Royce Gracie addressed one of the longest-standing myths in martial arts – the belief that the Gracie family once offered a $100,000 challenge to anyone who could defeat them.

According to Royce, this story was the result of a misunderstanding:

There was a Playboy magazine that came out and did an interview with Rorion, and they kind of heard of that story and it came out wrong: “The Gracies offering $100,000 challenges to whoever beats them.”

It’s, like: “No, we don’t offer that.”

The real story involved a potential match between Rorion Gracie and kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez.

Years earlier, Rorion had visited Urquidez’s academy and sparred with him.
When the idea of a rematch was floated, Urquidez reportedly requested $100,000 to make it happen.

Rorion, unwilling to pay for the match, instead suggested a personal wager:

Rorion was like, ‘Why am I going to give you $100,000?
You get my belt as a world champion in kickboxing.

Rorion was like: “I’m not a kickboxer.”
So… The fight never happened because Benny would fight if you pay him to fight.

Rorion is like: “Man, let’s make a personal bet. I’ll put 100, you put 100.”
And Benny is like: “‘No, no, no, no, you pay me.”

While the Gracies did welcome challenges at their academy, these were not tied to any monetary rewards.
Instead, fighters from different disciplines would visit to test their skills against Gracie students:

People would call us: “Hey, can I come here?” Let’s go, sure.

So sometimes I’ll do it, sometimes you tell the students: “Hey, do you feel like doing this guy? He’s your size.”
There’s a lot of students who were eager to jump in and do it.

I’ll tell the guys: “Don’t beat them up, convince them, because they’re going to become students.”