The UFC 1 victor explains to FO how he’s proud of his early achievements and is now a dedicated Diaz fan
Did you feel any pressure or responsibility heading over to America for the first time to fight at UFC 1, being the first Gracie to take Brazilian jiu-jitsu to the West?
“If I thought about that I would have never even walked into the cage. Being a Gracie, it’s just that I wanted my turn. ‘When can I have my turn?’ There are so many of us I just wanted my chance. I’m not thinking about losing, or, ‘What if my performance is bad?’ There is no such thought.”
What are your thoughts looking back now at your time spent in the Octagon?
“They couldn’t be any better. I beat three guys in one night… four guys in another night.”
What would you hope fans of MMA today could take from the early UFC events?
“There were no gloves, no time limit, no weight classes, no rules, it was one style against another. And I proved Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was the best self-defence style of them all.”
You were involved in a number of epic fights in the early history of the sport, but which fight stands out most to you? Which are you most proud of?
“I don’t know, they were all impressive. Look at Ken Shamrock, he was 230lb solid. Look at Dan Severn, he was 265lb and an All-American wrestler. Look at Kimo, he was six-foot-two and 250lb, chiselled! Akebono was six-eight and 490lb. They were all impressive, they were all important. It showcased the foundations and basics
of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It’s a self-defence art. I will win when my opponent makes a mistake.”
What are your thoughts on the growth of MMA over the past decade and do you have favourite fighters you enjoy watching today?
“I like Nick and Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, that whole group. They remind me a lot of my family. They don’t take BS from anybody. They are there to fight, they are there to win. They don’t walk away from a fight. Georges St Pierre, he is very good at using strategy. Anderson Silva, he is very good at using strategy, too. That’s why these guys are at the top, because they use strategy. They travel all around the world to get better. And Dana White did an awesome job. It’s a mainstream sport now.”
Do you keep in touch with any of the people you worked with back in the early days of the UFC that we might be surprised to hear about?
“Nope. They are not my friends (laughs).”
You moved to the US with your brother, Rorion, when you were 18. Did you ever dream your family would help build something of this magnitude that reaches all around the world?
“Imagine Babe Ruth going to Brazil and people would be like, ‘You are who and you play what?’ He would be like, ‘Wow, I am the best baseball player ever and they don’t know me in Brazil.’ We don’t have baseball in Brazil, so no one would know him there. So that is how we felt when we came to America. ‘Wow, everybody in Brazil knows who we are but no one knows us here.’ It was just a question of timing and educating the people.”
You began jiu-jitsu at a very early age by playing around with your father Helio. What is your earliest memory from that time?
“Just going to the academy and hanging out. That was a playground for us. We went and hung out, all of our friends were there.”
Can you share your favourite story from the old days?
“We used to teach classes and every half hour there would be a new student. It started to get busy, really busy. It got so busy that Rorion had to open the Gracie Academy. We had about 150 students on the waiting list just to take classes at that time. Chuck Norris even came to train with us.”
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