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Rickson Gracie ((:ˈʁiksõ ˈɡɾejsi); born November 21, 1958) is a Brazilian 8th degree black and red belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and a retired mixed martial artist.〔()〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Official Federation Belt Rankings of Gracie Members Teaching in the U.S. )〕 He is a member of the Gracie family: the son of Hélio Gracie, brother to Rorion and Relson Gracie, and half-brother to Rolker, Royce, Robin and Royler Gracie.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gracie Family Tree )〕 In November 2014 he became an inductee of the Legends of MMA Hall of Fame, alongside Big John McCarthy, Pat Miletich, and Fedor Emelianenko. ==Biography== Rickson Gracie, son of Helio Gracie, was born into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. At four years old he began competing; at 15 he started to teach it; and at 18 he received his black belt. At 20, Gracie won his first victory against the famous 230-pound (104 kg) Brazilian brawler Rei Zulu (father of Zuluzinho). With this victory, Rickson gained immediate national acclaim as the top freestyle fighter, leaving his mark on the history of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and the Gracie challenge. Five years later Zulu requested a rematch and lost to Rickson again, in Maracanazinho before an audience of 20,000 spectators. Rickson also famously fought Luta Livre exponent Hugo Duarte on the Rio de Janeiro beach. Duarte only wanted to fight in an event, but Gracie slapped him in front of his students and challenged him again, so Hugo stepped down and faced Rickson on the sand. Gracie won after making him surrender to punches to the face.〔(The riot over Renzo Gracie vs Eugenio Tadeu ), Bloody Elbow, May 8, 2013〕 Days after, maintaining that Gracie students had kicked him and thrown sand to his eyes during the fight, Duarte came to Rickson's gym and demanded a rematch. Gracie won again, causing a riot which forced neighbours to call the police. In 1994, Rickson was contacted by Erik Paulson to compete in Satoru Sayama's event Vale Tudo Japan. Gracie traveled to Japan and participated in the tournament, firstly facing Daido-juku stylist Yoshinori Nishi. Gracie took him down and Nishi answered with a lockdown from half guard, but the Brazilian was able to pass his guard and catch him with a rear naked choke when Nishi turned his back. He later faced much larger wing chun practitioner Dave Levicki, but he was an even easier prey once taken down and Rickson won by TKO after a flurry of punches. Gracie then fought American kickboxer Bud Smith at the finals, winning by the same method in an even minor time and getting the tournament's victory. The same year, pro wrestler Yoji Anjo came to Rickson's dojo to challenge him, after failed negotiations about Gracie wrestling for Union of Wrestling Force International. Gracie was fast in fighting him and performed abundant ground and pound on Anjo, who did not surrender, so Gracie choked him unconscious. A year later, Gracie was invited again to the next Vale Tudo Japan. At the first round he faced pro wrestler Yoshihisa Yamamoto from Fighting Network Rings, who unlike Rickson's previous opponents managed to keep him away from the mat by using the ropes and even tried a guillotine choke. However, Gracie eventually took him down and choked him. He squared against another pro wrestler in the form of Koichiro Kimura, swiftly defeating him, and then met shoot wrestler Yuki Nakai at the finals. Nakai, who was almost blind from an earlier match against Gerard Gordeau, put a strong resistance against Rickson, but the Brazilian master managed to take his back and choke him for another tournament win. In 1997, Gracie signed up to a fight against Yoji Anjo's superior Nobuhiko Takada in the Pride 1 event. Before the Tokyo Dome's 47,860 spectators, Rickson defeated the inexperienced Takada, mounting him and locking an armbar in 4:47. After the event, Rings's Akira Maeda challenged Gracie, but he preferred to fight a rematch against Takada at Pride 4, stating that Takada was a warrior and that he deserved the opportunity. This time Takada showed improvement and was able to wrestle Rickson to neutralize his groundwork advantage, but the Brazilian master used a failed leglock attempt from the Japanese to sweep him and mount him. Nonetheless Takada kept fighting, dismounting the jiu-jitsu master and threatening him with a heel hook attempt, but Gracie performed an armbar and finally submitted Nobuhiko. In May 2000, after Takada's understudy Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Royler Gracie in the Pride 8 event, he took the mic and challenged Rickson, who was in the Gracie corner, but nothing came of it.〔Snowden, Jonathan. ''Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting'', ECW Press, 2008.〕 Gracie preferred to face Pancrase's retired ace Masakatsu Funaki at Colosseum event. The event almost got canceled, as Rickson demanded special rules which forbade elbows, headbutts, knee strikes and thrusts to the head, but the Pancrase management eventually conceded.〔(Wrestling News - Colosseum )〕 At the event, held at the Tokyo Dome and broadcast to 30 million TV Tokyo viewers, Gracie and Funaki started the fight clinching to the corner. Masakatsu appeared to have secured a guillotine choke, but the hold was loose and Rickson managed to go to the mat. They traded kicks to no effect, until some well timed upkicks from Gracie blew out Funaki's gravely injured knee. They clinched again, but the Japanese's injury rendered him unable to wrestle Rickson correctly, and he was taken down by the Brazilian grappler, who promptly mounted him. Masakatsu looked stunned while Rickson bloodied his face with ground and pound, and finally Gracie forced his way into a rear naked choke.〔 During the post-match interview, Gracie claimed that one of the hammerfist delivered by Funaki made him lose his eyesight for a few moments.〔(Global Training Report - Interview with Rickson Gracie )〕 After the Colosseum event, Gracie expressed interest on fighting judo medalist Naoya Ogawa, which was signed up for the next Colosseum event. He was also proposed by Pride management a fight against Kazushi Sakuraba, who had already defeated Royce Gracie as well, but Gracie refused on the saying Sakuraba "didn't have the spirit of a warrior".〔 Rickson further said he didn't wanted to fight a wrestler that was so much smaller than him.〔 Meanwhile, New Japan Pro Wrestling offered him to face Shinya Hashimoto or Riki Choshu, to no avail. The fight against Ogawa was set to the next year, with Naoya vacating his NWA World Heavyweight Championship to focus on training for the bout, but tragedy struck when Rickson's son Rockson was found dead in January 2001. Affected by the loss, Gracie contemplated retirement and after some negotiations, the event fell off.〔 In August 2002, Rickson had a special apparition in Japanese media helping out Ogawa before his bout against Matt Ghaffari at the UFO Legend event, in which he assisted.〔(Ichiban Puroresu - August 2002 News Archive )〕 After the event, Ogawa talked again about a fight against Rickson, which the Brazilian considered as possible return match. Rickson also mentioned Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Kazuyuki Fujita as candidates to fight him in said return.〔 However, nothing of it came to fruition, even after UFO president Tatsuo Kawamura proposed celebrating an event to hold the match.〔(Ichiban Puroresu - November 2002 News Archive )〕 In 2003, Antonio Inoki offered Rickson USD$5 million for a fight against Kazuyuki Fujita,〔(Rickson vs Fujita ), Fightsport, September 28, 2011〕 but it had not answer. Gracie has confirmed that he is officially retired now and his major focus is to give seminars on Jiu-Jitsu and to try to develop BJJ as his father saw it: not a fighting tool but a social tool, to give confidence to women, children, and physically weak individuals by giving them the ability to defend themselves. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rickson Gracie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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