Name: JRE MMA Show #156 with Royce Gracie
Uploaded: 2024-05-15T17:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #156 with Royce Gracie' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-05-15. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #156 with Royce Gracie' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-05-15. Transcript available.

JRE MMA Show #156 with Royce Gracie

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day!
What's happening, my friend?
Great to see you.
Life is good in my world.
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 Hoist Gracie, you're the, 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.
It's because of my father.
I'm a product of his work.
For sure, for sure.
But for most people, our introduction to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was you in UFC 1.
You know, we didn't, you know, I grew up in martial arts,
but we didn't know about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu until UFC 1 in 1993.
Yeah, it's a, that one, the Hordeon had a vision.
So, back then, we used to teach in the garage,
private classes, one student at a time.
And, uh, Hordeon had the vision,
how can we spread out throughout the world?
It's, once America finds out, we've got to put it on TV.
Yeah.
Once America finds out, the whole world will find out.
The world found out so quick.
I've never seen a martial art spread through the country
like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu did in the 1990s.
A lot of people thought the graces are arrogant.
They were trying to put down the other martial arts.
But it was not.
It was like a, it was like a, put up or shut up.
Yeah.
Karate against Kung Fu.
Everybody claims that their style is the best.
There's only one way to find out.
And we're willing to, 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 saying I'm the best.
There's only one way to find out.
Well, the thing is, you guys had already tried it in, in dojos.
You'd already gone to gyms.
You'd already had challenge matches.
You know, Gracie in action videos were an eye-opening video for a lot of
martial artists.
Because they saw all these karate guys who were, you know, the guys who thought
they were these
badass fighters and they just got taken down and strangled, taken down and
strangled, taken
down and armbarred.
But again, that was in Brazil.
A lot of that would happen 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.
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?
It was Hickson fighting Zulu.
Oh, wow.
I was so, I was young.
I couldn't get into the stadium.
So I watched through a crack on the door.
It's like outside the stadium because you had, there was an age to be in there.
I think it was like 16.
And I was like 15, I think, when he fought or 14 when he fought.
So Royler got in 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.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
Even before that, there's a black and white video of Roryon, Helson, Rolish,
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 for 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.
So there's always rumors about why you were chosen to be the representative for
the first
UFC.
What's the actual truth behind it?
Like, why, why did they choose you?
Dude, it was going to be on national TV.
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, buy the looks.
No, I think my father in the hoarding knew I was going to obey my father's
order.
It was like, do not hurt your opponents.
The other brothers and cousins, all of them, bigger, smaller.
They could have done the same thing.
It was very raw back then.
It was one style against another.
But I think my father knew I was a little more calm, personality.
It was, it was going to, I was going to obey his orders.
And his order was like, do not hurt your opponents.
Now, why was that so important to him?
To show the true art of jiu-jitsu.
If a cousin gets in there and beat the guy up with an elbow across the opponent's
face,
eh, he would have been impressive.
Oh my God, he would shock everybody, but wouldn't show the technique.
And my father in the hoarding was, were concerned about showing the technique
of jiu-jitsu.
What we can do by dominating somebody bigger, stronger, without having to hurt
them.
That's so amazing that the, you guys had so much confidence in jiu-jitsu that
they wanted
you to not hurt someone.
It's, that's the conversation I remember having with, with my father was like,
but dad, the
guys, it's bare knuckle.
They're going to hit me.
He's like, don't worry.
They will never hit you.
They're not going to, they're not going to touch you.
Don't worry.
That's how much confidence he had.
Wow.
He's not going to, don't take me wrong.
My mother's order was totally different.
My mother was like, your father doesn't know what he's talking about.
I want to see some blood, send him to the hospital.
Mom was a mean one.
That's crazy.
Dad was like, no, no, don't hurt your opponent.
They're not going to touch you.
Don't worry.
They're not going to, nothing's going to happen.
You're going to dominate.
Mom was like, I want to see some blood.
Send him to the hospital.
It's so, your family is, it's so unusual because I have always said that your
family,
your father, Carlos, everyone, that the whole family, they, it's the most
important family
in the history of martial arts.
There's no family in the history of martial arts that's had the same impact
that the Gracies
have had.
I think that Jiu-Jitsu landed with them for, for a purpose.
They're from the north of Brazil, persistence people and the vision that they
had or having
a lot of kids.
Uncle Carlos had 21 kids.
Wow.
Eleven boys, ten girls.
Wow.
My father had nine kids.
Ten, seven boys, two girls.
So it could have been all girls.
And Jiu-Jitsu wouldn't be what it is today.
It is kind of crazy that, because your father was so unusual, had such an
unusual mindset.
And the fact that he had had those early matches, like the matches with Kimura,
you know, all
those, Santana, all those different early matches, you know, that a lot of
people don't even know
about, that you could see online.
