Renzo Gracie (born March 11, 1967 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a lifelong practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and a member of the legendary Gracie family from Brazil. He is the son of Robson Gracie, grandson of Carlos Gracie, nephew of Carlos Gracie, Jr. and grand-nephew of Helio Gracie. His brothers Ralph and the late Ryan Gracie are also famous fighters.[1] He holds notable wins in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts over former UFC champions Frank Shamrock, Pat Miletich, Oleg Taktarov, Carlos Newton and Maurice Smith.
Mixed martial arts
Gracie has competed both in sport BJJ and mixed martial arts events such as the PRIDE Fighting Championships, the International Fight League, RINGS, Martial Arts Reality Superfighting (MARS), and the World Combat Championship.
In February 10, 2007 Gracie won a match against Frank Shamrock for upstart MMA promotion EliteXC on its debut night Saturday February 10, 2007, on Showtime. Gracie although able to take Frank down fairly easily after being overmatched on his feet was still able to dominate on the ground for most of the match before Shamrock was disqualified by referee Herb Dean due to landing illegal knee strikes to the back of Gracie's head while both fighters were on the ground. Shamrock had already been given one warning earlier in the match for illegal strikes to the back of Gracie's head. After the match, Gracie had to be helped out of the ring and back to his dressing room by his team allegedly due to receiving a concussion from the strikes.
Renzo is currently coaching his team, the New York Pitbulls, for the International Fight League.
Gracie is the Head Instructor at the Renzo Gracie Academy in Midtown Manhattan. Many well known BJJ and MMA fighters have been trained by Renzo, including BJJ black belts Rodrigo Gracie, Matt Serra, Paul Creighton, Ricardo Almeida, Sean Alvarez, Alan Teo, Mike Codella, Carl Massaro, Shawn Williams, Chad Lebrun, and GRACIE Magazine founder Luca Atalla.
Gracie also has written an instructional book on jiu-jitsu, called "Mastering Jiu-Jitsu", with his training partner John Danaher. He has also been the personal jiu-jitsu teacher of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, since 1993. [2]
Personal life
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