Carlson Gracie was a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
24 Facts About Carlson Gracie
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Carlson Gracie is considered one of the most important and influential Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners.
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Carlson Gracie advocated for a "warrior style", which emphasized physical prowess, agressiveness, heavy top pressure, takedowns and cross-training to disciplines such as Judo and Wrestling to better one's game.
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Carlson Gracie believed in the a philosophy the only way to move forward was to test yourself and to do so you needed to open your knowledge to the public, rather then keep jiu-jitsu a secret.
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Carlson Gracie is a mixed martial arts pioneer, having participated in multiple vale tudo matches in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Carlson Gracie's academy had one of the first programs for specific training for MMA, and many of his students would become world champions and go on to establish their own academies.
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Carlson Gracie was an early pioneer in mixed martial arts, founding one of the most successful teams of the era, which spawned many champions.
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Carlson Gracie fought a total of eighteen vale tudo fights, with only one loss to Luta Livre fighter Euclides Pereira in a fight that was held in Bahia.
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Carlson Gracie's first fight was on March 17,1953 against capoeira practitioner Luiz "Cirandinha" Aguiar, apprentice of Mestre Sinhozinho.
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Carlson Gracie won by submission due to mounted strikes after a tough fight.
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Carlson Gracie's second match was a draw against another capoeirista, Wilson "Passarito" Oliveira, in May 1953.
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Carlson Gracie had a rematch with Passarito in March 1954 in the longest fight of his career, which he won in the fifth 30 minute round.
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Carlson Gracie beat Santana in the first fight avenging his family.
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In October 1955 Carlson Gracie fought Santana to a draw in a jiu-jitsu match.
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In 1956 and 1957 Carlson Gracie won two fights and in 1959 they fought to a draw.
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Carlson Gracie trained many top competitors, including, among many others, Ricardo De La Riva, Allan Goes, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Wallid Ismail, Pablo Popovitch, Vauvenargues "Marinho" Vicentini, Andre Pederneiras, and Ricardo Liborio.
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Carlson Gracie was responsible for introducing Vitor Belfort to Gracie jiu-jitsu.
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Carlson Gracie trained Stephan Bonnar, a finalist in the UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter 1.
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Carlson Gracie was in Bonnar's corner during his fight against eventual The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin.
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Carlson Gracie is the author of a book on the subject of Jiu Jitsu titled Brazilian jiu-jitsu: For Experts Only, which includes his student Julio "Foca" Fernandez.
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The oldest son of Carlos Gracie, who founded Gracie jiu-jitsu in Rio de Janeiro during the 1920s, Carlson reigned as world champion for thirty years covering the '50s, '60s and '70s.
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Carlson Gracie's rematch with Santana in 1956 was a much shorter affair: four rounds of vicious vale-tudo combat came to draw.
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Carlson Gracie died on February 1,2006, in Chicago, Illinois, of heart failure, apparently the result of complications of kidney stones, following a hospitalization of several days.
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Carlson Gracie was a close friend of Wing Chun Grandmaster Samuel Kwok, and the two often toured and held seminars together.