It was a, it was a, they want to test themselves.
So Kimura haven't lost, and not just not lost, but nobody lasts more than three
minutes with him.
And my father was like, okay, I want to try.
Heavier, younger, Valdemar Santana, heavier, younger, they fought for like
three hours and
40 minutes.
One round straight.
Wow.
So it's, yeah, they just, they want to put it to the test.
That was the main thing.
They want to see what they can do.
But my father always said, it wasn't on how can he beat the opponents.
He always told me, don't walk in to win.
Walk in, not to lose.
If you don't lose, the question is, how are you going to beat him?
He makes a mistake.
But the mentality was always not to lose.
So always be defensively minded.
We're giving the weight advantage to the opponents.
So if I don't lose, we're going to, he always used to explain that way, we're
going to play
a ping pong game.
So every time you put the ball on my side of the table, it doesn't matter where
you put
that ball.
I'll put it back on the center of you.
I'll catch that ball, put it back on the center of the table.
What am I doing?
Playing the perfect defense game.
When am I going to lose?
Never.
So when I'm going to win?
Now we have to change the question.
When you miss the table, did I win?
No, you're the one who made the mistake.
You're the one who lost.
If you're not, we're going to play forever if you don't make a mistake.
So it's a very defensive art.
It's not a very aggressive.
I've heard Helson describe jiu-jitsu in that way.
He said, jiu-jitsu is I do this and then you do that and then I do this and
then you
do that forever.
Until somebody make a mistake.
Until somebody make a mistake.
They say, I could make a mistake too, but if I don't make a mistake, if you don't
make
a mistake, we're going to play forever.
You know how it is.
We're going to play.
Yeah.
Until somebody gets tired or make a mistake.
It was also, it was perfect for you to be in it because in the first UFC, you
were, what
did you weigh?
About 176 pounds?
178.
178.
Crazy.
And you were in there against gigantic guys.
Like, what did Kimo weigh?
250.
250, roided to the gills.
There was no testing.
No testing.
Carrying a wooden cross into the octagon.
That was crazy.
He was raw.
He was probably one of the strongest guys I've fought.
He was huge.
Kimo was raw strength.
Yeah.
Not the most technical, but he was pure strength.
And I messed up on that one because I tried to match strength with him.
He got me tired.
Mmm.
So I tried, I heard he was very strong and I tried to match strength with him.
Walking in with the cross.
I remember everybody was like, what the hell is going on here?
Taekwondo.
I was like, I was like, go ahead, carry that cross.
It's heavy.
It was solid wood, by the way.
That was heavy.
I'm sure.
Probably a good warmup.
And there's you.
How old were you then?
That was his third UFC.
I was 27.
Wow.
Look at his eyes, man.
It's like, yep.
Yeah, just jacked, full of juice, enormous.
Jesus tattooing his stomach.
The early days, my man.
What is it like when you watch these?
Bare knuckles.
Sometimes I think what my father was thinking in Rodeon on putting me raw.
Because I never had a fight before.
That was your first fight?
It was UFC 1?
UFC 1 was the first fight.
Wow.
I had to say, how many fights you had?
I said, 51 tournament matches when I was a kid competing in tournaments.
Yeah.
Professional fights, never.
On the street, never.
Wow.
So.
That's crazy.
I got jumped on the street once when I was like 14 years old.
Because I want to be a fighter like my brothers.
Never had a fight.
I heard all of them fighting.
So I was like 14, 15 years old.
I went to a very bad neighborhood.
My bike, got my bike stolen.
My nose broken.
Got jumped for like five guys.
Daytime, took my bike.
But I was, I came home and I was like, okay, I had a fight.
I got my ass kicked.
So I can be one of them.
I want to be one of my cousins, one of my brothers, man.
I want to be part of them, the Gracie.
Never had a fight.
It's like, ah.
When you first fought, did you have striking training at all?
Yes.
Very little.
I had students showing me some stuff.
That's crazy.
More for me to know what's coming at me than for me to use.
Right.
So it's more for me to know how they move.
Yeah.
So it wasn't like I'm going to learn striking to learn boxing to fight against
a boxer.
It was more for me to know what's coming, how they're going to move, when they're
getting
ready to throw a kick, a punch, or for me to understand their movements.
Yeah.
Hickson's talked about that the same way.
He said he didn't learn kickboxing to be a kickboxer.
He just learned kickboxing to understand what they're doing, the distance, the
timing.
Distance, that's management, distance management.
That's very important.
Some guys you see plant their feet and just exchange firepower.
You can go either way.
So I like more of a Lua 2 style.
Hit and don't get hit.
Get away.
When you look back on this now and you think, I mean, when you watch these old
matches from
like 1993, what does it feel like to see that?
Crazy.
I think my father was crazy to put me there, man.
Well, no on