defeating the majority of his opponents with collar-chokes from the mount – almost unheard of in a sport that’s typically very decision-heavy at the highest level. Then again, says Roger, his chokes aren’t really about grip strength. “Everyone knows the collar choke from the mount,” he offers. “Most beginners are taught it in their first or second lesson. The difference is that I have an efficient mount, I can keep the guy there, so I don’t have to worry about losing the position when I work for the submission.”

In a similar vein, he’s won all three of his bouts at light heavyweight via mata leao, the rear-naked choke, that’s another staple of the BJJ beginners’ class. “It’s not that I’m trying for that,” explains Roger. “If I get on top of people, they have to expose their back as they try to get away. If they were trying to sweep or submit from the bottom I’d do something else.”

One surprise in Roger’s fighting style is the increasing effectiveness of his takedowns, which are more grounded in judo than wrestling. He regularly trains with Olympic hopeful Vasile Panfil, and awarded Olympic silver medalist Ray Stevens a BJJ black belt after training at London’s Budokwai. “I haven’t found a really good wrestling school in London,” he admits. “But I love to train in judo. I’m never going to be great at it, but it helps, and works with my height.” Another thing that catches opponents off-guard is Roger’s effective use of the left jab, which he used to keep both Kevin Randleman and Trevor Prangley at bay before landing takedowns. “It’s a great weapon for me,” says Roger. “I have a long reach, so it suits my fighting style.” It’s a weapon he shares with GSP, who’s recently been making the pilgrimage to Roger’s London academy to swap tips. “I met him in New York when I was training with Renzo and he was working with John Danaher,” says Roger. “I got to know him better when I went to Canada for a week, he helps me a lot.” It’s also getting easier for Roger to train in the UK. He regularly trains with ADCC champion Braulio Estima and always has black belts to train with – including Lucio ‘Lagarto’ Rodriguez – at his London academy. He’s added judo, boxing and Muay Thai to the curriculum at RGA, but maintains BJJ as his first love. “If you want to be in an MMA fight, then of course you need to train everything,” he explains, “But for normal people who just want to train, I think that jiu-jitsu is a very complete art.” 

The question most commonly put to any MMA fighter is how far they think they can go. Do they believe they can win a championship? Who would they like to fight next? For Roger, who says he decided at age 14 to focus on becoming the best fighter in the world, this is the easiest question of all. “There’s no limit,” he says. “I don’t have a clue how long I’ll be fighting. I’m fighting to improve my skill as a fighter, I don’t have a set goal. If you look at the light heavyweight division, it’s the one where the title changes hands the most, so I could say that I want to challenge the champion but it wouldn’t matter. I don’t want to just win a championship belt, I want to go as far as I can.”