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Who is Royce Gracie?
Royce Gracie is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and three-time UFC Tournament Champion. Royce Gracie is a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practitioner from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s renowned Gracie family. Heis one of the most famous faces in MMA (MMA).
He rose to prominence as an MMA fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he won UFC 1, UFC 2, and UFC 4.
On the 10th anniversary of the UFC, Gracie was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in November 2003.
By contributing to hand-to-hand combat like grappling and ground fighting, the UFC Hall of Famer opened the path for the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu style in MMA.
Continue reading to learn more about Royce Gracie and how he rose to become one of the best MMA fighters of all time!
Royce Gracie’s Childhood and Family
Royce Gracie was born on December 12, 1966, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to parents Vera and Hélio Gracie.
He is the youngest of seven siblings.
His father, Hélio, had three sons from a prior relationship with Isabel Soares (Rickson, Rorion, and Relson).
After marrying Vera, he had four more sons (Royler, Rolker, Royce, and Robin) and two daughters (Rerika and Ricci).
Royce began training in Jiu-Jitsu at a young age with his martial artist father, Hélio.
Hélio Gracie was a founding member of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, often known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Royce began competing in tournaments when he was only eight years old.
He had a blue belt by the age of 16, and his black belt arrived less than two years later.
He traveled to the United States when he was 18 to live with his older brother Rorion.
In their garage, the two brothers taught private Jiu-Jitsu classes.
They eventually founded the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, California.
Royce Gracie continues to wear a dark blue belt during Jiu-Jitsu training to honor his late father.
Gracie is a 7th-degree coral belt, but he didn’t want to be promoted to a higher rank by anyone other than Hélio.
Royce Gracie: UFC 1 and UFC 2 career
The first UFC mixed martial arts event took place on November 12, 1993, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Royce Gracie defeated retired boxer Art Jimmerson in his debut UFC fight.
Gracie threw Jimmerson to the ground and wrapped his left arm around his neck, forcing him to submit.
Similarly, in the semi-finals, he defeated one of his main opponents, Ken Shamrock.
Gracie went on to win the competition after defeating retired MMA fighter Gerard Gordeau.
After putting Gordeau to the ground, he applied a rear choke.
The second UFC event took place on March 11, 1994, in Denver’s Mammoths Garden.
Royce Gracie extended his winning streak with a first-round victory over Japanese boxer Minoki Ichihara.
Then, in the quarter-finals, Gracie defeated retired MMA fighter Jason DeLucia by submission.
In the semi-finals, Gracie defeated Taekwondo and Judo star Remco Pardoel.
Following that, he defeated Patrick Smith in the finals by submission to become the UFC Champion for the second time.
The UFC 3 and UFC 4
On September 9, 1994, the third UFC event took place at the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Royce Gracie started strong by defeating Kimo Leopoldo in the first round, but he was unable to continue due to his deteriorating physical state.
So he got into the ring and threw in the towel during the second round.
A UFC contest can only be ended by submission, knockout, or throwing in the towel, therefore Gracie was clearly too weary to fight.
UFC 4: Revenge of the Warriors took place on December 16, 1994, at the Expo Center Pavilion in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Royce Gracie won the opening round with a rear choke on Ron van Clief.
In the semi-finals, Gracie submitted Keith Hackney.
Then, in the final round, he submitted professional wrestler Dan Severn with a triangle choke to win the UFC event.
UFC 5
UFC 5: Return of the Beast took place on April 7, 1995, at the Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The final bout between adversaries Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock drew a lot of attention at UFC 5.
Because of the reintroduced time limit that year, their match lasted 36 minutes and finished in a tie.
As a result, the event sparked numerous debates, as many individuals were dissatisfied with the draw.
They believed the outcome would have been different if a court had reached a decision or if there had been no time limit.
After the fight, Royce Gracie departed the UFC.
PRIDE and a Return to the UFC
Royce Gracie was supposed to make his PRIDE Fighting Championships debut in their PRIDE 2 event in 1998, however, he had to pull out due to a back issue.
He then competed in the 2000 PRIDE event against professional wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba.
Gracie’s no-time-limit rule backfired, and Sakuraba won the 90-minute match by TKO.
Gracie was hit with several low kicks during the battle, and he ended up with a broken femur.
Hidehiko Yoshida, a judo player, defeated Gracie with a chokehold in a mounted position in the 2002 PRIDE tournament.
Yoshida was declared the winner by the referee, who assumed Royce was unconscious.
Gracie, on the other hand, was dissatisfied with the outcome and claimed that he did not pass out throughout the bout. He demanded a rematch with new terms, which PRIDE agreed to because they did not want to lose the Gracie family.
The rematch took place on December 31, 2003, at the PRIDE Shockwave event.
However, Gracie’s expectations were dashed when the fight finished in a draw due to the no-judge rule.
Royce Gracie returned to the UFC on May 27, 2006, and faced two-time UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes.
However, he was defeated by Hughes via TKO in the first round due to strikes.
Retirement and the Steroids Scandal
On May 8, 2007, Royce Gracie competed against Kazushi Sakuraba once more at the K-1 Dynamite!! USA event.
Gracie won the bout unanimously, but a post-fight drug test revealed traces of an anabolic steroid called Nandrolone in his blood.
As a result, he was fined $2500 by the California State Athletic Commission and his license was suspended until it expired.
On the occasion of the UFC’s 20th anniversary, Royce Gracie announced his retirement on November 15, 2013.
In addition, the World MMA Awards presented him with the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Royce Gracie has the most tournament victories (eleven) in UFC history.
He is the only MMA fighter to have won three UFC tournaments as of 2021.
Royce Gracie’s Marriage and Children
Royce Gracie married Dr. Marianne Cuttic, a podiatrist in Los Angeles, in 1994.
Gracie filed for divorce in 2016 after more than two decades of marriage.
He asked his wife for spousal support and asked her to pay his attorney’s fees.
He also claimed legal custody of his children.
On September 5, 2019, Gracie filed a motion to dismiss the divorce petition, which the court granted.
As a result, Gracie and Cuttic are still legally married, but it’s unknown whether they live together.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mailed Gracie and Cutting a Notice of Deficiency, indicating that they owed more than $650,000 in past taxes.
They were also expected to pay $492k in civil fraud penalties.
Royce Gracie’s Salary and Earnings
Royce Gracie was named one of the world’s 50 greatest athletes by Sports Illustrated in 2014.
Gracie earned more than $170,000 in tournament prize money during his UFC career.
Royce is no longer a competitive MMA fighter, but he is still a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practitioner.
He also keeps in touch with more than 55 Royce Gracie Jiu-Jitsu networks around the world.
Also, read Dean Potter, Leonys Martin, Napheesa Collier
Royce Gracie: Internet Marketing
If you want to keep up with Royce Gracie’s daily life, you can follow him on several social media networks.
263k followers on Instagram
Twitter has 156,500 followers
