Rickson Gracie is considered the best fighter the Gracie family has had. Royce Gracie, Rickson’s brother, stated that what he will do to guys in the UFC, Rickson would to him without hesitating.
Rickson’s father, Master Helio Gracie, raised him and his brothers in an extremely competitive environment. There are rumors that if one of the brothers wanted something, he would have to spar against the other in order to get it.
Let’s dive in deep to understand and get to know the famous Rickson Gracie
Who is Rickson Gracie?
Currently, Rickson is a 9th degree Red belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; the highest rank awarded to any currently living practitioner.
Rorion Gracie, Rickson’s older brother, awarded Rickson his Redl Belt during a seminar in Vegas. After some consideration and out of respect for his older brother, Rickson embraced his promotion.
Later on, Rickson decided to store away his Red belt and kept wearing his Coral belt.
Why?
According to Rickson, the sole opinion of Rorion to award him his Red Belt wasn’t enough to make him feel worthy of such a high honor. Rickson feels that a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu counsel should be in charge of awarding such a prestige.
Here is the video of Rickson Gracie explaining himself.
Rickson Gracie Fighting Career
Fighting Style
From analyzing his fights, it’s clear that Rickson wanted to take all the fights down to the ground.
Rickson would close the distance and started to clinch with his opponents as soon as he could. Once he mounted an opponent, it was pretty much game over from there.
I was recently watching a video of Rener Gracie in which he described three zones: the green zone, the red zone, and the green zone.
The first green zone is when your opponent is too far away to hurt you. The red zone is when your opponent can reach and hurt you. The second green zone is when you’re so close to your opponent that they don’t have the necessary distance to generate a strike.
Rickson Gracie’s strategy was to get to the second green zone without taking too much damage when he was in the red zone. Closing the distance paid huge dividends for Rickson as his opponents had inferior grappling skills.
Diet
Based on the research out there, it looks like Rickson followed the Gracie diet. Although not an extremely rigid diet, the Gracie diet follows particular combinations based on foods that are categorized into groups.
Depending on what food from what group you are eating, you can combine it with other food from a different group.
Breathing
Rickson Gracie has a very particular way of breathing which incorporates the diaphragm rather than the chest.
Check the video out!
There is an extremely important distinction that Rickson makes in his breathing and that is, when he is gassed, he doesn’t desperately inhale since the body is already full of carbon dioxide.
Rickson focuses more on exhaling (getting rid of the bad stuff), which makes room for oxygen (the good stuff).
I have personally tried this breathing technique myself and it’s amazing how quickly you can recover your breath.
Training Regime
Despite Rickson Gracie’s great physical shape, he didn’t seem to focus too much on strength. Rickson’s training revolved much around bodyweight workouts, flexibility, breathing, and core strengthening.
According to Rickson, he always wanted to focus on speed, flexibility, and mobility. In an interview, Rickson was asked if he lifted weights before a fight. His reply was “Sometimes”.
I’m sorry to disappoint you if you were looking for specific exercises to mimic Rickson’s training routine, however, I think it’s better if you adopt the concepts that Rickson focused on during his training, and incorporate them into your routine.
Rickson Gracie’s Family
Rickson Gracie’s son: Rockson Gracie
Rockson was Rickson Gracie’s eldest son. By the time Rockson Gracie was 19 years old, he was a 3x Pan American champion. For Rockson, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came pretty naturally to him since he was wearing a Gi before he could even crawl.
Here is a video of one of Rockson’s matches in 1997
After Rickson and his family moved to California, Rockson decided to move to New York. Later on, Rockson was found dead in a Manhattan hotel room in December 2000. The alleged cause of his death was drug intoxication.
Rickson Gracie who was scheduled to fight Kazushi Sakuraba, perhaps one of the most anticipated fights in the history of MMA, canceled the fight and never fought again after receiving the news of his son’s death
The death of Rockson was a devastating blow to the Gracies. Grief took over every inch of Rickson’s life. It took years for him to finally start moving on forward with his life.
Rickson Gracie’s son: Kron Gracie
Kron, born in July 1988, had a lot of success in his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu career. Some of his major accomplishments were: ADCC champion, IBJJF European, and Pan American champion.
Here is a video of one of Kron’s best fights I’ve ever seen.
Everyone expected the son of one of the best MMA fighters to take over his dad’s legacy. Inevitably, Kron made his transition to the MMA world.
On December 2014, Kron had his first MMA professional fight at the Real Fighting Championship in Japan.
Kron’s strength is on the ground so he took the fight down there by jumping closed guard, oddly enough, on his opponent. He quickly finished him via Armbar submission.
Years later, on February 2019, Kron finally got his UFC debut against Alex Caceres. In less than 90 seconds, Kron managed to sink the rear-naked choke by taking Caceres back from standing.
Here is a clip of the fight.
What’s next for Rickson Gracie’s son? According to Kron, he is ready for his next challenge. So far, we have yet to hear who his next opponent will be and when that fight will occur.
Rickson Gracie’s daughters: Kauan & Kaulin Gracie
Kauan and Kaulin are the daughters of Rickson Gracie.
According to an interview with FC fighter, Kauan revealed that dancing was her passion and even though Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has played a huge influence in her life, she never took it to a competitive level.
For the young Gracie, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has always been about Self-Defense. Her relationship with her dad, as Kauan describes, it’s great; “He is my Papi”, she says. She also mentioned that her father never put any pressure on her to represent the Gracie family in BJJ.
As for Kaulin, unfortunately, there isn’t too much information about her out there, but I’m sure she also has a story to tell.
Both Kauan and Kaulin opened a BJJ academy in Yakuma, WA in 2017. The sisters focus on teaching the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that was passed on by their father Rickson Gracie, which was passed on to him by his father, Master Helio Gracie.
Conclusion
Rickson Gracie’s life has been anything but normal. He has dedicated his whole life to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. According to Rickson, his life’s mission now is to spread the roots of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu through his organization Jiu-Jitsu Global Federation.