JRE MMA Show #156 with Royce Gracie

Joe Rogan (0:13)

What's happening, my friend? Great to see you.

Royce Gracie (0:16)

Life is good in my world.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

Yeah, life is good in your world.

It's always good to see you, man, but it's, you know, I know you're you, and I know, you know, you're just Royce Gracie, you're the, you're just, you're who you are, but for most human beings, you are one of the most unusual people that's ever lived. The original Ultimate Fighter, the number one, the guy, the reason why this whole thing is so big, you're the fucking man.

Royce Gracie (0:46)

It's because of my father. I'm a product of his work.

Joe Rogan (0:50)

For sure, for sure.

But for most people, our introduction to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was you and UFC One. You know, we didn't... You know, I grew up in martial arts, but we didn't know about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu until UFC One in 1993

Royce Gracie (1:05)

Yeah, it's a... That was not... Horton had a vision. So back then, we used to teach in the garage, private classes, one student at a time, and Horton had the vision, how can we spread out throughout the world?

Once America finds out, we gotta put on TV. Once America finds out, the whole world will find out.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

The world found out so quick. I have never seen a martial art spread through the country like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu did in the 1990s.

Royce Gracie (1:38)

A lot of people thought the Gracies are arrogant. They were trying to put down the other martial arts.

But it was not. It was like, put up or shut up.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

Yeah.

Royce Gracie (1:49)

Crouradier against Kung Fu. Everybody claims that their style is the best. There's only one way to find out. And we're willing to try to find out.

We're not saying that we're the best. We're just like, hey, you say you're the best. I'm the best. There's only one way to find out.

Joe Rogan (2:07)

Well, the thing is, you guys had already tried it in dojos. You had already gone to gyms. You already had challenge matches.

Gracie in action videos were an eye-opening video for a lot of martial artists, because they saw all these karate guys who were, the guys you thought they were these badass fighters, and they just got taken down in a strangle, taken down in a strangle, taken down in an armbar.

Royce Gracie (2:28)

But again, that was in Brazil.

A lot of that happened in Brazil. When we came to America, it was a different level. It was, okay, this guy is the world champion in karate, the number one boxer, the number one kickboxer. Well, let's see if our stuff will work against them. And they're bigger, too.

Joe Rogan (2:49)

When you grew up with this, I mean, you started Jiu Jitsu when you were very, very young. So when you grew up with this, when was the first time you saw one of those challenge matches?

Royce Gracie (3:00)

It was Hicks on Fighting Zulu.

I was young. I couldn't get into the stadium, so I watched it through a crack on the door. It's like outside the stadium, because there was an age to be in there. I think I was like 16 And I was like 15, I think, when he fought, or 14 when he fought. So Roy Largarian, because he did a demonstration, I guess, before, but I had to stay outside, and I was looking through the crack, could barely see it. Yeah.

Oh, sorry. Even before that, there's a black and white video of Horyon, Halson, Horlish, and some of the students fighting against karate guys on the tile. And that's when I was there, I was present on that day. But I always heard stories of the family fighting, and yeah, we got to fight this guy on the beach, and the guy show up at the school, and we had to fight, and I always grew up listening to them, the stories of my father fighting, my uncles and my cousins. And so I was like, I want to be one of them. I want to do this.

Joe Rogan (4:12)

So there was always rumors about why you were chosen to be the representative for the first UFC. What's the actual truth behind it?

Like, why did they choose you?

Royce Gracie (4:22)

Dude, it was going to be on national TV. The looks. Imagine if they put an ugly brother with an ugly... They all could have done the same thing, my cousins. They all could have done the same thing.

But come on, by the looks.

Joe Rogan (4:43)