1. Carlos Gracie was a Brazilian martial artist who is credited with being one of the primary developers of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
23 Facts About Carlos Gracie
1. 2.
Carlos Gracie purportedly acquired his initial knowledge of Jujitsu by studying in Belem under Maeda and his students.
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Carlos Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is distinct from its indirect predecessor jujutsu, focusing primarily on the grappling techniques while downplaying the striking elements common among older schools of Japanese jujitsu.
4.
Carlos Gracie was born in Belem in 1902, the first of eight children.
5.
Carlos Gracie was a mischievous, aggressive child, prone to getting involved in brawls and getting expelled from schools.
6.
When Carlos Gracie was 15 years old, hoping to find a way for him to vent his aggression, his father Gastao took him to a professional wrestling challenge hosted in the circus he owned, where Carlos Gracie witnessed how the judoka Mitsuyo Maeda defeated a much bigger man.
7.
Under him, Carlos Gracie had his first formal training, learning especially self-defense-oriented techniques.
8.
Carlos Gracie started his career on the rings by challenging judoka Geo Omori in Sao Paulo in 1929, although he was initially rejected due to Carlos's lack of training and experience.
9.
Carlos Gracie claimed to have faced several "no holds barred" challenges in his school by this time.
10.
However, after Carlos Gracie was arrested and jailed for assault on three men who had supposedly insulted his girlfriend, the two brothers had to move back to Rio de Janeiro.
11.
On July 3,1931, Gracie and Jayme Ferreira celebrated a challenge event between three jiu-jitsu fighters from his academy and three capoeira fighters trained by Ferreira, echoing a street fight Carlos supposedly had years before with a capoeirista named Samuel.
12.
At the third, Rufino passed his guard and locked a submission hold, which Carlos Gracie avoided by diving out of the ring through the ropes.
13.
The referee stopped the fight and ordered the match to be restarted on the center of the ring, but Carlos Gracie locked a guillotine choke in the process, causing turmoil.
14.
Carlos Gracie claimed Rufino had tapped out while his opponent denied it, so the judges deliberated for some time and decided to solve the argument by restarting the match.
15.
However, Carlos Gracie refused to fight, insisting he had already won, and thus Rufino was declared winner.
16.
Carlos Gracie claimed to have fought anyone and everyone who was willing, regardless of size, weight, or fighting style.
17.
Carlos Gracie copied and adapted a nutritional regimen, from the Argentine-French naturist Juan Esteve Dulin, and is marketed as the Gracie Diet.
18.
The basic principle of the Carlos Gracie Diet is to keep blood pH level neutral by consuming only compatible nutrients at each meal.
19.
The Carlos Gracie Diet is flexible but it definitely recommends a vegetarian diet and adopts abstinence from alcohol and tobacco and sugar.
20.
Carlos Gracie recommended the use of herbal infusions for various health conditions.
21.
Carlos Gracie fathered 21 children, 13 of whom earned the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
22.
At the time of his death, Carlos Gracie had twenty-one children, one hundred and six grandchildren, and one hundred and twenty-eight great-grandchildren.
23.
On July 6,2023, it was announced that ESPN Films is producing a documentary series on the Carlos Gracie family directed by Chris Fuller and produced by Greg O'Connor and Guy Ritchie.