The Gracie Challenge was an open invitation match initiated by members of the Gracie family.
It aimed to showcase the effectiveness of their self-defense system, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, in comparison to other martial art systems.
These challenges, known as vale tudo matches or “anything goes” competitions, predated the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and served as a precursor to modern mixed martial arts. Carlos Gracie made the first challenge in the 1920s, and they varied between public events and private encounters.
When the Gracies moved to California in the 80’s and 90’s, they had Gracie challlenges in their garage.
Filipino-Canadian comedian Ron Josol started training BJJ in the early 90’s. In one of his shows, he told the story about how he had gone to California back in the early 90’s with the goal of challenging the Gracies.
Josol had wrestled in high school and was very confident of his abilities.
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“They put me against a skinny Gracie brother who didn’t speak English.”
That Gracie in question was the legendary Royce Gracie.
“I went out in a minute but I never tapped. When I woke up he said “why didn’t u tap out? And I said “wth is tap out?!”
Ron talks about about the experience here:
