Royce Gracie first made a name for himself when he won the first open weight MMA tournament at UFC 1 – making him synonymous with the early days of organized MMA.

He then forged his path and continued to dominate, winning UFC 2 and UFC 4 tournaments and fighting in the first-ever UFC Superfight Championship bout, where he drew with Ken Shamrock.

So, when asked recently if Jiu-Jitsu is being used to its full extent in MMA, he had an unequivocal answer:

Yes and no.

A lot of the time it’s the influence of the coaches.
The coaches tell the fighter: “Beat him up!”

So when he gets in a good position, instead of finishing the fight he goes to try to beat him up.
He wants to make the guy bleed.

He wants to show domination by beating him up instead of showing technique.

Royce also emphasized the value of BJJ practitioners transitioning to MMA, seeing it as a natural extension of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’s purpose:

Eventually, everyone should do it.

The Jiu-Jitsu, the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that my father created, wasn’t for a tournament to score a point. It was for street self-defense.
So at the end of the day, it’s a fight. It’s a self-defense style, to defend yourself in a street situation.

Fighting inside of a cage for the UFC or for an MMA show is just as close as you’re gonna get to a fight on the street.

A lot of people sometimes train all their lives and never have a chance to do it.
They never have a chance, they don’t get attacked, they don’t get into a fight in the streets.

So by entering MMA, yes you have a chance to use it.
The Jiu-Jitsu my father created, it wasn’t for a points system for a tournament.

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